An Effay of the learned MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS concerning the ORIGIN of SCIENCES.

Written to

the most learned Dr.----F. R. S. from the defarts of NUBIA.

A

Mong all the inquiries which have been purfued by the curious and inquifitive, there is none more worthy the fearch of a learned head, than the fource from whence we derive thofe arts and fciences which raife us fo far above the vulgar, the countries in which they rofe, and the channels by which they have been conveyed. As they who first brought them amongst us travelled into the remoteft parts of the earth to attain them, I may boast of fome advantages by the fame means; fince I write this from the defarts of Ethiopia, from thofe plains of fand which have buried the pride of invading armies, with my foot perhaps at this inftant ten fathom over the grave of Cambyfes, a folitude to which neither Pythagoras nor Apollonius ever penetrated.

It is univerfally agreed, that arts and sciences took their rife among the Egyptians and Indians; but from whom they first received them, is yet a fecret. The highest period of time to which the learned attempt to trace them, is from the beginning of the Affyrian monarchy, when their inventors were worshipped as Gods. It is therefore neceffary to go backward into times even more remote, and to gain fome knowledge of their hiftory, from whatever dark and broken hints may any way be found in antient authors concerning them.

Nor Troy nor Thebes were the first of empires; we have mention, tho' not hiftories, of an earlier warlike people called the Pygmeans. I cannot but per

fuade

fuade myself, from thofe accounts of Homer, Ariftotle and others, that their hiftory, wars and revolutions were then a part of the ftudy of the learned, from the very air in which thofe authors fpeak of them as of things univerfally known. And tho' all we directly hear is of their military atchievements, in the brave defence of their country from the annual invasions of a powerful enemy, yet I cannot doubt but that they excelled as much in the arts of peaceful government, tho' there remain no traces of their civil inftitutions. Empires as great have been fwallowed up in the wreck of time, and fuch fudden periods have been put to them, as occafion a total ignorance of their ftory. And if I fhould conjecture that the like happened to this nation, from a general extirpation of the people by thofe flocks of monftrous birds, wherewith antiquity agrees they were continually infefted; it ought not to feem more incredible, than that one of the Baleares was wasted by rabbits, Smynthe by mice, and of late | Bermudas almoft depopulated by rats. Nothing is more natural to imagine, than that the few furvivors of that empire retired into the depths of their defarts, where they lived undisturbed, till they were found. out by Ofyris in his travels to inftruct mankind.

He met, fays Diodorus, in Ethiopia, a fort of little fatyrs, who were hairy one half of their body, and whofe leader Pan accompanied him in his expedition for the civilizing of mankind. Now of this great perfonage Pan, we have a very particular defcription in the antient writers, who unanimoufly agree to represent him, shaggy bearded, hairy all over, half a man and half a beast and walking erect, with a Staff, (the pofture in which his race are to this day fhown among us). And fince the chief thing to which he applied himself, was the civilizing of mankind, it fhould feem, that the first principles of fcience must be received from this people, to whom the

Il 3. Hom. † Euftathius in Hom. Il. 1. | Speede in Bermudas. § L. 1. ch. 18. Diod.

the Gods were by * Homer said to refort twelve days every year, for the converfation of its wife and jult inhabitants.

If, from Egypt, we proceed to take a view of India, we shall find that their knowledge alfo derived itfelf from the fame fource. To that country did thefe noble creatures accompany Bacchus in his expedition, under the conduct of Silenus, who is also described to us with the very fame marks and qualifications. Mankind is ignorant, faith + Diodorus, whence Silenus derived his birth, through his great antiquity; but he had a tail on his loins, as likewife had all his progeny, in fign of their defcent. Here then they fettled a colony, which to this day fubfifts with the fame tails. From this time they feem to have communicated themfelves only to those men who retired from the converfe of their own fpecies, to a more uninterrupted life of contemplation. I am much inclined to believe, that, in the midst of thofe folitudes, they instituted the fo much celebrated order of Gymnofophifts. For whoever obferves the fcene and manner of their life, will eafily find them to have imitated with all exactnefs imaginable, the manners and cuftoms of their mafters and inftructors. They are faid to dwell in the thickest woods, to go naked, to fuffer their bodies to be over-run with hair, and their nails to grow to a prodigious length. Plutarch fays, they eat what they could get in the fields, their drink was water, and their bed made of leaves or moss. And Herodotus tells us, that they efteemed it a great exploit to kill very many ants or creeping things.

Tho

Hence we fee, that the two nations which contend for the origin of learning, are the fame that have ever most abounded with this ingenious race. they have contefted which was first bleft with the rife of science, yet have they confpired in being grateful to their common mafters. Egypt is well known to have worshipped them of old in their own images

and

*I 1. † L. 3. ch. 69, Diod. § Plutarch in his fir Orat. an Alexander's fortuner || Herod. L. 1.

and ludia may be credibly supposed to have done the fame, from that adoration which they paid in latter times to the tooth of one of these hairy philofophers, as it fhould feem in juft gratitude to the mouth from which they received their knowledge.

Pafs we now over into Greece, where we find Orpheus returning out of Egypt, with the fame intent as Ofyris and Bacchus made their expeditions. From this period it was, that Greece first heard the name of Satyrs, or owned them for Semi-dei. And hence it is furely reasonable to conclude, that he brought fome of this wonderful fpecies along with him, who alfo had a leader of the line of Pan, of the fame name, and exprefsly called King by * Theocritus. If thus much be allowed, we eafily account for two of the ftrangeft reports in all antiquity. One, that the tradition of beafts following the mufick of Orpheas (which has been interpreted of his taming favage tempers) will thus have a literal application. other, which we most infift upon, is, that the love which thefe fages bear to the females of our kind, affords a folution of all thofe fables of the Gods compreffing women in woods under beftial appearances. I am fenfible it may be objected, that they are faid to have been compreffed in the fhape of different animals ; but to this we anfwer, that women under fuch apprehenfions hardly know what shape they have to deal with.

The

From what has been last faid, 'tis highly credible, that to this antient and generous race the world is indebted, if not for the heroes, at leaft for the acuteft wits of antiquity. One of the most remark, able inftances, is that great mimick genius + Afp, for whofe extraction from these fylveftres homines we may gather an argument from Planudes, who fays, that op fignifies the fame thing as Ethiop, the original nation of our people. For a fecond argument we may offer the defcription of his perfon, which was fhort, deformed, and almost Savage, in

Παν Αναξη Theo. Id. 1. + Vit. Afop. initio.

fomuch

fomuch that he might have lived in the woods, had not the benevolence of his temper made him rather adapt himself to our manners, and come to court in wearing apparel. The third proof is his acute and fatyrical wit; and, laftly, his great knowledge in the nature of beafts, together with the natural pleasure he took to speak of them upon all occafions.

The next inftance I fhall produce is * Socrates: First, it was a tradition that he was of an uncommon birth from the rest of men ; fecondly, he had a countenance confeffing the line he fprung from, being bald, flat-nofed, with prominent eyes, and a down ward lock: thirdly, he turned certain fables of Æ fop into verfe, probably out of his refpect to beafts in general, and love to his family in particular.

In process of time, the women, with whom thefe fylvans would have lovingly cohabited, were either taught by mankind, or induced by an abhorrence of their fhapes, to fhun their embraces: fo that our fa ges were neceffitated to mix with beasts; this, by degrees, occafioned the hair of their pofterity to grow higher than their middles: it arofe, in one genera tion, to their arms, in the fecond, it invaded their necks; in the third, it gained the afcendant of their heads, till the degenerate appearance, in which the fpecies is now immerfed, became completed: tho' we must here obferve, that there were a few who fell not under the common calamity, there being fome unprejudiced women in every age, by virtue of whom a total extinction of the original race was prevented and it is remarkable alfo, that, even where they were mixed, the defection from their nature was not entire; there ftill appeared marvellous qualities among them, as was manifeft in those who followed Alexander in India. How did they attend his army and furvey his order! How did they call themfelves into the fame forms for march or for combat! What an imitation was there of all his discipline! the antient

* Vid. Plato et Xenophon.