Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/129

 made against it are many, and yet more against the Conclusions which he draws from it: For, though it be certain that the Egyptians had the Grounds and Elements of most parts of real Learning among them earlier than the Greeks, yet that is no Argument why the Grecians should not go beyond their Teachers, or why the Moderns might not out-do them both.

Before I examine Sir William Temple's Scheme, Step by Step, I shall offer, as the Geometers do, some few Things as Postulata, which are so very plain, that they will be assented to as soon as they are proposed. (1.) That all Men who make a Mystery of Matters of Learning, and industriously oblige their Scholars to conceal their Dictates, give the World great Reason to suspect, that their Knowledge is all Juggling and Trick. (2.) That he that has only a Moral Persuasion of the Truth of any Proposition, which is capable of Natural Evidence, cannot so properly be esteemed the Inventor, or the Discoverer rather, of that Proposition, as another Man, who, tho' he lived many Ages after, brings such Evidences of its Certainty, as are sufficient to convince all competent Judges; especially when his Reasonings are founded