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 Thing or Person that was more excellent in that Way; and therefore that Admiration may be as well supposed to proceed from their own Ignorance, as from the real Excellency of the Persons or Things; unless their respective Abilities are otherwise known.

my Enquiries into the Progress of Learning during its obscurer Ages, or those, at least, which are so to us at this Distance, I shall begin with the Accounts which are given of the Learning of Pythagoras, rather than those of the more Ancient Grecian Sages; because his School made a much greater Figure in the World, than any of those which preceded Plato and Aristotle. In making a Judgment upon the Greatness of his Performances, from the Greatness of his Reputation, one ought to consider how near to his Time those lived, whose express Relations of his Life are the oldest we have.