things came, and to which they will return. According to this doctrine it may be conceived, that all souls, being portions of the universal mind, must return to the divinity; but that since different minds, by their union with the body, are stained with different degrees of impurity, it becomes necessary, that, before their return, they should pass through different degrees of purgation, which might be supposed to be accomplished by means of successive transmigrations. According to this system, bad men would undergo this metempsychosis for a longer, good men for a shorter period; and the Amenthes, or Hades, may be conceived to have been the region in which departed souls, immediately after death, received their respective designations. As the Egyptians held, that the world was produced from chaos by the energy of an intelligent principle, so they conceived that there is in nature a continual tendency towards dissolution. In Plato's Timæus, an Egyptian priest is introduced, describing the destruction of the world, and asserting that it will be effected by means of water and fire. They conceived that the universe undergoes a periodical conflagration, after which all things are restored to their original form, to pass again through a similar succession of changes. 67 Of preceptive doctrine the Egyptians had two kinds, the ⚫ one sacred, the other vulgar. The former, which respected the ceremonies of religion, and the duties of the priests, was doubtless written in the sacred books of Hermes, but was too carefully concealed to pass down to posterity. The latter consisted of maxims and rules of virtue, prudence, or policy. Diodorus Siculus relates many particulars concerning the laws, customs, and manners of the Egyptians, whence it appears that superstition mingled with, and corrupted their notions of morals. It is in vain to look for accurate principles of ethics among an ignorant and superstitious people. And that the ancient Egyptians merited this character, is sufficiently evident from this single circumstance, that they suffered themselves to be deceived by impostors, particularly by the professors of the fanciful 67 Diod. S. l. i. c. 1. Laert. I. i. § 10. Orig. contra. Celf. I. v. p. 252. Macrob. Sat. l. ii. c. 6. art of astrology; concerning whom Sextus Empiricus justly remarks,68 that they have done much mischief in the world, by enslaving men to superstition, which will not suffer them to follow the dictates of right reason. 69 CHAP. IX. OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ETHIOPIANS. THE country of Ethiopia, which, in the more confined use of the name, nearly corresponds to the modern Abyssinia, was, at a very remote period, inhabited by a people, whose opinions and customs nearly resembled those of the Egyptians. Many of their divinities were the same; they had the same orders of priesthood, and religious ceremonies they made use of the same characters in writing; their mode of dress was similar; and the regal sceptre made use of in both countries was in the form of a plough.1 Whence it is evident, either that the Egyptians received their religion and learning from the Ethiopians, as Lucian asserts, or, which the great antiquity and celebrity of the Egyptian nation renders much more probable, that the Ethiopians were instructed by the Egyptians. Ethiopia seems to have been 68 Adv. Math. 1. v. 2 69 Vidend. Jablonski Pantheon Ægyptiorum, passim. Herm. Conringius de Hermet. Ægypt. Witsii Ægyptiaca. Moshem. Not. ad Cudworth. c. 4. Voss. de Hist. Gr. l. ii. 3. Cyrald. Hist. Deor. 1. ix. Natal. Comes. Mythol. 1. v. c. 5. Voss. de Idol. 1. ii. Reland. Diss. de Diis Cabiris. tom. i. Ursin. de Zor. Merc. et Sanch. Basnage Hist. des Juifs. t. iii. c. 18. § 20. Heuman. Act. Phil. v. i. p. 222, &c. Voss. de Scient. Math. c. 13. Burnet. Arch. c. 8. Pignorus in Mens Isiac. Le Clerc. Bibl. Univ. t. iii. Horus Apollo in Hieroglyph. 1. i. Banier Diss. sur. le Typhon, ap. Hist. Anc. Inscrip. t. vi. Joach. Operinus de Immort. Mortalium. Liv. Galantes. Compar. Theol. Plat. p. 237, &c. Dickenson. Phys. Vet. et Ver. c. 12. Perizonii Ægypt. investigat. Stillingfleet. Orig. Sac. l. i. c. 2. Reimann. Antiq. Liter. Ægypt. Diss. de Ann. Æg. Misc. Berolin. t. iv. Wachter. Concord. Ration. et Script. I. iii. Warburton Div. Leg. 1. iv. § 2, &c. An. Univ. Hist. v. i. Banier sur la Mythol. Egypt. 1 Diod. Sic. l. ii. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. vi. c. 29. Strabo, l. xvii. p. 779. 'De Astrolog. colonized from Egypt, and to have received its institutions from the parent country. Little can be advanced with certainty concerning the philosophy of the Ethiopians. Their wise men, like those of the Indians, were called Gymnosophists, from their custom of wearing little clothing. They discharged the sacred functions after the manner of the Egyptian priests; had distinct colleges, and classes of disciples; and taught their dogmas in obscure and mythological language. They were remarkable for their contempt of death.3 Strabo speaks of the southern Ethiopians as atheists; * but we must understand by this character, not that they were destitute of all belief in a Supreme Power, but that they did not worship the same gods, or make use of the same ceremonies, with their neighbours. In another place,6 the same historian says, that they acknowledged two gods, one immortal and the other mortal; that the immortal god was always the same, the first cause of all things; but that the mortal god was uncertain, and without a name. Perhaps this mortal god was the principle of evil, which the Egyptians acknowledged under the name of Typhon, who being at length to be overcome by the good principle, might properly be said to be mortal. However this be, it is certain, that the Ethiopians were scrupulously exact in their religious worship, and therefore could by no means deserve the charge of atheism. Homer says,7 Ζεῖς γὰρ ἐπ' Ὠκεανὸν μετ' αμυμονας Αιθιοπῆας Χθιζὸς ἔβη μετὰ δαῖτα, θεοὶ δ ̓ ἅμα πάντες ἔποντο,8 Lucian 9 ascribes the invention of astronomy and astrology to the Ethiopians. But it is not probable, that the observation and knowledge of the celestial phenomena were originally confined to any one country. The Babylonians, 3 * Diod. Sic. 1. c. Lucian. de Astrol. Laert. l. i. § 6. 4 Loc. cit. 5 Vossius de Idolot. Gent. I. i. c. 2. P. 822. Conf. Stobæi. Serm. 42. 7IL. l. i. v. 423. The sire of gods, and all th' etherial train, Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace POPE. 9 Loc. cit. Egyptians, Ethiopians, and other nations, who, from their climate and manner of life, had frequent occasion to observe the motions of the stars, may be supposed, independently of each other, to have made many discoveries respecting the celestial phenomena. But, though there is no sufficient reason for ascribing to the Ethiopians the exclusive honour of inventing astronomy, the story of Atlas makes it very probable, that this science was early studied among them. The fable of his bearing the heavens upon his shoulders perhaps only means, that Atlas was a diligent observer of the heavenly bodies, and taught his countrymen astronomy.10 He is said to have had seven daughters, called the Pleiades, who (perhaps because they had pursued the study of astronomy under their father) were advanced to an honourable station in the heavens, and gave name to a well-known constellation. 11 His residence was probably near those lofty mountains, which to this day bear the name of Atlas, and which Virgil so beautifully describes :12 Oceani finem juxta, solemque cadentem, Ultimus Æthiopum locus est, ubi maximus Atlas Many other particulars are related, concerning the philosophy of the Ethiopians, by Philostratus, in his life of Apollonius Tyanæus; but this, as we shall afterwards see, is a work, on many accounts, of doubtful credit. The morality of the Ethiopians, according to Laertius,14 consisted in worshipping the gods, doing no evil, exercising fortitude, and despising death.15 10 Virg. Æneid. l. i. v. 745. 12. Æn. 1. iv. ver. 480. 11 Natalis Comes Mythol. 1. iv. c. 7. 13 Near Ocean's utmost bound a region lies, 14 L. i. § 6. 15 Vidend. Scheffer de Phil. Ital. c. 4. Idol. 1. i. c. 1. p. 1. l. ii. c. 13. Myth. 1. iv. c. 7. PITT. Voss, de Witsii Ægypt. 1. ii. Marsham. Can. Chron. Sect. xiii. Bochart. Geog. Sac. CHAP. X. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CELTS, INCLUDING THE GAULS, BRITONS, GERMANS, AND NORTHERN NATIONS. HAVING traced the ancient history of Barbaric philosophy through Asia and Africa, we now pass over into Europe, to observe the forms which it assumed in the western and northern regions. In this part of the world, besides the exotic Romans, and the Greeks, of whom we shall afterwards treat, we find the nation of the Celts, who, from the northern extremities of Asia, sent out colonies, westward, similar to each other in their customs and institutions. Hence not only the Scythians and the Pannonians, but also the ancient inhabitants of Germany, Britain, Gaul, and Spain, come under the general denomination of Celts. The history of the Celtic nations is involved in great obscurity, not so much from the unavoidable depredations of time, as from the total want of ancient records. So far were the ancient Gauls, Germans, and Britons, from having among them any learned historians to record their institutions or opinions, that they industriously discouraged every attempt to commit things of this kind to writing. Julius Cæsar, who was well acquainted with the state of Gaul, says, that though, in almost all their public and private records, the Gauls made use of Greek letters, they did not commit their doctrines to writing:1 but he is to be understood as only speaking of his own times; for, at a more remote period, the Gauls were strangers to the art of writing. According to Strabo, they were first instructed in letters by a Greek colony which settled at Marseilles about the year of Rome 165. The Germans became acquainted with this art much later: Tacitus intimates, that it was not in common use among them even in his time. These nations had no other records of public transactions than the songs of their bards. 4 3 It is not to be supposed that they who received the oral 3 Mor. Germ. c. 19. 2 L. iv. p. 181. 1 Bell. G. VI. 13. 154. |