Chap. XVII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 241 



have elfevvhere obferved, (Vol. V. p. 30. and 31.) that they ex- 

 celled not only in government, in the early ages of their ftate, and 

 in arms, but in agriculture, by which they were diftinguiflicd from 

 all thofe famous ftates of Greece, of which we hear fo much : And 

 there is a famous faying recorded of one of their great men, old 

 Cato the Cenfor, " that agriculture was the next thing to philqfo- 

 " phy *." I would therefore earneftly recommend it to every gcn- 

 VoL. VI. H h ' tleman, 



* Cato's words were, ^griatltura fjl proxlma fap'ieiit'iae : Bj /ap!e;iti,i here Vfc zrc 

 not to underfland what is commonly called nvi/i/om, but philofopky, which is no doubt 

 very much connected wiih luifJom ; and it fignifics what is expreiled by the Greek 

 word iropi«, which was the name for philofo|)hy, before Pythagoras gave it the modeft 

 name of ?i(><>!ro(p<«. In this fenfe Horace ufes the ytord /apere, where he fays, 



Scribendi recle fatere efl et principium et fons ; 



De Arte Poet. v. 309. 



Where by foptre we are not to undtriland having fenfe, or being a fenfiHe man, iir 

 which fignification I believe it is underftood by moft of the readers of Horace, but to te 

 learned m pbilofophy ,- which is evident from the following line. 



Rem tibi Socraiicae poterunt oftendere chartae. 



And indeed pbilofophy contains the principles not only of good writing, but of all 

 arts and fciences, even of the firft art we are taught, Grammar : For I deny that a 

 man can be a compleat grammarian without being a philofopher. Horace ufes the 

 word in the fame icnfc in another paflage, where he fays, 



Nimirum _/2;/)('/v eft abjefkis utile nugis. Lib. II. Epift. II. v. 141. 

 Alfo 



; ■ ■ Sapient'ia prima 



Stultltia caruifle Lib. I. Epift. I. v. 41. 



And in the beginning of the Poem called Ciris, afcribed to Virgil, we have both 

 fophia and fap'unUa ufed for pbilofophy. 



It is fingular in the hiftory of this old Cato, that in his younger days he was a great 

 enemy to the Greek learning and pbilofophy, which, he faid, if they fliould introduce 



into 



