“The most ancient tradition among all nations, is exactly agreeable to the relation of _Moses_. For his description of the original of the world is almost the very same as in the ancient _Phœnician_ histories, which are translated by _Philo Biblius_ from _Sanchoniathon’s_ Collection; and a good part of it is to be found among the _Indians_ and _Egyptians_; whence it is that in _Linus_, _Hesiod_, and many other _Greek_ writers, mention is made of a _Chaos_, (signified by some under the name of an Egg) and of the framing of animals, and also of man’s formation after the divine image, and the dominion given him over all living creatures; which are to be seen in many writers, particularly in _Ovid_, who transcribed them from the _Greek_. That all things were made by the Word of God, is asserted by _Epicharmus_, and the _Platonists_; and before them, by the most ancient writer (I do not mean of those Hymns which go under his name, but) of those Verses which were of old called _Orpheus’s_; not because _Orpheus_ composed them, but because they contained his doctrines. And _Empedocles_ acknowledged, that the sun was not the original light, but the receptacle of light, (the storehouse and vehicle of fire, as the ancient Christians express it.) _Aratus_, and _Catullus_, thought the divine residence was above the starry orb; in which _Homer_ says, there is a continual light. _Thales_ taught from the ancient schools, that God was the oldest of beings, because not begotten; that the world was most beautiful, because the workmanship of God; that darkness was before light, which latter we find in _Orpheus’s_ Verses, and _Hesiod_, whence it was, that the nations, who were most tenacious of ancient customs, reckoned the time by nights. _Anaxagoras_ affirmed, that all things were regulated by the supreme mind: _Aratus_, that the stars were made by God; _Virgil_, from the _Greeks_, that Life was infused into things by the Spirit of God; _Hesiod_, _Homer_, and _Callimachus_, that man was formed of clay; lastly, _Maximus Tyrius_ asserts, that it was a constant tradition received by all nations, that there was one supreme God, the cause of all things. And we learn from _Josephus_, _Philo_, _Tibullus_, _Clemens Alexandrinus_, and _Lucian_, (for I need not mention the _Hebrews_) that the memory of the seven days’ work was preserved, not only among the _Greeks_ and _Italians_, by honouring the seventh day; but also amongst the _Celtæ_ and _Indians_, who all measured the time by weeks; as we learn from _Philostratus_, _Dion Cassius_, and _Justin Martyr_, and also the most ancient names of the day. The _Egyptians_ tell us, that at first men led their lives in great simplicity, their bodies being naked, whence arose the poet’s fiction of the Golden Age, famous among the _Indians_, as _Strabo_ remarks, _Maimonides_ takes