i2,i ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



I have, in the courfe of this work, obferved, that the love of mo- 

 ney is a very general and prevailing paflion in all civil focieties 

 where the ufe of it is known. With this paflion the tafte for Beau- 

 ty is very much connedled. For, in the firft place, men defire mo- 

 ney for the purpofe of gratifying their vanity, and acquiring things 

 which pleafe their tafte, and which they think fine ; fueh as fine 

 clothes, equipages, magnificent houfes, fine gardens and parks, or, if 

 their tafte be more refined, perhaps fine pictures and ftatues. In thofe 

 cafes it is the fenfe of the pulchrum that is gratified, not the love of 

 money. But, 2dly, fuppofe money is defired for its own fake, ftill 

 there is joined with it the notion that money is a fine thing, and 

 what gives rank and figuVe in the world: And this make the rich man 

 purle-proud, as it is commonly faid ; or, even if people fhould de- 

 fpife him, for being fo fond of money, he would fay, as the man of 

 Athens mentioned by Horace ; 



Populus me fibilat ; at mihi plaudo 



Ipfe domi, Cmul ac nummos contemplor in area. Lib. i. Sat 2, 



Now, he could not have applauded himfelf, if he had not thought 

 that there was fomething praife- worthy in the pofleflion of money *►. 



In Ihort, it w411 be found, upon accurate examination, that this 

 fenfe of the Beautiful, the Graceful, and Becoming, is the moft pre- 

 dominant 



* See alfo what Horace fays, in Book 2. Sat. 3. of Staberus, 



« Credo 



Hoc Staberi prudentem animum vidiffe — Quid ergo, 

 Senfit, cum fummam patrimoni infculpere faxo 

 Hxredes voluit? Quoad vixit, credidit ingens 

 Pauperiem vitium, et cavit nihil acriusj ut, fi 

 Forte minus locuples uno quadrante pehflet, 

 Ipfe videretur fibi nequior. 



