PREFACE. I 



XXIX 



2do, We ought now to be convinced, If not before, that what 



Plato has faid is ftridly true, That there will be no end of 



human mifery till Governors become Philofophers, or Philofophers 



Governors ; and that our prefent humiliating ftate is owing to the 



want of Philofophy and true political Wifdom in our Rulers, by 

 which they might have feen things in their caufes, not felt them only 

 in their efFeds, as every the moft vulgar man does * ; and by which 

 forefight, all the mifchiefs that have befallen us might have beea 

 prevented* 



And 3//0. Whether, fallen as we are, we may not flill make a 

 refpedable figure by being the feat of Philofophy and Learning, like 

 Athens or z\lexandria of old ; and in that way, if in no other, give 

 laws to Europe* 



Thefe are confiderations which I have been led into by the na- 

 ture of the fubjedl I am treating, and which I humbly fuggeft to the 

 great among us, wifhing them to confider whether, in the prefent 

 fituation of our affairs, they can ferve their country better than by 

 encouraging good Learning and Philofophy, and endeavouring, in 

 that way at leaft, to reftore the antient glory of the nation. 



If, by fuggeftions of this kind, I can be of any ufe to my country, 



I fhall be very glad of it ; but as to what is commonly called the 



Public I am not at all folicitous about the reception they give this 



work of mine ; for I have elfevvhere faid, that it is not for them I 



write, fo much as formyfelff. In collecting the learning of antient 



times I have as much pleafure as any mifer in amaffing wealth, and I 



am fure I have more enjoyment of it than he of his money ; for 



my 



* This is well exprefled by Homer, ^f^^iv Si xa; i-r-.Trjc? ty\(>:^ one of the fhortefl: 

 and fined ^/vWjOtai in that Poet. 



■\ Preface to Vol. I. p. 2 and g. 



