iH^DY XIV. 307 



the quoit, in foot and chariot races, it was becaufe 

 fuch exercifes had a reference to the art of war. 

 If they had others eflabHlhed for the reward of fu- 

 perior eloquence, it was becaufe that art ferved to 

 maintain the interefts of Country, from city to 

 city, or in the general Affemblies of Greece. But 

 to what purpofe do we employ the tedious and 

 painful ftudy of dead languages, and of cuftoms 

 foreign to our Country ? Mod of our inftitutions, 

 with relation to the Ancients, have a ftriking re- 

 femblance to the paradife of the Savages of Ame- 

 rica. Thofe good people imagine that, after death, 

 the fouls of their compatriots migrate to a certain 

 country, where they hunt down the fouls of bea- 

 vers with the fouls of arrows, walking over the foul 

 of fnow with the foul of rackets, and that they 

 drefs the foul of their game in the foul of pots. 

 We have, in like manner, the images of a Colif- 

 eum, where no fpeâ;acles are exhibited ; images 

 of periftyles and public fquares, in which we are 

 not permitted to walk ; images of antique vafes, in 

 which it is impoffible to put any liquor, but which 

 contribute largely to our images of grandeur and 

 patriotifm. The real Greeks, and the real Romans, 

 would believe themfelves, among us, to be in the 

 land of their (hades. Happy for us, had we bor- 

 rowed from them vain images only, and not natu- 

 ralized in our Country their real evils, by tranf- 



X a planting 



