202 on delicacy of sentiment, i Aiig.x^. 



. The ancient Greeks a, id Romans were the most 

 civilized people on the earth. They, however, were 

 unacquainted with that extreme delicacy of senti- 

 ment which is become so universally prevalent ia 

 modern times. Perhaps some reasonable causes may 

 be afsigned. The stoic philosophy endeavoured to 

 introduce a total apathy, and, though it was not em- 

 braced, in all its rigidity, by the wdirar, yet it had a. 

 sufficient number of votaries to diffuse a general taste 

 for an insensibility of temper. It perhaps origiaally 

 meant no more than to teach men to govern their 

 affections by the dictates of reason ; but as a natural 

 want of feeling produced the same effects as a ra- 

 tional regulation of the pafsions, it soon pafsed among 

 the vulgar for what it could lay no claim to, a phi- 

 losophical indifference. 



That respectful attention to women, which in mo- 

 dern times is called gallantry, was not to be found 

 among the ancients. Women were looked upon as 

 inferior beings, whose only duty was to contribute 

 to pleasure, and superintend dom.estic economy. It 

 was not till the days of chivalry that men fhowed 

 that desire of pleasing the softer sex, which seems 

 to allow them a superiority. This deference to wo- 

 men refines the manners and softens the temper ; and 

 it is no wonder that the ancients, who admitted no 

 v;omen to their social conversations, fhould acquire a 

 roughnefs of manners incompatible with delicacy of 

 sentiment. 



Men who acted, thought, and spoke, like the ancients, 

 .were unquestionably furnifhed, by nature, with evdry 

 fedirg in great perfection. But their mode of education 



