76 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



mentioned in the preceding chapter *, profited fo much by being 

 fome time with civilized men, as to learn to walk in that manner. 



There is one thing to be obferved of thofe acquired faculties of 

 Bodv, that they are wonderfully improved by a fenfe of honour, 

 which is peculiar to Man, and, as it is well known, will make him 

 voluntarily endure the greateft pains, and even death itfelf. Now, 

 every body knows that exercife is abfolutely neceffary for bringing 

 thofe acquired bodily faculties to any degree of perfection, and even 

 violent painful exercife. But no Brute will endure pain voluntarily, 

 nor any Man who is yet but a mere Animal, and has not formed 

 that idea oi the fair and the handfome, which is the foundation of 

 the fenfe of honour ; whereas the civilized man will, from that fenfe 

 of honour, fubmit to the greateft pain and labour, in order to excel 

 in any exercife which is honourable. 



^'i cupit opt at am curfu coiitingere metam^ 

 Midta tulit fecitque puer, fudavit et alfit f. 



And this induces me to believe, that fuch a man as Achilles might 

 have beat in running even an Oran Outan, or the Savage of the Py- 

 renees, whom nobody could lay hold of, tho' that be the exercife in 

 which Savages excel the moft, and tho' I am perfuaded that the great 

 Oran Outan of Angola is naturally ftronger and fwifter of foot than A- 

 chilles was, or than even the heroes of the preceding age, fuch as Her* 

 cules, and fuch as Thefeus, Perithous, and others mentioned by Neftor %, 

 But Achilles had formed himfelf to running by great exercife, fudavit 

 et alfit ; whereas the Oran Outan never runs but for fome neceffary 

 of life. And, if this be true of running, it will hold much more of 

 fuch exercifes as wreftling and boxing, of which the Oran Outan has 



no 



* Page 65. and Vol. i. of the Origin and Progrefs of Language there quoted, 

 t Herat. De Arte Poetica, V. 412. 

 t Homer. Iliad, i. Verf. 263. 



