ORIGIN OP MONACHISM* 165 



attention. The wife man abides and converfes with his 

 fellow- citizens, according to the body alone, his mind 

 is always hovering around, neither defcending below 

 the earth, nor foaring aloft to the Ikies, for prying into 

 the nature of each particular being. But, is he fum- 

 moned to anfwer at the bar of juftice, or to difcourfe 

 to the people, it cafes him into the greatefl perplexity, 

 and he is juft like Thales, who, on falling into the 

 ditch, became an object of derifion to the loweft of 

 the populace ; as he abfolutely knows nothing of what 

 belongs to common life, or lies before the feet of ordi- 

 nary men. He contemns elevation of rank, immenfe 

 pofTeffions extending through various countries, nobi- 

 lity and antiquity of defcent, enormous treafures accu- 

 mulated from remote anceftors, as the toys of children, 

 of which no heaven- born fpirit can ever be proud. 

 Laftly, he ridicules all arts and fciences as idle tales, 

 excepting fuch as inftru6l him, how he may efcape as 

 quickly as poffible out of this tranlitory earthly impure 

 abode into a better world where there is no change, no 

 afcent, and confequently no declenfion. 



Charmed by this enthufiartic pomp of words, the 

 Egyptian afcetics were not fatisfied with refembling the 

 primitive chriltians of Jerufalem, the moft faithful 

 imitators of the man of Nazareth. Such chriftianity 

 was too low for them. The platonifts who lived at the 

 end of the fecond, and much more thofe of the third 

 century, delivered thofe principles of Plato, and were 

 thus not only ufelefs members of civil fociety, but 

 even traitors to it, inafmuch as they robbed it of 

 young and hopeful perfons. They made choice of a 

 doctrine, whereby they who might have been the 



m 3 teachers, 



