Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/175

 what they left unfinished: So that when the Holy Scriptures (u) assure us that Moses was skilled in all the Learning of the Egyptians, they give him the greatest Character for humane Knowledge that could then be given to any Man. The Egyptian Performances in Architecture were very wonderful, and the Character which Hadrian the Emperour gives them, that they found Employments for all Sorts of Persons, the Blind, the Lame, the Gouty, as well as the strong and healthy, shews that it was natural to the Egyptians to be always busied about something useful. The Art of Brewing Mault-drinks was very anciently ascribed (w) to the Egyptians as the first Inventors, for which these Northern Nations are not a little beholding to them. Their Laws have, by those who have taken the greatest Pains (x) to destroy the Reputation of their Learning in other things, been acknowledged to be very wise, and worth going so far as Pythagoras, Solon and Lycurgus did to fetch them. So that if Sir William Temple had extolled their Learning with any other Design than that of disparaging the Knowledge of the present Age, there would have been no Reason to oppose his Assertions.