vaft conquests of Sefoftris contributed greatly to the progrefs of that science. That monarch applied himself to have a map made of all the countries which he had gone over. He did not content himself with having enriched Egypt with his geographical productions; he had still a further care to make them difperfe copies even into Scythia, from a defire to make his name go into the most distant climates".

The memory of thefe maps of Sefoftris was perfectly well preserved in antiquity. In the poem compofed by Apollonius Rhodian on the expedition of the Argonauts, Phineas King of Colchis predicted to those heroes the events which fhould accompany their return. Argus, one of the Argonauts, explained that prediction to his companions, told them that the route which they must keep was defcribed on tables, or rather on columns which an Egyptian conqueror had before left in the city of Oea, capital of Colchis. He adds, that the whole extent of the roads, the limits of the earth and the fea were marked on thefe columns for the ufe of travellers. The scholiaft of Apollonius calls the Egyptian monarch Sefonchofis, of whom mention is made in this paffage: but he observes that many authors alfo called him Sefoftris ». We know moreover, that this prince had conquered Colchis, and that he had even left there a colony.

For the rest we ought not to be surprised that geography made fo great a progrefs in Egypt. At all times the learned of that nation had made it a particular ftudy. That fcience was one of those to which the priests particularly applied themselves.

I could yet speak more largely about the geographical knowledge of which we find fo many proofs in the writings of Moses. I have already spoken of it in the first part of this work. The divifion of the land of promife begun by Mofes, and finished under Joshua, gives a very perfect teftimony of the progrefs which geography had made at that

time. We cannot help being struck when we read in the Bible the circumftances and the detail of that divifion. That fact alone will fuffice to convince us of the antiquity and asfiduity with which certain people had applied to geography. The degree to which we fhall fee that this fcience was carried in the time of Homer, will be fufficient to give us a complete proof of it. I shall give an account of it in the third part.

In treating of the article of fciences among the Egyptians, we must not forget one circumftance which does honour to these people. It was among them that we find the example of the most ancient library spoken of in history. Among the number of buildings with which the fuperb tomb of Ofymandes was accompanied, there was one which contained the facred library". One read above it this infcription, The remedies of the foul.

CHA P. III.

Of Greece.

Here is fcarce any nation which has not pretended to

There is any nati

the

I have the va

have invented the arts and the fciences. I have shewn in the first part of this work, to what degree this pretenfion might be depended upon. It is certain, that each people has had notions about the first practices which have given birth to arts and fciences. But it is equally true that these first notions were readily perfected in certain countries, while in others the people remained a long time confined to those grofs practices which we ought not to honour with the name of fciences; perhaps even these nations would never have attained to more elevated theories, if they had not been inftructed by colonies which came from countries more en

Dent. chap. 3. v. 12.; Jof. chap. 13. & chap. 18.

« Diod. 1. 1. p. 58. See what I have faid of this monarch, book 3. chap. 2. art. 2. p. 255.

Diod. loco cit.

lightened.

1

lightened. It is in this fenfe that we fhould regard the first inhabitants of Afia and of Egypt, as the masters who have fhewn to the nations of Europe the greatest part of the arts and sciences which we now enjoy. The fciences had already made a pretty great progrefs in the east at the time when the Greeks fcarce knew the first elements.

Greece had produced formerly many famous perfonages to whom certain writers of that nation would give the honour of the invention of arts and fciences. But the best Greek authors have paid no regard to thefe popular traditions. They have been the first to ridicule them, and to acknowledge that it was from Egypt and Afia that Greece had all its knowledge. The traditions of which I speak attribute, for example, the invention of arithmetic to Palamedes v. Plato with reafon takes away the abfurdity of fuch an opinion. "What then," fays he, " without Palamedes, Agamemnon "would have been ignorant of the number of his fingers = ?" We must form the fame judgment of the other discoveries of which the common people among the Greeks make the great men of the heroic ages pafs for the authors. We know in what time these boasted perfonages lived, and these times are greatly pofterior to the coming of the firft colonies from Afia and from Egypt into Greece. This is fufficient to demonstrate the forgery of the facts with which certain writers would embellish the hiftory of the ancient heroes of Greece. We can only fay in their honour, that having perfected the first knowledge that Greece had originally received from the east, they merited in fome fort to be looked upon as the inventors.

Without fpeaking of the Titan princes, of Inachus and Ogyges, we should regard Cecrops, Danaus, and Cadmus, as the authors of the greatest part of the knowledge which, in fucceeding times, has diftinguished fo advantageously the Greeks from other people of Europe. These first tinctures, it is true, muft have been imperfect enough. The fciences, at the time of the tranfmigrations of which I fpeak, had not z Loco fupra cit.

See Plato de rep. p. 697.

yet

yet acquired in Asia and in Egypt the degree of perfection to which they came afterwards in thofe climates. A colony, moreover, could not communicate to a nation among whom they were going to fettle, all the discoveries which the country enjoyed from whence they came. Even what they brought, would only thrive by length of time. Thus we see, that, for many ages, the sciences only languished among the Greeks. It was neceffary to bring them out of that state of infancy, that men of a fuperior genius, perceiving what their nation wanted, fhould afcend, if I may fo fay, to the fource which had given to Greece its firft inftructions. They went to draw anew from Egypt and Afia the lights of which they had need. By these voyages they enriched their country with new difcoveries; and the difciples foon furpaffed their masters. Thefe facts appertained to ages of which I have no occafion to fpeak. Let us confine ourselves to our object. Let us examine the ftate of fciences among the Greeks in the times which actually fix our regard: these are them which are defigned in antiquity by the name of the heroic times.

ARTICLE I.

Of Medicine.

IT is ufelefs to obferve, that originally among the Greeks,

as well as among all the nations of antiquity the profes fions of physician, of furgeon, and apothecary, were united in the fame perfon. That part of medicine which was employed in curing internal diftempers, was fcarce known to them. We fcarce find any examples of cures of fuch like diftempers. Here is one nevertheless which merits on many accounts our attention. Fable has extremely dif figured it; but it is not difficult to pick from it hiftorical foundations. This fact may ferve to make known in what a See part 1. book 3. chap. 1,

manner

manner many of the remedies had been found it will alfo give us room to make fome reflections about the recompenfes which they gave to the ancient phyficians when they succeeded.

History fays, that there had happened a most strange accident to the daughters of Prætus, King of Argos. They thought they were metamorphofed into cows. Fable attributed this fingular delirium to the wrath of Bacchus, or to that of Juno; but it is eafy to perceive it was the effect of a distemper of which the phyficians report various examples. Abas, who had poffeffed the throne of Argos before Prætus, had left by Idomenea his daughter, a grandfon named Melampus. This prince was given to a paftoral life, according to the ufage of the early times, when the children of kings and of gods, that is to fay, kings themfelves, often kept their owns flocks. The profefsion of a fhepherd gave an opportunity to Melampus of making fome difcoveries in phyfic. He paffed in antiquity for the firfl of the Greeks who had found out purges. Melampus had remarked, that when the goats had eat hellebore, they were violently purged; he thought of having the milk fent to the daughters of Prætus. Others fay, that he gave them hellebore alone. It appears, that Melampus joined to that receipt fome fuperftitious remedies ®. He is the first that is faid to have put in practice in Greece these pretended means ". However it was, Melampus fucceeded in curing the daughters of Prætus of their madness.

The phyficians of the heroic times did not undertake to cure the fick but for a good fum. The recompenfe which Melampus required is a proof of it. He demanded first the third part of the kingdom of Argos. The Argives, after fome

d See P. Ægineta. 1 3. de Atra-bile.; Le Clerc, hift de la medec. 1. 1. p. 4.

e Apollod. 1. 2. p. 68. & 69.

His father called him Amythaon. Melampus lived about 150 years before the Greek Æfculapius.

f Apollod. 1. 2. p. 69.

Apollod. ibid.; Ovid. Metam. 1. 15. v. 325. & feq.; Servius ubi fupra.

Herod. 1.9. n. 49.

difficulties,