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ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book L 



fcholar, to ftudy the way of living of the antient clvilifed nations, 

 that were famous for arts and fciences. By that ftudy, without be- 

 ing a philofopher, or able to diftingulfh accurately betwixt the na- 

 tural .and civilifed life, and to know that the natural is much more 

 conducive to health than the civiliied, he will learn, by example, a 

 manner of living much better than any that is pradifed at prefent in 

 Britain or in Europe; for there is no modern nation, at prefent in 

 Europe, that I know, whofe manner of Uving I could recommend. 

 But it is the great advantage of claffical learning to carry us back to 

 antient times, and to make us live, as it were, in the antient world; 

 where, among other arts and fciences that are to be learned, the 

 moft ufeful art of any is to be learned, I mean the art of living, and of 

 enjoying all the advantages, and all the pleafures, of the civilifed and 

 domefticated life, with many fewer difeafes and pains than thofe to 

 which our civilifed life is Uable. And I will mention three nations, 

 from whom I think a great deal of the art of living is to be learned; 

 the Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman. Of the way of living of thefe 

 three nations, I have faid a good deal already, but I will hear men- 

 tion fomething more particular with regard to each of them. 



The Egyptians, as they were the moft antient nation in the world, 

 and therefore nearer the Gods than we, (to ufe an exprefTion of 

 Plato), fo they were the wife ft nation in the world. They were go- 

 verned by religion and philofophy; and therefore their nation, and 

 their families, lafted longer than any other. As to their nation, 

 though they do not appear to have multiplied in later times fo much 

 as in older, when they fent colonies all over the world then known*, 

 they do not appear ever to have been in any immediate hazard of 

 dying out, as we fee the modern nations are, and therefore the 

 death they died was a violent one, fuch as any nation in the courfe 

 of human affairs may die, I mean by conqueft ; and as to their fa- 



milieSj 



* Vol. 4- p. 235. 



