220 A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S, Book II, 



well governed, as it is poffible that the mere people^ that is, men of Hs- 

 fiod's third clafs. can be governed. The manner in which this rank 

 of men was governed in Egypt? had this peculiar advantage, that 

 they were not taken from the bufinefs or trade, which was afligned 

 them, and to which they were educated, by any care for the public, 

 which made a great difference betwixt them and the people in the 

 cities in Greece and thofe in Rome, where the people muft have 

 been much interrupted in their private buGnefs, by attending public 

 affemblies, and difcharging other offices of (late : The confequence 

 of which was, as wc have feen in Athens, that the people could not 

 live by their private indudry, but were obliged to lay hold of the 

 public money ; and even with that, fome of them went about beg- 

 ging: And in Rome, the poor's roll, in the lime of Julius Caelar, 

 confifted, as I have fhown elfewhere*, of 320,000, v;ho lived by pub- 

 lic diftributions of corn. And, befides this, a low man, who is taken 

 from any fervile bufinefs, and admitted to a fliare of the government, 

 will be apt to defpife and negledt his proper bufinefs, and take himfelf 

 entirely, or much more than he ought to do, to the bufinefs of the flate, 

 in which he will endeavour to be a man of fome confideration, and to 

 indemnify himfelf, for the lofs he fuffers in his private bufinefs, by 

 making profit of the public ; and this necefTarily will produce fac- 

 tion and corruption. 



But though the people of Egypt had no fhare in the government, 

 I think I have fhown very clearly that they were not governed like 

 flaves : And, I fay, farther, that even in private families, men 

 were not governed in that way : Nor was there a clafs of men a- 

 mong the Egyptians, that was known by the name of flaves. Thefe 

 were fo numerous among the Greeks and Romans, that in fome 

 cities they equalled, if not exceeded, the number of freemen. But 

 that there was no fuch order of men in Egypt, I think, we may be 

 fure from the very particular account of that country, given us by 



Herodotus 



• Origin of Language, vol. 5. p. 189. 



