"Sur les connoissances des anciens"

Manuscript discussing early ideas about electricity and occult sciences. Written as if the author was a poor Ethiopian slave, but more likely to have been authored by a learned European. The last few pages of the manuscript are in a different hand, but the narrative does not change, suggesting multiple authors or scribes, and that the "pauvre nègre" referred to in the text is a literary device.

The text is mainly in French, but includes quotations in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. There is extensive use of footnotes, and the text references contemporary sources, including Buffon, Cook, Bouganville, Bailly, Spallanzani, Engel, and de Gebelin, as well as Greek myths and the Bible. The manuscript is unbound, and may originally have formed part of a larger work.

It begins with a section on skin colour, which references both the Bible and Buffon. Electricity is cited as having a possible influence on the colour of a person's skin. This is followed by a long discourse on ancient ideas and uses of electricity, suggesting that these were in many ways superior to modern ones. Emphasis is placed on ancient Egypt, and the manuscript includes related illustrations and hieroglyphs, along with an explanation of what the hieroglyphs represent. This section also contains information on prisms, microscopes, radiometers and vital magnetism.

The next part of the manuscript is most explicitly concerned with occultism. The first page appears to be missing, but the section covers cabalistic writings, numerology, sundials, compasses, ancient beliefs about earthquakes and volcanoes, electrometers, hydrometers and dowsing. This is followed by several pages on oracles.

The final six leaves of the manuscript are written in a different hand, and include a possible heading on magic.