Chap. XIV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 275 



notwithftanding their inferiority in fize and ftrength of Body. A 

 youth, taken from fludying philofophy at Athens to command the 

 Roman army in Gaul, (I mean Juhan, who was afterwards Empe- 

 ror), refcued that province from the dominion of the Barbarians, 

 and carried his victorious arms into the heart of Germany. But, 

 after that, the ConftantinopoUtan Emperors were obUged to em- 

 ploy, and it was the wifeft thing they could do. Barbarians for their 

 Generals. Such was iEtius under Valentinian, by birth a Moe- 

 fian *, who faved the empire from that fcourge of God, as he was 

 called, Attila, the Hun, at the head of the greateft force that ever 

 attacked the Romans at once, an army, it is laid, of 500,000 fight- 

 ing men t- And juftinian's two great Generals, who conquered for 

 him Africa and Italy, Belifarius and Narfes, were, one of them a 

 German and the other a Perfian eunuch f. In fhort, it may be laid 

 down as a propofition univerfally true, that no nation can flourifli 

 where the antient race of nobility and gentry is very much dimi- 

 nifhed in number, and thofe that remain of them fo degenerated, 

 and fo unlike their forefathers, as not to be able to perform thofe 

 duties, to which they are called by their birth and rank, of dired- 

 ing the councils, and leading the fleets and armies of the ftate to 

 which they belong. This, I am afraid, is our cafe at prefent ; and 

 it appears to me, that our misfortunes of late have been chiefly 

 owing to that caufc. Now, if our governors were fully convinced 

 of this, they would confider whether any method might be devi- 

 fed for reftoring the better race of men among us, fuch as that 

 which the Emprefs of RuflTia has contrived for preferving the nobi- 

 lity of her country. 



In this plan, the Emprefs proceeds upon this fundamental maxim 

 of the antient political philofophy, that the citizens of a well confti- 



tuted 



* Jornrindes, de Rebus Getccis, cap. 34. 



•f Ibid. c-ip. 35- et frquen. 



X bee more upon this fubject, p. 155. 



