1276 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



tuted commonwealth ought not to beeducated as the children of private 

 jier{f)ns, but as children of the ftate^ and accordinp; to public wiidom, 

 not private judgment. This rule it was impoffible to follow with 

 refped: to all the citizens, in fo great an empire as that of Ru^a ; 

 but the Emprefs has contrived to make it prad:icable with rerpe(fl to 

 the children of the people of the firft rank ; and, like the legiflator 

 of Sparta, fhe has not confmed her plan to the education of the 

 men only, but has extended it to the women. She has, therefore, 

 erected two great fchoOiS or academies, one for male- children and 

 the other for female, the firft containing about 700 males, and. 

 the other about 400 females. She takes in both at the age of five ; 

 and keeps the males fifteen years, and the females twelve ; and, du- 

 ring all that time, the parents fee them but feldora, and never except 

 by permifTion of the Emprefs. While they are there, they are 

 taught every thing that may make them ufeful members of the 

 ftate ; the men, arts and fciences, the learned languages, and the 

 modern that are of the gieateft ufe, alfo riding, fencing, dancing, 

 and all the military exercifes ; and the women every thing that is 

 proper for their fex. The greateft care, at the fame time, is taken 

 of their diet, and manner of life. In Ruflia the bodies of men 

 are ruined by the immoderate ufe of fire, and of baths excefTively 

 hot, by very warm cloathing, and by the drinking of ipintoas 

 liquors. In thefe fchools there is no ufe of fire at ail in chimnies ; 

 and, in their rooms, which are very large, they have only two 

 ftoves, one at each end, very moderately heated. They are not al- 

 lowed the ufe of the hot bath ; they wear no furs, and but thin 

 cloathing ; and they drink nothing but water ; and, for the firft two 

 or three years they live only on vegetables, and, for the reft of the 

 time, their table is very frugal and fimple. The confequence of 

 thefe regulations is, that they are remarkably healthy, and fewer of 

 them die in the year than of any other clafs of people of the empire 



of 



