Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/165

 several Exceptions taken Notice of neither by Conringius nor Borrichius.

1. They say that when Jason heard that the King of Colchis had a Book writ upon a Ram's-skin, wherein was the Process of the Philosopher's Stone, he went with the Argonauts to fetch it. Here it may be objected, 1. That it is not likely that Sesostris, who conquered Colchis, would ever suffer the Egyptian Priests to reveal such a Secret to that conquered People. Dioclesian according to them burnt all the Chymical Books that he could find in Egypt, that the Egyptians might not rebel, when they were deprived of that Fund, which supported their Wars. And Borrichius supposes that the Egyptian Priests used this Art chiefly to supply the Expences of their Kings. 2. How came Jason and the Argonauts not to grow richer by this Fleece? It cannot be pretended that it was concealed from them, because it was like the Books of the Modern Adepti, written in so obscure a Stile, that it was unintelligible for want of a Master; since Medea was with Jason, who had the Secret, what or how great soever it was. 3. Since the Grecians were not tied to Secrecy, how came their Traditions to be so obscure, that those Passages in Apollonius Rhodius's Argonauticks