Chap. XIV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 223 



fubje£l, but leave them to make the beft they can of the philolophy 

 of Mr Locke, Mr David Hume, or Dr Prielllcy. 



Among the Romans there were no fchools of philofophy fuch as 

 in Greece ; and all they could learn of philofophy was either from 

 Greeks, that they happened to fee in Rome or in their own coun- 

 try, or from books. As to thefe, I am perfuaded that there are 

 more books upon the fubjed of Greek philofophy to be found in 

 the libraries of Europe, than were to be found in the Palatine libra- 

 ry of Auguftus Csefar: And particularly there are the Commentaries 

 of the Alexandrian philofophers upon Ariftotle, without the ufe of 

 which 1 never fhould have underftood his philofophy, but which 

 were not written when philofophy v/as fludied by the Romans. I 

 therefore, hold, that a man who has ftudied the Greek philofophy 

 with the help of the books which we have upon it, may know much 

 more of it than is to be found in the writings of Cicero or Seneca 

 or any other Latin philofopher : And, in general, 1 confefs myfelf 

 no admirer of the Latin learning, any more than of their language 

 compared with the Greek *. Nor, indeed, do they appear to me to 

 have excelled in any arts except arms and government: And this 

 Virgil has acknowledged, where he allows, that the Romans were 

 excelled by other nations in the fine arts, fuch as fculpture and ora- 

 tory, and in fciences, fuch as aftronomyj and he concludes with 

 thefe lines, 



* Tu regere Imperlo populos, Romane, memento: 

 < (Hae tibi erunt artes) pacifquc imponere morem, 



* Parcere fubjeais et dcbellare fuperbos.' YEneid. 6. v. 8 c/. 



Even in hiftory they did not excel : And though they performed 

 the greatefl anions of any people that ever exifled, yet, by their 

 own hiftorians, we are not well informed of them. The original 



conlHtution 

 * See vol. 5. of Origin of Language, p. 34. 



