j36 a N T I E N T M E T a FH Y S IC S. Book H.. 



in floth and indolence, without thefe manly exercifes, of emulaticn 

 and contention, pradifed by the Greeks, which, as Arlftotle has 

 obferved, give vigour to the mind as well as ftrength to the body. 

 It was fuch an education under the difcipline of Lycurgus, which 

 preferved fo long that heroic race of Kings in Sparta, the lad of 

 whom died glorioufly in battle, as Diodorus Siculus informs us. 



The form of government of Rome, under the Kings, was the 

 fame, or nearly the fame, as the heroic goveinment: for it was a 

 government by a King and a Senate, or fiovXx yioovrm, with the con- 

 currence and approbation of the people, afTembled, and perfuaded of 

 the juflice and expediency of the mcafure by the fpeeches of the leaJ- 

 Hig men : And 1 hold, that the government under one King was 

 much better than the government under two Confuls : For, hov/- 

 cver government may be divided in the ordinary management af 

 affairs, and in times of peace and tranquillity, in all extraordinary 

 emergencies, when thefafecy of the ftate is in danger, recourfe muft 

 be had to the government of one man ; which undoubtedly is the 

 beft of all governments, when that man is what he ought to be. 

 And accordingly the Roman commonwealth was not nine years old,, 

 before they were obliged to have recourfe to a Didator *, 



The heroic government, with all the advantages it had, was liable 

 to one defedt, in common with all government in which the people 

 have any (hare. And that was fadion and oppofiiion to the govern- 

 ment of the bed men. This evil is very little felt while the people 

 continue virtuous. But, when they become deg,enerate and corrupt, 

 it produces a great deal of mlfchief. Even as early as the time of 

 the Trojan war, while the Greeks were yet a virtuous people, there 

 was a Demagogue among them, called Therfites, whofe delight it 

 was to rail at tlie ruling men, fuch as Agamemnon and Ulyffes, 

 from envy no doubt of their lupeiior merit, and becaufe he thought, 



and 



• Eutrop. Lib. i-. Cap. l%. 



