Chap. III. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 



73 



the indolence, vanity, and luxury of the other clafs. Of the firft clafs 

 are the men who, by their birth and education, fhould be the lirll 

 men of the nation. But men living in that v^^ay never can be virtu- 

 ous, or excel in any art or feience; nor can they be happy: And this 

 I take to be the true reafon of the degeneracy we obferve in our 

 noble families. The confequence of fuch a life is to make their 

 lives fhort and difeafed, and what 1 think worfe, their deaths long 

 and painful*. As to the poi>r, the ufe of wealth in a nation is to 

 make them ftill poorer. This may to many appear incredible j but 

 it is proved, both by the reafon of the thing, and by fad! and expe- 

 rience. For much money in a country raifes the price of every thino-, 

 even of the neceffciries of life ; but with thefe the poor not con- 

 tented, imitate the luxury and vanity of the great and rich. Of 

 this the liquor, we call iea^ is a notable example., It is brought from 

 the extremities of the eaft and weft, from countries altogether un- 

 known to the antients. In the days of Dean Swift, the fine ladies 

 only drank it to breakfaft \ which makes the Dean fay, that their 



luxury 



* How different is their death from the death of the inhabitants of the ifland of 8-- 



ria, (mentioned by iumaeus, in the 15th Ociyf. verfe 402. and following,) who were 



afflided with no long or painful difeafes, but, when they grew old, were killed by the 



gentle darts of Apollo and Diana. 



Nafc«-»5 iTTi a-ruyi^y) TttXiTxi ^I.A«/j-/ jifartur.i' 



AAA "«T£ yr,fot7KM7t tsoXiI kuIx <Pi/X' xvO^-v/tuv^ 



"E'A^uv A^yv^oro^oi A^»AA<yv, AgTEjt«<^» |f», 



'0<{ etyarcois fi:MiTa-n t7soi)(^oa:V»i KxTiTntmty. V. 4O6. ScC. 



Where the reader will obferve, how properly thefe people were faid to be killed by the 

 gentle darts of Apollo and D'ana, the men by Apollo, and the wo.-nen by D;ana, as is 

 explained in fome other paflages of Homer.— -The confequence of the way of livin • of 

 the great and rich people at prefent is, that their families die out and aPc extinruiQied 

 In not many years; or, If the race does not fail intirely but only the m ile line, the 

 eftates go to daugiiters. How different muft the life have been of the two kings of 

 Sparta, the race of both of whom lifted 700 years in the male line, that is as lon<^ as 

 their fhate lafted, as Livy informs us ! 



Vol. v. K 



