CTinp. XIV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 277 



of the fame number *. In ihort, It appears to me that no better plan 

 of education has been devifed fmce the days of I.ycurgus ; and it 

 muft make this c^reit Princefs, who has executed it and carried it 

 on with fo much care and attention for thefe fifteen yeats, adored 

 by all thofe of her iiibjeds, who have fenfe enough to know that 

 it is impofnbie any nation can fiourifh, whofe nobility and gentry 

 are not properly educated. 



How long any fuch inflitution in Britain would laft, it is impof- 

 fible to determine : But the example of the Romans iliould convince 

 us how vain a thing it is for a people to flatter themfelves, as they 

 did, with the notion of the eternity of their power and empire. 

 Koma aeterna we read upon many medals, and in many infcrip- 

 tions ; and Virgil has ufed the ftanding of the Roman empire, and 

 the government of the Houfe of -£neas, as a comparifon for a thing 

 that never was to end : 



Dum Domus JEneae Capitoli immobile Jaxum 

 Accokt^ imperiiimque pater Ro??:anus habebit f. 



And Horace, to the fame purpofe, prophelying the immortality of 

 his own works, fays, 



— Ufque ego poflera 



Crefcam laude recens^ dum Capitolium 

 Scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex t. 



Now, 



• The account of this noble inflitution T had from the bed authority, that of Dr 

 Guthrie, the chief phyfician of both acar^emies. I fiw him frequently when he was 

 in Edinburgh In fummer 1782, and found him to be a very fenfible and ingenious 

 man. 



t TEneid. ix. V. 448. 



X Book iii. Ode 30. 



