predicted the fame fate to attraction, whereof the prefent learned are fuch zealous affertors. He faid, that new fyftems of nature were but new fashions, which would vary one of his warmest advocates is of this last opinion, where he fays, On ne fcauroit pas dire affez de bien de l'honneteté de fes moeurs, ni affez de mal de fes opinions fur la religion. His gene. ral maxim, that happiness consisted in pleasure, was too much unguarded, and muft lay a foundation of a most destructive practice: although from his temper and conftitution, he made his actions fufficiently pleafurable to himself, and agreeable to the rules of true philofophy. His fortune exempted him from care and folicitude; his valetudinarian habit of body, from intemperance. He paffed the greatest part of his time in his garden, where he enjoyed all the elegant amufements of life. There he ftudied; there he taught his philofophy. This particular happy fituation greatly contributed to that tranquillity of mind, and indolence of body, which he made his chief ends. not however refolution fufficient to meet the gradual approaches of death, and wanted that confancy which Sir William Temple afcribes to him: for, in his last moments, when he found that his condition was defperate, he took fuch large draughts of wine, that he was abfolutely intoxicated, and deprived of his fenfes; fo that he died more like a Bacchanal, than a philofopher; to which the epigram alludes, Hinc ftygias ebrius haufit aquas. He had I should not have ventured into this criticism and cenfure upon these ancient philofophers, if my opinion was not in a great measure fupported by Lord Bacon, who, as he was certainly the most accurate judge of this fubject, might be perhaps, from that pre-eminence, too fevere a critic. It must be owned, that Epicurus in particular has many followers and admirers among the ancients, and among the moderns. Cicero commends him for cultivating his friendships in the most exquifite manner. The book lies open before me, and I will tranfcribe the words. De qua [amicitia] Epicurus quidem ita dicit, omnium rerum quas ad beate vivendum fapientia comparaverit, nihil effe majus amicitia, mihil uberius, nihil jucundius; neque vero hoc oratione folum, fed multo magis vita, et factis, et moribus, comprobavit. Diogenes Laertius praises his virtue and learning. In the Auguftan age the greateft names are inferted among his followers. Cæfar, Atticus, Mecanas, Lucretius, Virgil and Horace, embraced his philoLophy, vary in every age and even thofe, who pretend to de monftrate them from mathematical principles, would flourish but a fhort period of time, and be out of vogue when that was determined. I spent five days in converfing with many others of the fophy, and gave a luftre to his set and doctrines. Sir William fect; who mistook his favourite principle," [THAT ALL HAPPINESS CONSISTED IN PLEASURE], “ by confining it "to fenfual pleasure only. To these succeeded the Chriftians, "who esteemed his principles of natural philosophy more op. "pofite to thofe of our religion, than either the Platonists, the "Peripatetics, or even the Stoics themselves." This is the opinion, and these are almost the exact words of the great Sir William Temple. Swift equally explodes Epicurus, and the more modern philcLophers Defcartes and Gaffendi, Defcartes was a knight-errant in philofophy, perpetually miftaking windmills for giants; yet by the strength of a warm imagination, he started some opinions, which probably put Sir Ifaac Newton and others on making many experiments that produced most useful difcoveries. Gaffendi was esteemed one of the greatest ornaments of France. He was a doctor of divinity, and royal profeffor of mathematics. He was born in Provence in 1592, and died in 1655. With great induftry he collected whatever related to the perfon and to the philofophy of Epicurus; the latter of which he has reduced into a complete system. Hawkes. I have now curforily gone through the characters of fuch ghosts, as are nominally specified by Gulliver. I may be wrong either in my account or in my obfervations: and I fhall rejoice to be confuted by you in any point of learning whatever. Orrery. Part III. ancient learned. I faw most of the first Roman emperors. I prevailed on the governor to call up Eliogabalus's cooks to drefs us a dinner, but they could not fhew us much of their skill for want of materials. helot of Agefilaus made us a difh of Spartan broth, but I was not able to get down a second spoonful. A The two gentlemen, who conducted me to the ifland, were preffed by their private affairs to return in three days, which I employed in feeing fome of the modern dead, who had made the greatest figure for two or three hundred years paft in our own and other countries of Europe; and having been always a great admirer of old illuftrious families, I defired the governor would call up a dozen or two of kings, with their ancestors in order for eight or nine generations. But my disappointment was grievous and unexpected. For, inftead of a long train with royal diadems, I faw in one family two fidlers, three fpruce courtiers, and an Italian prelate. In another, a barber, an abbot, and two cardinals. I have too great a veneration for crowned heads to dwell any longer on fo nice a fubject. But as to counts, marqueffes, dukes, earls, and the like, I was not fo fcrupulous. And, I confefs, it was not without fome pleasure, that I found myself able to trace the particular features, by which certain families are diftinguished up to their originals. I could plainly difcover from whence one family derives a long chin, why a fecond hath abounded with knaves for two generations, and fools for two more; why a third happened to be crack-brained, and a fourth to be fharpers; whence it came, what Polydore Virgil fays of a certain great houfe, Nec vir fortis, nec fœmina cafta; how cruelty, falfhood, and cowardice grew to be characteriftics, by which certain families are diftinguished as much as by their coats of arms; who first brought the pox into a noble houfe, which hath lineally defcended in fcrophulous tumours to their pofterity. Neither could I wonder at all this, when I faw fuch an interruption of lineages by pages, lacqueys, valets, coachmen, gamesters, fidlers, players, captains, and pick-pockets. I was chiefly difgufted with modern hiftory. For having ftrictly examined all the perfons of greatest name in the courts of princes for an hundred years paft, I found how how the world had been misled by prostitute writers to afcribe the greatest exploits in war to cowards, the wifest counfel to fools, fincerity to flatterers, Roman virtue to betrayers of their country, piety to atheifts, chastity to fodomites, truth to informers: how many innocent and excellent perfons had been condemned to death or banishment by the practising of great minifters upon the corruption of judges, and the malice of factions: how many villains had been exalted to the highest places of truft, power, dignity, and profit: how great a fhare in the motions and events of courts, councils, and fenates, might be challenged by bawds, whores, pimps, parafites, and buffoons: how low an opinion I had of human wifdom and integrity, when I was truly informed of the fprings and motives of great enterprizes and revolutions in the world, and of the contemptible accidents to which they owed their fuccefs. Here I difcovered the roguery and ignorance of thofe, who pretend to write anecdotes, or fecret hiftory; who fend fo many kings to their graves with a cup of poifon; will repeat the difcourfe between a prince and chief minister, where no witness was by; unlock the thoughts and cabinets of ambassadors and secretaries of state; and have the perpetual misfortune to be mistaken. Here I difcovered the true caufes of many great events that have furprifed the world; how a whore can govern the back-stairs,» the back-ftairs a council, and the council a fenate. A general confeffed in my prefence, that he got a victory purely by the force of cowardice and ill conduct and an admiral,that for want of proper intelligence he beat the enemy, to whom he intended to betray the fleet. Three kings protefted to me, that in their whole reigns they never did once prefer any perfon of merit, unless by mistake, or treachery of fome minifter in whom they confided: neither would they do it if they were to live again; and they fhewed with great strength of reafon, that the royal throne could not be fupported without corruption, because that pofitive, confident, reftive temper, which virtue infufed into a man, was a perpetual clog to public bufinefs. I had the curiofity to enquire in a particular manner, by what method great numbers had procured to them-felves high titles of honour and prodigious eftates; and I confined my enquiry to a very modern period, however without grating upon prefent times, because I would be fure to give no offence even to foreigners; for I hope the reader need not to be told, that I do not in the least intend my own country in what I fay upon this occafion. A great number of perfons concerned were called up, and upon a very flight examination difcovered such a scene of infamy, that I cannot reflect upon it without fome ferioufnefs. Perjury, oppreffion, fubornation, fraud, pandarifm, and the like infirmities, were amongft the most excufable arts they had to mention; and for thefe I gave, as it was reasonable, great allowance. But when fome confeffed they owed their greatne's and wealth to fodomy, or incelt; others to the prostituting of their own wives and daughters; others to the betraying their coun try or their prince; fome to poifoning, more to the perverting of juftice in order to destroy the innocent; I hope I may be pardoned, if thefe difcoveries inclined me a lit-le to abate of that profound veneration, which I am naturally apt to pay to perfons of high rank, who ought to be treated with the utmoft refpect due to their fublimedignity by us their inferiors. I had often read of fome great fervices done to princes and states, and defired to fee the perfons by whom those fervices were performed. Upon enquiry I was told, that their names were to be found on no record, except a few of them, whom hiftory hath reprefented as the vilest rogues and traitors. As to the reft, I had never once heard of them. They all appeared with dejected looks, and in the meanest habit, most of them telling me they died in poverty and difgrace, and the rest on a scaffold or a gibbet. Among others there was one perfon, whofe cafe appeared a little fingular. He had a youth about eighteen years old ftanding by his fide. He told me he had for many years been commander of a fhip; and in the feafight at Actium had the good fortune to break through. the enemy's great line of battle, fink three of their capi tal fhips, and take a fourth, which was the fole cause of Anthony's flight, and of the victory that enfued; that the youth ftanding by him, his only fon, was killed in the action. He added, that upon the confidence of fome |