Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/153

 questions: For the latter, we are to distinguish between Things that are concealed out of Interest, and between other things, which, for the same Interest, are usually made publick. The Secrets of the Egyptian Theology were not proper to be discovered, because by those Mysteries they kept the People in awe: The Philosopher's Stone likewise, if they had been Masters of it, might, for Gain, have been concealed: And Medicinal Arcana are of Advantage oftentimes to the Possessors, chiefly because they are Arcana. But Abstracted Mathematical Theories, which bring Glory to the Inventors when they are communicated to those that can relish them, and which bring no Profit when they are locked up, are never concealed from such as shew a Desire to learn them; provided that by such a Discovery the first Inventors are not deprived of the Glory of their Inventions; which is increased by publishing, if they have before-hand taken Care to secure their Right. So that we may reasonably conclude, that when Pythagoras is commended for no famous Invention in Geometry, except the 47th. Proposition of the First Book of Euclid, that he brought nothing of more Moment, in that Way, with him, out of Egypt; and therefore, either the further