3S ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



wanted among the indolent and luxurious of Britain, than what Tre- 



batius gives to Horace ; 



tcr un£li 



Tranfnanto Tibcrim, fomno quibus eft opus alto*: 



The reft of the receipt, I believe, I need not prefcribe to them ; 

 Irrjguumque mero fub no<Stem corpus habento f . 



But what I would chiefly recommend to the people of Britain, is 

 the antient manner of living of the Romans, before they were cor- 

 rupted by wealth and had become mafters of the world, not more 

 by right of conqueft than by fuperiority of virtue. A citizen of 

 Rome, in the firft ages of their ftate, lived upon an acre or two 

 of land, which he himfelf cultivated, with the afliftance of his 

 wife and children, or of a flave, if he had one ; and, in later 

 times, the better kind of citizens, who were called the riijlic tribes^ 

 lived in the country, and came to town only on market days, or 

 upon fome public bufmefs. Thole who lived conftantly in town, 

 were the Sellularia turha^ as Livy calls them, and were all artificers 

 of one kind or another, of little eftimation in peace or war ; 



as Homer expreflfes it. 



To this life of the antient Roman citizens the life of the Spartans 

 was, in fome refpeds, a perfect contraft. A Spartan was wholly 

 employed in arms and government, having all the necefTaries of life, 

 and even the luxuries, fuch as flefh and wine, fupplied to him by the 

 labour of others. In fhort, the Spartans were all what we call gentle- 

 men, living without any application to the ordinary bufmefs of life; 

 and were, in that refpedt, the moft fmgular people of whom we read 

 in hiftory. To make fuch people brave and virtuous, required no- 

 thing 



• Hor. Lib. 2. Sat. i. f Ibidem. 



