Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 43 



dern learning only, or without any learning at all, by the fuperiori- 

 ty of our genius and natural parts — I leave to others to inquire. But 

 this I aver, with fome confidence, that whatever improvements we 

 have made, or may make, upon our minds, our bodies muft be de- 

 flroyed, if we do not adopt thofe arts by which the Romans preferv- 

 ed theirs amidft the greateft luxury and corruption of manners ; 

 and which arts, the additional vices and difeafes we have acquired, 

 in modern times, make more neceffary to us than they were to them. 

 Befides the other things belonging to antient life which I have men- 

 tioned, we ought, by their example, to reform our moft unnatural 

 way of living, as to our hours of eating, drinking, and fleeping, and 

 fhould make an early fupper our principal meal; fo that going to 

 bed in good time, we might get up early, as the Romans did to their 

 antelucana officia. 



Thus I have compared the antient manner of living, or the euro.- 

 corporis^ as they called it, with the modern. Whether I be right in 

 giving the preference to the antient, is not for me to determine. 

 But this much, I think, I may with confidence affirm, that it is a 

 matter which deferves confideration, and that, particularly, it ought 

 to be confidered by the phyficians, whofe profefficn it is to under- 

 ftand the fyftem and occonemy of the human body: And, further, 

 I fay, that it ought to be the public care, as much as the health, the 

 morals, and the numbers of the people, the three great articles of the 

 political fyfiiem^'', with all which it is intimately conne£led. If it be 

 confidered in this light, it will not be at all difficult for the men in 

 power to bring the antient manner of living into fafhion ; and how 

 much men are governed by fiifliion is well known. It is a law by 

 which men are governed, more than by any other lav/, divine or hu- 

 man. Nor does fafhion prevail among the better fort only, but even 

 among the lower; and I have no doubt but the authority and coun- 

 tenance of the great, vvdthout the compulfion of laws, would intro- 



F 2 duce 



* See vol. 4. of this work, p. 231. — 282. 



