Jav, because of their swift motion: And though this be fomewhat different, yet, if we make allowance for time, it is not inconfiftent with what f Herodotus tells us, That the ancient Pelafgi, who were the firft inhabitants of Greece before the Hellens came among them, facrificed all kinds of things, and made prayers to the Gods; but that they had no particular names or furnames for their Gods, only they called them in general 9ol, from Tinus or Java, because they put and kept every thing, and every countrey, in order: But that long after this, they learn'd out of Egypt the names of other Gods. As to the general belief of a future state, that prevailing custom of deifying excellent men after their death, which obtained very early, and was very far spread in the world, is a convincing proof of it, and is accordingly made ufe of by Tully, and other good Authors, for that purpose. There are indeed thofe, who call the Immortality

Γ' Εθυον ἢ καὶ πάντα πρότερον οι Πελασ[οὶ θεοῖσι ἐπεχόμενοι, ὡς ἐγὼ εν Δωδώνῃ οἶδα ακέσας, ἐπωνυμίζω ἢ ἐδ' ὄνομα ἐποιῶν τ ε· δενὶ αὐτέων; ε γδ ἀκηκόεσάν κω. Θεός ή προσονόμασαν σφέας δπὸ τῇ τοιέτε ὅτι κόσμῳ θέντες τὰ πάντα πρήγματα καὶ πάσας νομὰς εἶχον· ἔπειτα 5 χρόνε πολλά διελθόν] ἐπύθοντο ἐκ τ Αἰγύπτε α πηδμένα τα ονόμαία τ θεῶν ἄλλων. Herod. lib. 2. cap. 52.

Cic. Tufc. Difp. I.

tality of the Soul an Invention of the Egyptians, and make Herodotus their voucher for it; and from thence would infer, that other nations knew nothing of it, till travellers brought it from thence.

Now if, indeed, the Egyptians had been so much older than all the reft of mankind, as they pretended to be, then this opinion might well have been first among them, because we suppose it to have been as old as mankind; but otherwise they had it not before others, nor were the Inventers of it: Nor do the words of Herodotus imply fo much; for what he says is this, The Egyptians are the first that say the foul of man is immortal, but that after the body is deftroyed, it paffes into another animal; and that when it has gone through all land and fea-animals, and fowls of the air, then it enters into the body of a man again, and this round of migration is performed in three thousand years; and

there

* Πρῶτοι ἢ τίνδε τὸν λόγον Αἰγύπλιοί εἰσι εἰπόντες, ὡς ἀνθρώπε ψυχὴ ἀθάνατός ἐσι, τα σώματα ἢ καταφθίνοντΘ, ἐς ἄλλο σῶμα αἰεὶ γινόμενον ἐσδύεται· ἐπεὶν ἢ περιέλθη πάντα τὰ χερσαία και τα θαλάσσια καὶ τὰ πληνᾶ, αὐτις ἐς ἀνθρώπε σῶμα γινόμενον ἐστ δύνειν τα προελησιν ἢ αὐτῇ γίνεσθαι εν τριχιλίοισι ἔτεσι· τέτῳ τῷ λόγῳ εἰσὶ οἳ Ἑλλήνων ἐχρήσαντο, οἱ μὲν πρότερον οἱ ἢ ἴσερον ὡς ἰδίῳ kwüzáv éóv]; Z éyà cida's rà svónalas redow. Euterp. cap. 131.

та

there have been fome Greeks, both formerly and of later years, who have pretended to this opi nion, whofe names I know; but will not fet down.

Now let the Egyptians have the credit of this invention of Transmigration, if they please, and let Pythagoras bring his doctrine of it from thence into Greece, yet the belief of a future ftate was both in Greece and other countries, long before his time; for not only Pherecydes profeffed this opinion, whofe fcholar Pythagoras was before he went into Egypt; but Homer, who lived fome ages before him, supposes it to have been a well known opinion in all countries, or elfe he could not have grafted fo many beautiful fictions upon it as he has done. Herodotus alfo tells us, that the Geta, the valianteft and honefteft among the Thracians, believed the Soul's immortality, and faid, when they died they went to the God, or Aasμav. Zamolxis", (who is in fome Δαίμων. Copies called Záλμožis, and whom some of the Geta called rebeλéï(;) whom fome Greeks, out of vanity for their own nation, would make to have been fervant to Pythagoras, and from him to have carried this opi

nion

Melpom crp. 94, 95.

nion among thefe Thracians: But this, Herodotus tells us, he did not believe, because he thought this Zamolxis, whoever he was, man or dæmon, lived long before the time of Pythagoras.

The Greeks were very vain, as well as the Egyptians, and fo would fain pretend to the honour of discovering every thing that once came into credit: But we can by no means allow it in these original Opinions; though they may have had the first open profeffors of Atheism among them, as the Egyptians have had the invention of the groffeft forts of fuperftition. For according to Elian, the wisdom of the barbarous nations, i. e. thofe that were not Greeks, is highly to be commended upon this account, that none of them ever fell to Atheism, or called the Being of God, or a Providence, that takes care of us, in question.

Well, but fome will needs have it, that the belief of a Providence and a Future State, belonged only to the ignorant vulgar, and that no philofophers or wife men believed them. And

I

* Καὶ τίς ἐκ ἂν ἐπήνεσε τί * βαρβάρων σοφίαν ; είγε μηδείς αὐτῶν εἰς αθεότηα ἐξέπεσε, μηδὲ ἀμφιβαλεσι περὶ θεῶν, ἀράγι εἰσιν ἢ ἄκ εἰσι, καὶ ἆραγε ἡμῶν φροντίζεσιν ἢ ὅ, σι. Alian. va ria Hiftor. lib. 2. cap. 31.

And the Author of the Difcourfe of Freethinking afferts, that Solomon himself denied the Immortality of the Soul, and argued for the Eternity of the World, and against a Future State, in the book of Ecclefiaftes: And he pretends to vindicate his want of knowledge, as he calls it, in this important point, by observing, y❝ That "the Immortality of the Soul was no where

plain in the Old Testament, was denied by "the Sadducees, the most philofophical part of "the Jewish nation, and of whom their magiftrates principally confifted; was thought " doubtful by moft Sects of the Grecian philofophers, and denied by the Stoicks, the moft religious Sect of them all; had never, according to Cicero, been afferted in writing by any Greek Author extant in his time, be"fore Pherecydes of the island Syrus, and

་

was first taught by the Egyptians, or according to our learned Sir John Marsham, was the most noble invention. No won"der therefore (fays he) if Solomon reasons

like the learned men of his own countrey, "and the more learned philofophers of the neighbouring nations". As to the Old Teftament,

35

y Pag. 151, & 152.