114 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



manners, becaiife upon thefe it miift depend whether a people fhall 

 improve or degenerate ; and, if we could fuppofe thofe inftitutions 

 and manners perfectly good, fuch as thofe by which animals in the 

 natural ftate live, the animal would continue always the fame, as we 

 fee wild animals do. 



There is not a greater difference in any thing, betwixt antient 

 and modern manners, than in the ciira corporis, as the Latins 

 called it ; and 1 am really furprifcd, when I confider the many 

 arts they invented to fupply the wants of the natural life, and 

 to prevent, as much as polfible, the eifedts of an artificial and 

 unnatural diet and manner of living. Amongs us, there is but one 

 art pradlifed for that purpofe, the art of phyfic ; but, among them, 

 there was another art, belonging to the human body, practiced as 

 much according to rule, or more, as phyfic is among us ; I mean 

 the gymnaftic, which, befidcs giving ftrength and vigour, graceful 

 and eafy motion to the body *, contributed exceedingly, more, I be- 

 lieve, than any thing elfe, to prevent difeafes, which is better than 

 curing ihem, though, for that purpofe, it was likewife employed. 

 Regular exercifes, according to the rules of art, were not fo necef- 

 fary to the Romans, while they w^ere farmers, and cultivated each his 

 two or three acres with their own hands. This kept them in health, 

 as Varro informs us t» and made their bodies firm and llrong. And 

 the athletic exercifes they pradiced upon holydays, which Virgil has 



fo 



♦ Horace, in his Ode to Mercury, fays, 

 Mercuri facunde, Nepos Atlantis, 

 Qui feros cultus hominumr ecentum 

 Voce formafti, catus, et decorae 



More palaeftrae. Lib. i. Ode lo. 



t Quamdiu rura colentes Roman!, et cultura foecundifTimos agros habuerunt, et- 

 ipfi valetudine firmiores extiterunt. Lib. 2- De Re Ru/iica, in Prooemio. 



