and institutions: As, the Transmigration of Souls, and the four Cardinal Virtues: The long Silence injoined his Scholars, and Propagation of their Doctrines by Tradition rather than Letters, and Abstinence from all Meats that had Animal Life, introduced by Pythagoras: The Eternity of Matter with perpetual Changes of Form, the Indolence of body, the Tranquillity of Mind, by Epicurus: And among those of Lycurgus ; the Care of Education from the Birth of Children, the austere Temperance of Diet, the patient Endurance of Toil and Pain, the Neglect or Contempt of Life, the Use of Gold and Silver only in their Temples, the Defence of Commerce with Strangers, and several others, by him established among the Spartans, seem all to be wholly Indian, and different from any Race or Vein of Thought or Imagination, that have ever appeared in Greece, either in that Age or any since. . Besides, I know no Circumstances like to contribute more to the Advancement of Knowledge and Learning among Men, than exact Temperance in their Races, great Pureness of Air, and Equality of Climate, long Tranquillity of Empire or Government: And all these we may justly allow to those Eastern Regions, more than any others we are acquainted with, at least till the Conquests made by the Tartars, upon both India and China, in the latter Centuries. However, it may be as pardonable to derive some Parts of Learning from thence, as to go so far for the Game of Chess, which some Curious and Learned Men have deduced from India into Europe, by two several Roads, that is, by Persia into Greece, and by Arabia into Africk and Spain. Thus much I thought might be allowed me to say, for the giving some idea of what those Sages or Learned Men were, or may have been, who were Ancients to those that are Ancients to us. Now to observe what these have been, is more easie and obvious. The most Ancient Grecians that we are at all acquainted with, after Lycurgus, who was certainly a great Philosopher as well as Lawgiver, were the seven Sages: Though the Court of Crasus is said to have been much resorted to, by the Sophists of Greece, in the happy Beginnings of his Reign. And some of these seven seem to have brought most of those Sciences out of Egypt and Phenicia, into Greece; particularly those of Astronomy, Astrology, Geometry, and Arithmetick. These were soon followed by Pythagoras (who seems to have introduced Natural and Moral Philosophy) and by several of his Followers, both in Greece and Italy. But of all these there remains nothing in Writing now among us; so that Hippocrates, Plato, and Xenophon are the first Philosophers whose Works have escaped the Injuries of Time. But that we may not conclude the first Writers we have of the Grecians were the first Learned or Wise among them; we shall find upon inquiry, that the more Ancient Sages of Greece appear, by the Characters remaining of them, to have been much the greater Men. They were generally Princes or Lawgivers of their Countries, or at least offered and invited to be so, either of their own or of others, that desired them to frame or reform their several Institutions of Civil Government. They were commonly excellent Poets, and great Physicians: They were so learned in Natural Philosophy, that they foretold, not only Eclipses in the Heavens, but Earthquakes at Land, and Storms at Sea, great Drowths and great Plagues, much Plenty, or much Scarcity of certain Sorts of Fruits or Grain; not to mention the Magical Powers attributed to several of them, to allay Storms, to raise Gales, to appease Commotions of People, to make Plagues cease; which Qualities, whether upon any Ground of Truth or no, yet, if well believed, must have raised them to that strange Height they were at, of common Esteem and Honour, in their own and succeeding Ages. By all this may be determined, whether our Moderns or our Ancients may have had the greater and the better Guides, and which of them have taken the greater Pains, and with the more Application in the Pursuit of Knowledge. And, I think, it is enough to shew, that the Advantages we have, from those we call the Ancients, may not be greater than what they had from those that were so to them. But after all, I do not know whether the high Flights of Wit and Knowledge, like those of Power and of Empire in the World, may not have been made by the pure Native Force of Spirit or Genius in some single Men, rather than by any derived Strength among them, however increased by Succession; and whether they may not have been the Atchievements of Nature, rather than the Improvements of Art. Thus the Conquests of Ninus and Semiramis, of Alexander and Tamerlane, which I take to have been the Greatest recorded in Story, were at their Height in those Persons that began them; and so far from being increased by their Successors, that they were not preserved in their Extent and Vigour by any of them, grew weaker in every Hand they passed through, or were divided into many, that set up for great Princes, out of several small Ruins of the first Empires, till they withered away in Time, or were lost by the Change of Names and Forms of Families or of Governments. Just the same Fate seems to have attended the highest Flights of Learning and of Knowledge, that are upon our Registers. Thales, Pythagoras, Democritus, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, were the first mighty Conquerors of Ignorance in our World, and made greater Progresses in the several Empires of Science than any of their Successors have been since able to reach. These have hardly ever pretended more than to learn what the others taught, to remember what they invented, and not able to compass that itself, they have set up for Authors, upon some Parcels of those great Stocks, or else have contented themselves only to comment upon those Texts, and make the best Copies they could, after those Originals. . . But what are the Sciences wherein we pretend to excel? I know of no New Philosophers, that have made entries upon that Noble Stage for fifteen hundred Years past, unless Des Cartes and Hobbs should pretend to it; of whom I shall make no Critick here, but only say, That by what appears of Learned Mens Opinions in this Age, they have by no means eclipsed the Lustre of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, or others of the Ancients. For Grammar or Rhetorick, no Man ever disputed it with them; nor for poetry, that ever I heard of, besides the New French Author I have mentioned; and against whose Opinion there could, I think, never have been given stronger Evidence, than by his own Poems, printed together with that Treatise. : There is nothing new in Astronomy, to vie with the Ancients, unless it be the Copernican System; nor in Physick, unless Harvey's Circulation of the Blood. But whether either of these be modern Discoveries, or derived from old Fountains, is disputed Nay, it is so too, whether they are true or no; for though Reason may seem to favour them more than the contrary Opinions, yet Sense can very hardly allow them; and to satisfy Mankind, both these must concur. But if they are true, yet these two great Discoveries have made no Change in the Conclusions of Astronomy, nor in the Practice of Physick, and so have been of little Use to the World, though perhaps of much Honour to the Authors. What are become of the Charms of Musick, by which Men and Beasts, Fishes, Fowls, and Serpents, were frequently enchanted, and their very Natures changed; by which the Passions of Men were raised to the greatest Height and Violence, and then as suddenly appeased, so as they might be justly said to be turned into Lyons or Lambs, into Wolves or into Harts, by the Powers and Charms of this admirable Art ? 'Tis agreed by the Learned, that the Science of Musick, so admired by the Ancients, is wholly lost in the World, and that what we have now is made up out of certain Notes that fell into the Fancy or Observation of a poor Friar, in chanting his Mattins. So as those two Divine Excellencies of Musick and Poetry are grown, in a Manner to be little more, but the one Fiddling, and the other Rhyming; and are indeed very worthy the Ignorance of the Friar, and the Barbarousness of the Goths that introduced them among us. What have we remaining of Magick, by which the Indians, the Chaldeans, the Ægyptians were so renowned, and by which Effects so wonderful, and to common Men so astonishing, were produced, as made them have Recourse to Spirits or Supernatural Powers, for some Account of their strange Operations? By Magick, I mean some excelling Knowledge of Nature, and the various Powers and Qualities in its several Productions, and the Application of certain Agents to certain Patients, which by Force of some peculiar Qualities produce Effects very different from what fall under vulgar Observation or Comprehension. These are by ignorant People called Magick and Conjuring, and such like Terms and an Account of them, much about as wise, is given by the Common Learned from Sympathies, Antipathies, Idiosyncrasies, Talismans, and some Scraps or Terms left us by the Egyptians or Grecians of the Ancient Magick; but the Science seems with several others to be wholly lost. . . It may perhaps be further affirmed, in Favour of the Ancients, that the oldest Books we have are still in their Kind the best. The two most ancient, that I know of in Prose, among those we call Profane Authors, are Æsops Fables and Phalaris's Epistles, both living near the same time, which was that of Cyrus and Pythagoras. As the first has been agreed by all ages since, for the greatest Master in his Kind, and all others of that Sort have been but imitations of his Original; So I think the Epistles of Phalaris to have more Race, more Spirit, more Force of Wit and Genius than any others I have ever seen, either Ancient or Modern. I know several Learned Men (or that usually pass for such, under the Name of Criticks) have not esteemed them Genuine, and Politian with some others have attributed them to Lucian: But I think he must have little skill in Painting, that cannot find out this to be an original; such Diversity of Passions, upon such Variety of Actions and Passages of Life and Government, such Freedom of Thought, such Boldness of Expression, such Bounty to his Friends, such Scorn of his Enemies, such Honour of Learned Men, such Esteem of Good, such Knowledge of Life, such Contempt of Death, with such Fierceness of Nature and Cruelty of Revenge, could never be represented but by him that possessed them; and I esteem Lucian to have been no more capable of Writing, than of Acting what Phalaris did. In all one writ, you find the Scholar or the Sophist; and in all the other, the Tyrant and the Commander. THE FABLES OF LA FONTAINE. [JEAN DE LA FONTAINE, the noted French fabulist, was the son of a superintendent of woods and forests, and was born at Château-Thierry in Champagne, July 8, 1621. He left the College of Rheims at the age of nineteen to study for the ministry, but gave up that pursuit after two years. Invited to Paris by the Duchesse de Bouillon, he enjoyed the patronage of the Duchesse d'Orleans, Madame de Sablière, and Madame d'Hervart; and was on intimate terms with Molière, Boileau, Racine, and other contemporary celebrities. He became a member of the French Academy in 1683, but not without some opposition from Louis XIV., with whom he was never a favorite; and died at Paris, April 13, 1695. The "Fables," with which his name is chiefly associated, appeared between 1688 and 1694, the first six being inscribed to the Dauphin of France. His other writings consist of two volumes of "Contes" (tales), "The Love of Psyche and Cupid,” and some unimportant comedies.] THE WOLF AND THE DOG. A PROWLING Wolf, whose shaggy skin Once met a mastiff dog astray. Sir Wolf, in famished plight, |