Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/80

74 almost depopulated by rats. Nothing is more natural to imagine, than that the few survivors of that empire retired into the depths of their deserts, where they lived undisturbed, till they were found out by Osiris in his travels to instruct mankind.

"He met, says Diodorus, in Æthiopia a sort of little Satyrs, who were hairy one half of their body, and whose leader Pan accompanied him in his expedition for the civilizing of mankind". Now of this great personage Pan we have a very particular description in the ancient writers; who unanimously agree to represent him shaggy-bearded, hairy all over, half a man and half a beast, and walking erect with a staff, the posture in which his race do to this day appear among us. And since the chief thing to which he applied himself, was the civilizing of mankind, it should seem, that the first principles of science must be received from that nation, to which the Gods were by Homer said to resort twelve days every year, for the conversation of its wise and just inhabitants.

If from Egypt we proceed to take a view of India, we shall find, that their knowledge also derived itself from the same source. To that country did these noble creatures accompany Bacchus in his expedition under the conduct of Silenus, who is also described to us with the same marks and qualifications. "Mankind is ignorant, saith Diodorus, whence Silenus derived his birth, through his great antiquity; but he had a tail on his loins, as likewise had all his progeny, in sign of their descent". Here then they settled a colony, which to this day subsists