24^ ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



converfed with, were remarkably vain, afltiming to themfelves a very 

 large fhare of that fuperiority, which they fo liberally beftowed upon 

 their fpecies. And it muft be evident to every body, that nothing 

 but vanity could induce them to publilh doftrines fo pernicious ta 

 mankind ; for, to do them juftice, I do not think that they have any 

 mifanthropy in their nature ; but, on the contrary, I have known 

 fome of them that were very kind and friendly, provided, only, that 

 you allowed them to be the greatefl: geniufes and finefl: writers of the 

 age. And, though I have obferved in them, likewife, the greateft ma- 

 lignity, and mod inveterate hatred, againft thofe who did not allow 

 them the praife they claimed, yet I confider that rather as the neceffa- 

 ry confequence of their vanity, the moft vindidive paffion in our na- 

 ture when it is crofTed and difappointed, than as a fign of any ill 

 temper or malevolent natural difpofition. The fame was the character 

 of the great author of their philofophy, Epicurus, who lived in great 

 friendfliip with his admirers and followers, but could not bear thofe 

 who differed from him in matters of philofophy. He, therefore, not 

 only abufed the philofophers who went before him, as Ariftotle and 

 Phaedo, one of the difciples of Socrates ; but there was one Timocra- 

 tes, the brother of his moft intimate friend and companion Metro- 

 dorus, againft whom he wrote whole volumes, becaufe he prefumed 

 to differ from him in fome points of philofophy ; and, from the fame 

 principle of vanity, he was ungrateful to Democritus, from whom he 

 had learned what is beft in his philofophy ; and he treated very ill 

 Naufiphanes his mafter ; but from whom he profefled that he learn- 

 ed nothing *. 



I have often thought that this immoderate vanity of theirs might 



be fomewhat corrected at leaft, and their chara<flers, as well as their 



tafte, improved, if they were fcholars, and could ftudy antient hifto- 



ry, as it ought to be lludied ; for there they would find men (o much 



fuperior to themfelves in arts and arms, and in fcience too, except 



that 

 * Cicero dc Nat. Deor. lib. I- cap. 33. 



