APPENDIX. A. ORPHEUS, Pythagoras, Thales, Anaxagoras, all travelled into other countries, and from thence derived the greater part of their philosophical tenets. The Egyptian priest observes to Solon in the Timæus 3, Ὦ Σόλων, Σόλων, Ἕλληνες ἀεὶ παῖδές ἐστε, γέρων δὲ Ἕλλην οὐκ ἔστιν, explaining his meaning at the same time by declaring that the Greeks had no ancient doctrine amongst them, no tradition rendered venerable by age. The passages are innumerable in which Plato alludes to this kind of evidence; and he always makes the appeal in the tone of a man who thought that it was entitled to considerable weight. The only exception I recollect (and in this case the common remark is most true, that exceptio probat regulam) is the passage in the Timæus, in which, after mentioning the traditions respecting Jupiter, Oceanus, Tethys, &c. he observes, that we ought to assent to them, because they have been handed down from the heroic age; and we must believe the sons of a Plato, Timæus, pars iii. vol. ii. p. 12. Bekker. Eusebius, Præp. Evangel. lib. x. cap. 4. the gods though there are no probable or necessary proofs of their assertions. Warned by the fate of Socrates, he thought it prudent to enumerate among his gods the deities of the popular mythology; but at the same time, from his mode of expressing himself, we have no difficulty in collecting his real sentiments. The author however of the short compressed treatise in the Doric dialect, of which Plato's work above cited is a kind of commentary, speaks of traditions respecting the punishments of a future life as false yet expedient. This must be considered as the sentiment of the Locrian; for it may be proved from his seventh Epistle that Plato's own opinion was very different. In the treatise Пepì kóσμov, attributed to Aristotle, there is the same appeal made to the apxaios Xoyos; nor is it important, in regard to the present subject, whether the work be genuine or not. If not written by the Stagyrite, it is evidently a composition of great antiquity e: b Αδύνατον οὖν θεῶν παισὶν ἀπιστεῖν καί περ ἄνευ τε εἰκότων καὶ àvayкaíwv àπodeížewv λéyovo. Plato, Timæus, Bekker, pars iii. vol. ii. p. 42. c Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 391. d' 4 Αρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος καὶ πατριός ἐστι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὡς ἐκ θεοῦ τὰ πάντα καὶ διὰ θεοῦ ἡμῖν συνέστηκεν. 'Aristot. Περὶ κόσμου, cap. 6. e In his Metaphysics he speaks of the importance deservedly attributed to this kind of evidence: Τιμιώτατον γὰρ τὸ πρεσβύταToy, lib. i. cap. 3. and we have similar testimony in works undoubtedly his own. The early fathers of the church, in their controversies with the Greek philosophers, always accuse them of having borrowed their knowledge from foreign countries, principally from Egypt, and refer through this channel the wisdom of the ancients to divine revelation as its source f. B. The assertion in the text, that Plato believed the Deity to have created matter out of nothing, has appeared to me, upon further examination, more than dubious. The younger Platonists, Clemens Alexandrinus, Ficinus, and Cudworth, main Παραδέδοται ὑπὸ τῶν ̓ΑΡΧΑΙΩΝ και ΠΑΛΑΙΩΝ ὅτι θεοί τε εἰσὶν οὗτοι καὶ περιέχει τὸ θεῖον τὴν ὅλην φύσιν. Met. lib. xiv. c. 8. Vide also de Colo. Διόπερ, καλῶς ἔχει συμπειθεῖν ἑαυτὸν τοὺς ̓ΑΡΧΑΙΟΥΣ ̓ΑΛΗΘΕΙΣ εἶναι λόγους. Lib. ii. c. 1. Diogenes Laertius, at the commencement of his work, cites a treatise of Aristotle in which philosophy was represented to have derived its origin from the Magi of Persia, the Chaldæans of Babylon, the Gymnosophists of India, and the Druids of Gaul. Diog. Laert. proœmium, p. 1. Cicero also speaks of the same kind of testimony. Tusc. Quæst. lib. i. cap. 12, 13. 17. f Vide Mr. Lancaster's Supplementary Remarks, p. 422. and a learned Charge by Waterland in the 8th vol. of his Works; Van Mildert's edit. Eusebius, Præp. Evangelica, lib. x. F |