Chap. XVII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 221 



fure^ which is annexed to thofe operations, for the C7id intended bv 

 them, and to mind nothing eUe but the pleafure attending tlicm : 

 And we Ihould further know, that the pleafure, indulged in this un- 

 natural way, muft draw to very bad confequences with refpedl to 

 health ; and that even the pleafure itfelf, indulged to fuch t.s.i,efs, 

 is lefs than if it were enjoyed with moderation and in a natural way. 



The improvement of our intelledt, by the cultivation of arts and 

 fcienccs, will alfo enable us to corredt thofc errors which we are led 

 into by miftaken notions of the beautiful^ and which are of much 

 greater confequence than the other fource c! mifery in human life, 

 that I have mentioned, I mean the indulgence of fenfual pleafure : 

 For as the fenfe of the Beautiful is elfential to intelled, every man 

 muft have it in a greater or lefs degree : And if it be a wrong fenfe, 

 it muft produce the greateft mlfchlef ; for it is then the fource of ftrife 

 and contention, and of the greateft diforders both in government and 

 in private life, and particularly of ambition, which, as I have Ihown, 

 has been the caufe of fuch deftruction of men and fo much defolation 

 of the earth. It is alfo the fource of one evil among men, which, 

 as that wife Scythian, I have mentioned *, Anacharfis, obferved, was 

 peculiar to men, and very fingular : For, fays he, other animals are 

 only afF.idcd by the evils which they fuffer themielves, but man is 

 afflifted by the good which other men enjoy ; that is, he is 

 afflicted by the pafTion of envy, which, as Horace tells us, is fo 

 great a pain, that 



Invidia Siculi non invenere tyranni 

 Tormentum majus. 



Our intelligence, if it be fuch as it ought to be, will let us know 

 that Beauty conhfts in fuch an order and arrangement of things, as 



makes 



'■ P. 211. See, concerning Anacharfiy, iEliani Varia Hiftona^ Lib. 7. Cap. 6. 



