Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/145

 Page 105 Learning: All their Inventions in Physick, in Mathematicks, in Agriculture, in Chymistry, are said to have been inscribed on Pillars, which were preserved in their Temples; whereby not only the Memory of the things themselves was less liable to be lost; but Men were further encouraged to use their utmost Diligence in finding out things that might be of publick Advantage, when they were certain of getting Immortality by these Inventions. This generous Custom was the more to be applauded, because every Man was confined to one particular Part of Learning, as his chief Business; that so nothing might escape them. One was Physician for the Eyes, another for the Heart, a Third for the Head in general, a Fourth for Chirurgical Applications, a Fifth for Womens Diseases, and so forth. Anatomy, we are told, was so very much cultivated by the Kings of Egypt, that they particularly ordered the Bodies of dead Men to be opened, that so Physick might be equally perfect in all its parts. Where such Care has been used, proportionable Progresses may be expected, and the World has a Right to make a Judgment not only according to what is now to be found, but according to what might have been found, if these Accounts had been really true.