was, in a manner,
almost all the learning of the ancient Asian people. We have scarce any
account of a moral philosopher, except Confucius, the great law-giver of
the Chinese, who lived about two thousand years ago.--POPE.

There are several mistakes in Pope's note. Zoroaster was not a magician
who "waved the circling wand" of the necromancer. "The Magians," says
Plato, "teach the magic of Zoroaster, but this is the worship of the
Gods." His creed was theological, and had no connexion with sorcery.
Some of his nominal followers subsequently professed to be
fortune-tellers. Astrology was not a general characteristic of the
diverse nations who constituted the "ancient Asian people," and their
learning was by no means limited to it. The Hindoos, for instance, were
the precursors of Aristotle in logic, and the earliest metaphysicians
whose doctrines have come down to us. "The Indian philosophy," says M.
Cousin, "is so vast that all the philosophical systems are represented
there, and we may literally affirm that it is an abridgment of the
entire history of philosophy." Nor was Confucius the only oriental
"law-giver who taught the useful science to be good." The Hindoo body of
laws, which bears the name of Menu, was compiled centuries before
Confucius was born, and it is eminently a moral and religious, as well
as a political code.]

[Footnote 42: It was often erroneously stated that the Brahmins dwelt
always in groves. By the laws of Menu the life of a Brahmin was divided
into four portions, and it was during the third portion only that he was
commanded to become an anchorite in the woods, to sleep on the bare
ground, to feed on roots and fruit, to go clad in bark or the skin of
the black antelope, and to expose himself to the drenching rain and
scorching sun. The caste have ceased to conform to the primitive
discipline, and the old asceticism is now confined to individual
devotees. The functions which Pope ascribes to the Brahmins formed no
part of their practices. They did not pretend to "stop the moon," and
summon spirits to "midnight banquets." Pope copied Oldham's version of
Virgil's eighth Eclogue:

Charms in her wonted course can stop the moon.]

[Footnote 43: Addison's translation of a passage in Claudian:

Thin airy shapes, that o'er the furrows rise,
A dreadful scene! and skim before his eyes.]

[Footnote 44: Dryden's Palamon and Arcite:

And sigils framed in planetary hours.

Dryden's V