Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/179

 but some Fifty five Years. The healthiest Race that ever was heard of; of whom, in Thirteen Hundred Years, not one died an untimely Death. If any Thing can be showed like this in any other History, Sacred or Profane, it will be easie to believe whatsoever is asserted upon this Subject.

If therefore the Chaldean Learning was no older than their Monarchy, it was of no great Standing, if compared with the Egyptian. The Account of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, in the 2d. Chapter of Daniel, shews the Chaldean Magick to have been downright Knavery; since Nebuchadnezzar might reasonably expect that those should tell him what his Dream was, who pretended to interpret it when it was told them; both equally requiring a super-natural Assistance: Yet there lay their chiefest Strength; or, at least, they said so: Their other Learning is all lost. However, one can hardly believe that it was ever very great, that considers how little there remains of real Value, that was learnt from the Chaldeans. The History of Learning is not so lamely conveyed to us, but so much would, in all probability, have escaped the general Ship wrack, as that, by what was saved, we might have been able to guess at what was lost.