Chap. III. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. io£ 



When joined to all thefe many advantages, a^tient learnhig, as I 

 have fald, enables us to employ our leifure hi the moll: elegant and 

 profitable way, it may be reckoned, upon the whole, the fineft thing 

 we enjoy in modern times. The reader, therefore, I hope, will not 

 think that I have fiiid too much upon the fubjed of the reiloration 

 of it, which I confider not only as the reftoration of learning, but 

 of mail to the happinefs he enjoyed in the beft ages of Greece and 

 Rome, by the cultiviition of his mind^ 



In order to be a fcholar and philofopher, and to enjoy the com- 

 fort of fpending our leifure properly, we muft be well educated. For 

 nothing is more certain than what Ariftotle has told us, that the 

 great advantage of a good education is, to enable us to enjoy leifure. 

 When antient learning Vv^as revived, by that good providence I have 

 mentioned, fchools and colleges were ereded, in different parts of 

 Europe, for teaching the antient learning. And I approve very 

 much of fuch public teaching: For a boy cannot be fuppofed to fludy 

 for the love of knowledge; but emulation, and a defire of exceiling 

 his fellow ftudents, muft be his motive. A man thus educated, if 

 he have any genius, will enjoy that Ot'ium^ which, Horace fays, is 



neque purpura ve- 



nale nee auro * ; 



^nd fuch as Martiall prays for, where he fays, 



Otia da nobis, fed qualia fecerat olim 

 Mfecenas Flacco Virgilioque fuo f . 



CHAP. 



* Ode 1 5. Lib. 2. f Lib. i. Eplg. ro?. 



