Chap. III. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 113 



And, not to mention many other great battles of theirs, and the 

 wonderful works they performed with their fpade as well as their 

 fword *, is it credible that they (hould have carried their arms 

 over all the world then known, without lofmg men, as we do, by 

 ficknefs and fatigue, and without having furgeons and hofpitals 

 following their armies, if they had been as weak of body, and as 

 liable to difeafe as we are ? And it is equally incredible that they 

 fhould not have had, in their cities, hofpitals and infirmaries, fuch 

 as we have f. 



It may be laid that the Romans, by being better exercifed, and 

 otherwife living in a better manner, may have been better and 

 ftronger men than we ; but it will not from thence follow that they 

 were born ftronger men than we. 



To this I anfwer, that, if men, by living indolently and de- 

 bauchedly, make themfelves weak and difeafed, muft not their chil- 

 dren be the worfe for it ? and, if the fon fliall add vices and difea- 

 fes of his own to thofe of his father, and if this ihall go on for cen- 

 turies, frorn generation to generation, muft not the race at laft be ex- 

 ceedingly degenerate, if not totally extinguiftied ? It is, therefore, im- 

 poffible to lay out of our view, in this argument, inftitutions and 

 Vol. III. P manners, 



* See, with refpe£l to their fpade-work, Lipfius, ubifupra^ Dialogue xiii. where 

 he mentions works of that kind of their's, which, 1 think, are as extraordinary as 

 any thing elfe they did \ and they may be faid to have conquered the world by their 

 fpade, as well as by their fworJ. 



f It may be fome comfort to the modern reader, to be informedth.it, in later times, 

 under the Conftantinopolitan Emperors, and particularly in the reign of Juflinian, 

 they had not only Hofpitals and Infirmaries, fuch as we have, as appears from 

 their laws, but the poor, the difeafed, and the mutilated, were to be feen, as with 

 us, begging their bread in the ftreets and high ways, as we are told by a cotcm- 

 porary hiflorian, Agathius, (Lib. i. p. 149.). It appears, therefore, that the fame 

 caufes, in all countries and in all ages, will produce the fame ef^eds. 



