ii6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



virtues. But as the fubjed of this exercife, of the intelledual facul- 

 ty, is the things of this world, which are tranfitory and contingent, 

 not things eternal and of neceflary exiftence, it is not fuch an oper- 

 ation of our intelligence, as can give that greateft happinefs in this 

 life, of which I am fpeaking. For as it is the contemplation of the 

 greateft beauty, that muft give the greateft pleafure to our intelli- 

 gence, it muft be the contemplation of the things of God and Na- 

 ture, not of the tranfitory things of this world. 



The pradice of the ethical virtues give no doubt very great plea- 

 fure. But for the pradice of them many things are neceflary, v\hich 

 the contemplative life does not require. In the firft place, there 

 fliould be a well conftituted polity: For, in a diforderly ftate, the ex- 

 ercife of private, any more than of public, virtues, cannot be fuch 

 as it ought to be ; and we muft have money and friends in order 

 to enable us to be generous and beneficent. In fhort, the pradice 

 of thefe virtues muft be, as Ariftotle has told us, in a life which he 

 calls perfedl *. Whereas the philofopher, fuch as I am defcribing, 

 ■ lives within himfelf, and if he has only fortune enough to fupply 

 the neceffaries of life, he ftands in need of nothing external to make 

 him happy. And it is in this way that his happinefs deferves the 

 name which Ariftotle gives it, of divine ; for the happinefs of the 

 Deity is entirely, as Ariftotle has told us, within himfelf; and even 

 the Epicureans faid of the divine nature, that it was 



Ipfa fuis pollens opibus, nihil indiga noftri. 



Such a philofopher, therefore, may be faid to live in the other world, 

 even while in this life ; and it was fuch a life that the Alexandrian 

 philoibphers led, particularly Plotinus, of whom I have- fpoken elfe- 



where +• 



There 



* He fays it fliould be irg«§(« «{6ths «w ^it^ rtMia. 

 ■f Vol. 4. of this work, p. 393. 



