3^4 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



crowds, rather to enjoy the pleasures which thej 

 tasted in the city, than to sacrifice to the divinity. 

 The surrounding country was decked in all the 

 richness of nature, while that ofluxury, scattered 

 with profusion, shone in the city. The attractions 

 of its situation, the beauty of the climate, the ease 

 which reigned there, the delicacies of good cheer, 

 the pleasures of every species which appeared to 

 have adopted this as their most favourite abode, 

 every thing united to render this spot enchanting, 

 and to form of its population an assemblage of 

 happy men *. But dissoluteness of manners soon 

 arrived there at its highest pitch ; licentiousness 

 raged without control ; the pleasing illusions, 

 the amiable condescension of women, which has 

 no value but in as much as it is inspired by tender- 

 ness, degenerated into effrontery -f ; in a word-* 

 the sage durst no longer land on this shore J. 



The excesses of luxury, and the general depra- 

 vity of manners, are the certain forerunners of 

 the approaching fall of states^ and of the degrada- 

 tion of nations. Canopus has vanished : the de- 



* . . . . Pelceigensfortunata Canopi. Virg. Georg. lib. 4. 



f Every day and every night, according to Strabo, the canal 

 ttas covered With vessels filled with men and women, who- 

 danced and sung with the utmost wantonness. 



$ When the sage wishes to retire, he will never choose Cano- 

 pus for the place of his retreat. Seneca, epistle 51. 



scendants. 



