Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/143

 Sir William Temple defines it, of that (d) excelling Knowledge of Nature, and the various Powers and Qualities in its several Productions, and the Application of certain Agents to certain Patients, which by Force of some peculiar Qualities, produce Effects very different from what fall under vulgar Observation and Comprehension.

Rom these Ancient Sages Sir William Temple goes to the Nations, from which they received their Knowledge, which are, Egypt, Chaldea, Arabia, India and China; only he seems to invert the Order, by pretending that China and India were the Original Fountains from which Learning still ran Westward; I shall speak of them in the Order in which I have named them, because the Claims of the Egyptians and Chaldeans having a greater Foundation in Ancient History, deserve a more particular Examination.

It must be owned, That the Learning which was in the World before the Gre-