Chap. XVII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 219 



CHAP. XVII. 



Civil Society^ notivithjlanding the evils attending it, ahfoliilely nec'ef- 

 fary for the improvement of our IntellcH. — Thofe evils, however, 

 may be remedied, by the Study of Arts, Sciences, and Philofophy. — 

 Our indulgence in Senfual Pleafure thereby moderated; and our 

 wrong fenfe of the Beautiful corre6led. — The htellcBual Mind 

 Jljould govern in our Little World, in the fame way that Supreme 

 Intelligence governs in the Univerfe : — Evil Confequenccs of this 

 tiot being the cafe both in Public and Private Life. — Great Advan- 

 tage of the Improvement of our IntellcEl. — Mofl of that improve- 

 ment we owe to the Egyptians : — They Invented Language, Agri- 

 culture, Metallurgy, Statuary, ArchiteHure, and Muftc ; and Pro- 

 pagated thefe Arts, by means of their Colonies, over a great part 

 of the World. — The Miferies of Ennui, which prevails both 

 among Civilized Men and Savages, to be prevented by the Study 

 of Arts and Sciences. 



IN the preceding chapter I have been pretty full upon the vices and 

 follies to which men are liable in civil fociety : But I think I 

 have fhown, that if civil fociety produced more vices and follies, it 

 was of abfolute neceflity, in order to make man an intelligent ani- 

 mal, and not merely a better kind of brute, with the capacity only of 

 intelligence. And not only does he acquire intelligence in civil focie- 

 ty, but he improves it very much by the conftant ufe of it; fo conftant 

 that he never chufes to do, or not do, any thing, without forming aa 

 opinion concerning it, which cannot be without the exercii; of intelli- 

 gence. But if thus, in the common affairs of life, we improve our 

 intelligence by the conftant ufe of it, much more do we cultivate 

 and improve it by the invention and pradice of arts, and by the ftudy 

 of fciences. In this chapter I am to iliow, that though civil fociety 

 produces a great many evils, it alfo furnifhes preventivco or remedies 



E e 2 for 



