a sect of philosophers who clothed themselves no farther than modesty required. There was some of these sages in Africa; but the most celebrated clan of them was in India. The African gymnosophists dwelt upon a mountain in Ethiopia, near the Nile, without the accommodation either of house or cell. They did not form themselves into societies like those of India, but each had his private retirement, where he studied and performed his devotions by himself. If any person had killed another by chance, he applied to these sages for absolution, and submitted to whatever penances they enjoined. They observed an extraordinary frugality, and lived only upon the fruits of the earth. Lucan ascribes to these gymnosophists several new discoveries in astronomy.
As to the Indian gymnosophists, they dwelt in the woods, where they lived upon the wild products of the earth, and never drank wine, nor married. Some of them practised physic, and travelled from one place to another; these were particularly famous for their remedies. remedies against barrenness. Some of them, likewise, pretended to practise magic, and to foretell future events.
In general, the gymnosophists were wise and learned men: their maxims and discourses, recorded by historians, do not in the least favour of a barbarous education, but are plainly the result of great sense and deep thought. They keep up the dignity of their character to so high a degree, that it was never their custom to wait upon any body, not even upon princes themselves; for which reason Alexander, who would not condescend to visit them in person, sent some of his courtiers to them in order to satisfy his curiosity. Their way of educating their disciples is very remarkable: every day, at dinner, they examined them how they had spent the morning; and every one was obliged to shew, that he had discharged some good office, practised some virtue, or improved in some part of learning: if nothing of this appeared, he was sent back without his dinner. They held a transmigration of souls; and it is probable that Pythagoras borrowed his doctrine from them.