Chap. IL ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 63 



and Religious, — In Rome^ no Salary or Perguifites annexed to the 

 highejl Offices. — Arifiotle in his Polity Jays^ that there is great dan- 

 ger from making offices lucrative. — The reajon plain, — Avarice 

 will excite Men to contend and Jlrive for them — Hence ^ Fafiion^ 

 Sedition.^ and fomeiimes Civil War. — Of the influence of Wealth in Go- 

 vernment ;— it zvas the ruin of the Heroic Gov^erimientsofGreece^-^and 

 of every Goveriiment defroyed by internal diforders. — The Antient 

 Greeks lived upon the natural fruits of the Earthy partieuhrly the 

 Mallows d//^ ^^fphodei. — -Lycurgus^ ivifaom in forbidding the ufc 

 of Gold and Silver coin in Sparta^ and only permitting Iron valued 

 by ^weight, — After all^ however^ Wealthy as the Oracle predicted^ 

 ruined Sparta.— In Rome a di/lindtion of Poor and Rich, — -Ihis dif- 

 tintlion the /ource of the ruin of every State from the time that the 

 Poor get a floare of the Government.- — P; 'f of the Government of 

 Antient Egypt, — // guarded againfl this a ;. ; and accordingly lafl- 

 ed much longer than any other Goverfimcjit we read of and at loft 

 fell by external violence, — The conqucft. of Egyot by the Perfians^ 

 a people -.^uch nearer to the Natural State ^ and therefore poJT^/Ted of 

 more Natural Stre?igth, — The fate of all Civil fed Nations ^ to be con^ 

 qucred by Nations nearer to the Natural State, 



EALTH cannot be acquired to any great degree In Europe 

 at prefenr, except by trade and manufaO:ures. As to trade, 

 it is become, in modern times, wonderfully extenfive. Britain car- 

 ries on a trade net only with fhe nations of Europe, but with the 

 Eaft and Weft Indies, and with a country as remote as China, a 

 country as much unknown to the antients, as what we call the New 

 AVorld, that is the Weft Indies and America^ In ftiort, our trade 

 may be faid to extend all over the globe. The navigation to (o ma- 

 ny countries, whofe climates are lo different from ours, muft be at- 

 tended with great lofs of men, not only by fuch long voyages, but 

 I'V difeafes, which wj are liable to in countries and climates fo dif- 

 ferent 



