Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. ^^ 



I think there may be worle reafons,) than that they have nothing ta 

 do in it. 



If a man have a competent fortune, fu h as will furnifn him alt 

 the neceiTaiies and conveniences of life, and if, at the lame time, he 

 follow no bufmefs or profeflion, his whole I'fcw'ill be leilure, 

 which he will enjoy more perfectly than the G) ri-ioiophifts of In- 

 dia, though they did vv-hat no other men ever did, tor they joined 

 together tiie natural and philolophical life, living altogether the life 

 <i)f nature, in the heiJs aad woods, without cloaths or houfes, and 

 upon tiiC natural iruits of the earth, without any thing tna' art pro- 

 duces from it; but they had their food to feek, which, in iome 

 places, and fome feaions of tiie year, might not be eafily found. 



But the more leifure fuch a man has, the more occupation iie 

 mufl: ha\^ to fill it up, orherwife he is the more miferable. Occu- 

 pation is either of body or mind. Occupation of the body, in fome 

 degree, is ab;oiutely neceflary for health and good fpirits : and, ac- 

 cordingly, our iirfi: parents, even in their happy ftate, were employ- 

 ed in ailing and dreffing their garden; and even at this day, I do not 

 know that there is arvy more he dthy occupation. Epicurus thought 

 that it was fuch ; and accordingly it was in that way he employed 

 his body; and. I think, a man may employ fome of Ids lcilut:e hours 

 very agreeably m thai way. But, I think, fanning is ftill a better 

 way of employing leifure, efpecially if he farms as Horace did, wdio,. 

 when he went to his farm, was in ufe 



, ftipare Platona Menandro, 



EupoUn ArchiloLiio ; comites eductre tantos *. 



And yet, notwithftanding, all the good company he carried wdth 

 him, he wi ought with his own hands at the bufmefs of the farm, 



and, 



* Ibid. Lib. 2. Sat. 3. 



