230 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IT. 



mong thofe cf the fame college, but among the different col- 

 leges, fuch as thofe of Thebes and of Heliopolis ; which laft, as 

 Herodotus tells us, had the reputation of being the moft learned. 

 Now, it is emulation that makes men ftrive to excel in th2 feveral 

 arts and profeffions; for it proceeds from a fenfe of hcnour, the great 

 animating principle of the political fyftem, and which gives life 

 and vigour to all the adions of men both in public and private 

 life ; and, if that principle be well direfted by the wifdom of the • 

 ftate, the government muft neceffarily be good and the people 

 happy. It is this principle which dirtinguifhes eiTentially, as I have 

 obferved*, a foldier from a flave, though he have no will of his own, 

 but be governed entirely by his officer. It was this principle that 

 made the king of Sparta and his 300 Spartiates, facrifice their lives 

 fo glorioufly for the liberties of Greece. It was the 



. Laudum irnmenfa cupido, 



as Virgil exprefles it, which made the Romans fo great a people 

 and fo magnanimous, that 70,000, of them lay upon the field of 

 battle of Cannae, without one man furrendering himfelf a prifonerf. 

 And, to defcend to common life, it is this principle which makes 

 what we call fajlnon among us, a law more prevalent than any law 

 human or divine, though the fandion of it be nothing elfe, but the 

 want of the praife which we fliould otherwife have had, if we had 

 complied with the fafhion. 



And this leads to an obfervation, which, I think, it is not impro- 

 per here to make : As there can be no fenfe of what is honourable 

 and praife-worthy, without a fenfe, at the fame time, of what is beau- 

 tiful, graceful, and becoinmg, in fentiments and aiftions, this fenfe 

 is, therefore, not only the foundation of virtue and of the fine arts, 

 but alfo of government j and, indeed, ic appears, that there can be 



nothing 

 • Page 209. of this volume. 



t See Vol. V. of Origin of Language p. 221. 



