Diogenes quotes one original thought full#

But as for Incantation, or Conjuration, they understood it not, as A∣ristotle testifies in his Magic, and Dinon in his Fifth Book of History where the same Author observes that the name of Zoroastres, being interpreted, signifies a Worshipper of the Stars which Hermodorus also confirms. Instead of Wands, they made use of Reeds, with the sharp ends of which they took up their Cheese, and so put it to their mouths. Their Vestment's were white they lay upon the Ground their Food was only Herbs, Bread and Cheese. However they forbid external Worship, and the use of Gold.

ndancy of mix'd and various Exhalations, forming themselves, and piercing the Opticks of those that were sharp sighted.

Diogenes quotes one original thought full#

More than this, they▪ practised Divi∣nation and Fortune-telling, affirming not on∣ly that the Gods appeared to 'em, but that the Air was also full of Specters, through the re∣d They taughtĪlso several things in reference to Justice accounting it impious to burn the Dead, but held it a vertue to ly▪ with a Mother, or a Daughter, as Sotion relates in his Thirteenth Book. Clitarchus also in his twelfth Book asserts the first to have been great Con∣temners of Death: That the Chaldaeans wholly employ'd themselves in Astronomy and Predictions: That the Magi were at∣tentive altogether upon the Ceremonies of Di∣vine Worship, Sacrifices and Prayers to the Gods, as list'ning to none but only to them∣selves: They also discours'd of the Substance and Generation of the Gods which they af∣firm'd to be Fire, Earth, and Water con∣demning all manner of Images and Simili∣tudes more especially those that asserted the Gods to be Male and Female. Now they who affirm Philosophy to have deriv'd its Original from the Barbarians, pre∣tend to shew us the form and manner of In∣struction that every one made use of, together with their Customs and Institutions decla∣ring that the Gymnosophists and Druids ut∣tered their Philosaphy in Riddles and obscure Problems, exhorting Men to worship the Gods, to do nothing that was Evil, and to practise Fortitude. This great Person ended his days at Phalerae, where the following Elegy was in∣grav'd upon his Tomb, Out the Pedigree of the Gods to have in∣vented the Sphere and first to have taught the World that All things were created of one Matter, and should again be dissolv'd into the same.

For among the Athenians we behold the An∣cient Musaeus among the Thebans, Linus Ofwhich two, the former, reported to be the Son of Eumolpus, is said to have first made But they are grosly mistak'n, while they attribute to the Barbarians the fa∣mous Acts and Inventions of the Grecians, from whom not only Philosophy, but even the Race of Mankind had its first Beginning. To which Zoro∣astres afterwards succeeded several other Ma∣gi, under the various names of Ostanes, As∣trapsychi, Gobryae, and Pazatae, till the to∣tal subversion of the Persian Monarchy by A∣lexander. From whence to the Time of Alexander the Mace∣donian, were to be numbred Forty Eight Thousand, Eight Hundred Sixty three Years: In all which space of Time, there appeared Eclipses of the Sun, no less than Three hun∣dred seventy three of the Moon, Eight hun∣dred thirty two, From the Magi, of whom the chiefwas Zoroastres, the Persian, by the computation of Hermodorus the Platonic, in his Book of the Sciences, to the Taking and Destruction of Troy, were five thousand years: though Xanthus the Lydian reck'ns from Zoroastres to the Descent of Xerxes not above six hundred years. Of Nilus from whom, among them, Philoso∣phy first commenc'd and over which they who presided as Presidents and Guardians, were both Priests and Prophets. Add to this, That the Egyptians asserted Vulcan to be the Son Among the Phoenicians flourish'd Ochus Zamolxes grew famous among the Thracians, and At∣las among the Lybians. Among the Gauls were another sort, that went by the name of Druids, or Semnotheans, as Ari∣stotle reports in his Magic, and Sotion in his Thirteenth Book of Succession.

For that among the Persians there were the Magi among the Babylonians or Assyrians the Chaldaeans and the Gymno∣sophists among the Indians. SOme there are who affirm, That the study of Philosophy deriv'd its first O∣riginal from among the Barbariàns.