ledge: and from them he carried away the glorious doctrine of the immortality of the foul, which he first divulged in Greece, and the fanciful doctrine of the metempsychofis.

Plato was born at Athens, in the 88th Olympiad, or about 430 years before Chrift. He had the honour and advantage of having Socrates for the guide and preceptor of his youth. Already inftructed in all the intricate doctrines of the Pythagorean philosophy, on the death of that martyr to the cause of truth, he travelled first into Italy, and then into Egypt, as well to mitigate the anguish he felt at the loss of fo excellent and wife a man, as to increase the treasures of knowledge with which his mind was already fo amply stored. Cicero expreffly informs us, that, in visiting Egypt, his principal aim was to learn mathe, matics and ecclefiaftical fpeculations among the barbarians; for, by this difgraceful appellation, the faftidious Greeks ftigmatized all foreign nations. He travelled, fays Valerius Maximus, over the whole of that country, informing himself, by means of the priests, during his progrefs, of geometry in all its various and multifold branches, as well as

• Cicero de Finibus, cap.5.

of

of their aftronomical obfervations: and, while the young students at Athens were inquiring for Plato, and languishing for his inftructions, that philofopher was indulging his contemplations on the shores of the Nile, surveying the canals cut from that river, and measuring the dams that restrained its rising waters, being himself but a difciple to the fages of the Thebais. From thofe fages, Paufanias, in Meffoniis, affirms he learned the immortality of the foul, and, from the style and tenour of his writings, it is pretty evident that he was deeply versed in the facred books attributed to Hermes Trifmegift. It is equally evident that Plato had read with attention the Mofaic writings and history, not through the medium, as has been afferted, of the Greek translation, (for, that tranflation was not made till the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which took place near two hundred years after the birth of Plato,) but by means of his own indefatigable exertion in acquiring languages and exploring the fources of Oriental science and traditions. Indeed the ftudy of the Eastern languages, so neceffary to a traveller in the East, and, in particular, the Egyptian and Phœnician, which differed only in dialect from the Hebrew,

• Valerius Maximus, lib. viii, cap. 7.

Hebrew, cannot be supposed to be unattended to by a man fired with fuch an insatiable thirst of learning as was Plato. Add to this, that, with the multitude of Jews, which, about that period of their diffipation, flocked to Egypt, he could scarcely fail of frequently converfing, in order to penetrate into their sacred records, and myftic cabbala fo famous, but fo little understood, throughout Afia. The best evidence of this fact is to be found in his writings, where are to be met with fuch repeated allufions to what he denominates Taλaio Moyo, ancient difcourfes, or traditions, and certain Σύριοι και Φοινικοι μυθοι, οι Syrian and Phoenician fables, that it is impoffible to confider this philofopher as not converfant in Hebrew antiquities. The contrary, in fact, was fo manifeft to Numenius, a Pythagorean philofopher of the fecond century, that, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, he exclaimed, Τι γαρ εστί Πλατων η Μωσης ΑτζιCwv; What is Plato, but Mofes converfing in the language of Athens !*

Thus, in acurfory manner, have I traced the veftigia of these two famous Greeks through those countries where either the true theology was firft propagated or firft perverted.

• Clem. Alexand. Stromatu, lib. i. p. 411, edit Oxon.

Let

us

us now proceed in a manner confiftent with the brevity we profefs to obferve, after fuch a wide range through the schools of Afia, to examine the leading features of their respective systems of theology.

It will scarcely be contefted that Pythagoras borrowed from the Egyptian priefts, who were fo deeply involved in symbols and hieroglyphics, that symbolical and ænigmatical way of instructing his difciples as to ethical and theological fubjects, which he fo univerfally adopted; and, I fhall, hereafter, when confidering the literature of India, have occafion to prove that nearly all his most famous fymbols have their origin, not in Grecian, but Oriental, ideas and manners. A fimilar obfervation holds good in refpect to his veneration for facred myftic numbers; for, when I inform the reader, that the ten numerical characters of arithmetic are originally of Indian, and not, as generally fuppofed, of Arabian, invention, he will entertain little doubt in what Eastern country he learned, in fuch perfection, that abftrufe fcience. On that very particular and curious belief entertained both by Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, relative to the agency of good and evil DÆMONS, fome attendant on the human race, as a kind of guardian

guardian and familiar fpirit, one of which fpecies Socrates affirmed attended himself, and others, fpleenful, malignant, and ever plotting their ruin, the fource has been equally laid open in our review of the Chaldaic theurgy. It is, however, with thofe fublimer points in their theology, which have reference to the nature of God himself, that we have at prefent a more immediate

concern.

This wife ancient ftyled the fupreme Deity the great Father of all, To ev, THE UNITY, ánd μovas, THE MONAD; a term by which Pythagoras doubtless intended to exprefs his conceptions of the fimplicity as well as purity of the divine nature. The fole caufe and first principle of all that exists, he esteemed the Deity the centre of unity and fource of harmony. He likewise conferred on this almighty Sovereign, the name by which Plato afterwards distinguished the first hypoftafis of his Triad, To ayalov, the chief good. From this eternal MONAD, however, from this primæval UNITY, according to Pythagoras and all his disciples, there fprang an infinite DUALITY.* By the term duality, fays the Chevalier Ramfay, the learned author of a differtation on the theo

• Vide Diogenes Laertius, lib. viii. p. 507.

logy