Chap.Vr. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 179 



after focieties were Inftltuted, and wealth and power introduced a- 

 mong men, the befl: men of the nation having mod wealth and 

 power, made a property of a great number of women. This ap- 

 pears to have been pracSiiled, from time immemorial, in the Eaft, and 

 has contributed m.ore to tlie degeneracy of the Afiatic nations, than 

 any thing elfe j for they do not hurt themfelves by excefs of wine, 

 as we do ; thougli, if we can credit what i-*hilo Judaeus relates, 

 the excefs in venery mud be very much more hurtful, fmce, ac- 

 cording to him, even the mod m.oderate ufe of it confumes a 

 confiderable part of the animal life *. And it muft be ftill more 

 pernicious, if it begins very early, as we know it does among the 

 Orientals f . And there is a very extraordinary fadt, which Mr 



Z 2 . Bruce, 



* He fays, AfffoaTni ey^'oM ««,'« 4"''>i'!' '^ xtcXeirxi ytiiucv v^og ryjv rev ouoiov Tvcea^ ^^ktcci, 

 Philo Judaeus. znoi u^piu^a-tsti >.o(ry,cv, p. 955. From whence he takes this calcula- 

 tion he does not fay •, but, as he was very learned, it is likely he found it in fome 

 antientbook, which is probably now loft. 



t There is publiflied, by the greateft traveller of this age, and, at the fame time, 

 an ingenious and learned man, and who appears to me to have been a very accurate 

 obferver, I mean Kaempfer, a book, which he calls Amoenitates Exoticae, where he 

 gives an account of the education of the heir apparent of the crown of Perfia, and 

 which, I believe, will apply, perhaps in a lefler degree, to the education of the 

 children of all the rich and great in that country. He is brought up, he fays, in 

 the Baran, orhoufe of the women ; and before he has attained to the age of puber- 

 ty, they allow him the ufe of women, without any reftri£lion of the number 

 mentioned by the author. And, in order to enable him to enjoy them, they 

 ^ive him pills, made up of opium, mu(k, amber, and aromatics ; or they ad- 

 minifter to him a potion of much the fame ingredients. This potion, he 

 fays, is of daily ufe among the Perfians, and is preferred by them to every 

 delicacy of eating. It has the effedl of railing their fpirits, giving them a 

 pleafant delirium, and, at the fame time, inciting them to venery, p. 10. This 

 the author appears to relate from good information, having been four years at 

 the court of Ifpahan, or in the neighbouring provinces, p. 45. and of the train 

 of the Swedifh ambaffador j and being by profeflion a phyfician, he would no doubt 



be 



