Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/121

 Sir William Temple tells us, That the chiefest Argument that is produced in behalf of the Moderns, is; (i) That they have the Advantage of the Ancients Discoveries to help their own: So that, like Dwarfs upon Giants Shoulders, they must needs see farther than the Giants themselves." To weaken this, we are told, (k) That those whom we call Ancients, are Moderns, if compared to those who are ancienter than they: And that there were vast Lakes of Learning in Egypt, Chaldea, India and China; where it stagnated for many Ages, till the Greeks brought Buckets, and drew it out."

The Question which is first to be asked here, is, Where are the Books and Monuments wherein these Treasures were deposited for so many Ages? And because they are not to be found, Sir William Temple makes a Doubt, (l) Whether Books advance any other Science, beyond the particular Records of Actions, or Registers of Time. He may resolve it soon, if he enquires how far a Man can go in Astronomical Calculations, for which the Chaldeans are said to be so famous, without the Use of Letters. The Peruan Antiquities, which he there alledges, for Twelve or Thirteen Generations, from