Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/152

 squared, then the former Prejudices will return in full force; and one cannot value Tables, and Pillars, and Priests, that could not fix the Time of the Erection of the Pyramids, and the Age of Sesostris, so certainly, as that when Herodotus was in the Country, they might have been able to inform him a little better than they did.

This long Enquiry into the Egyptian History will not, I hope, be thought altogether a Digression from my Subject, because it weakens the Egyptians Credit in a very sensible Part: For, if their Civil History is proved to be egregiously fabulous, or inconsistent, there will be no great Reason to value their mighty Boasts in any thing else; at least, not to believe them upon their own Words, without other Evidence.

In Mathematicks, the Egyptians are, of all Hands, allowed to have laid the first Foundations: The Question therefore is, how far they went. Before this can be answered satisfactorily, one ought to enquire whether Pythagoras and Thales, who went so far to get Knowledge, would not have learnt all that the Egyptians could teach them: Or whether the Egyptians would willingly impart all they knew. The former, I suppose, no Body