Chap. XI. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 231 



nothing valuable among men without it ; nor is there any fenti- 

 ment fo univcrfal among men. We iiave vet dlfcovered no nation 

 lo barbarous, that has not lome idea of beauty, at leaft in outward 

 form, and particularly in their own drefs, \t they have any. And 

 even a (enfe of the beauty of fentiment and charader, we find in 

 people very little advanced in civility and the common arts of life, 

 fuch as the New Zealanders and the people of the Pelevs' Iflands, 

 of both of whom I have fpoken elfewhere*; and in whatever we 

 purfue, we think we perceive fomething fine and praife-worthy. 

 The love of money is one of our moft fordid paffions; yet the mifer 

 is vain of his money. Now, there cannot be vanity, as I have elfe- 

 where fhownf, without afenfe of the graceful and becoming; and fuch 

 monfters of gluttony, luxury, and intemperance of every kind, as 

 Vitellius and Heliogabalus, thought, no doubt, that their manner of 

 living was becoming and fuitable to the dignity of a Roman em- 

 peror. In fhort, it appears to me, that thofe, who deny that any 

 fuch fenfe is natural to man, are entirely ignorant of human nature, 

 not knowing that it is the principle the moft prevalent in it ; and if 

 it be perverted, it is the caufe of almoft all our vices and follies, and is 

 the greateft depravity of human nature, but, if rightly direded, it 

 makes the greateft perfedion of our nature, and is the only fource 

 of happinefs to the intelledual nature, even to the divine : For God 

 had pleafure in the produdion of the univerfe, becaufe he faw that 

 it was beautijul ; for fo the Hebrew word is tranflated in the Sep- 

 tuagint. 



As the profpeiity of the nation is the end propofed, or that fliould 

 be propoled by government, let us confider in this view the Egyp- 

 tian government. The profperity of every nation muft depend up- 

 on three things ; the health, the moralsj and the numbers, of the 



people.. 



* Page 55. of this volume. 



t Volume II.. of this work p. 128*. 



