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in his Symd the moft nore eafy to friends; for emy, but of riftippus was th all perfons, orn pleasure if deafure was no a flave to his of him from his

inclination in the choice method of his ftudies, ranging freely and at large through the pleasant fields of polite literature; and being ravished with the sweet pursuit he prosecuted it with incredible diligence and affiduity.

It appeared from his loose papers, termed by him Adverfaria, that before he was eight years standing in the university he had read over and made Reflections on twenty-two thoufand and odd hundred books and manuscripts, a few of which we shall give below†

citizens of eminency have been wrote. "It is a pity, continues he," if none or few are found. Whether there is not a life wrote "of my grandfather La Motte: he was a merchant of note," With regard to his fortune, we are informed in the Account of his Life, that he enjoyed a pretty paternal eftate in Middlesex and elsewhere; and our Author himself occafionally mentions his eftates in Northampton and Leicestershire. The paffage is in his Animadverfions on Lord Molesworth's Account of Denmark, which because it will furnish no unfit specimen of the tafte and manner of that piece, we shall present our readers with it as follows. In answer to fome of his Lordship's remarks on the poor diet in Denmark he writes thus: "Their peasants "live as plentifully as in other countries; they have good "fleth and falt fith, white meats, roots, &c.; but what figni"fies all this (according to our Author, p. 11.) fince necessa

66

ry fresh fish is wanting? I could heartily condole their con"dition if my tenants in Northampton and Leicestershire "would not take exception; for if they found me once fo in"dulgent to the peasants of another nation, they would cer"tainly expect a double barrel of Colchester oyfters by the "next carrier; and without a cod's head, fmelts, or turbot, "I might even go to plough myself for Hodge and Sawney." † Diogenes Laertius, book 1. “Thales being afked how a

as a fpecimen, in order to let the reader into the humour and taste of our Author.

"man might most easily brook misfortunes? answered, "if he "faw his enemies in a worse condition." It is not agreed con "cerning the Wife Men, or whether indeed they were Seven. "Solon ordained that the guardians of orphans should not "cohabit with their mothers, and that no person should be a "guardian to those whose estate defcended upon them at the "orphan's decease; that no fealgraver fhould keep the feal "of a ring that was fold; that if any man put out the eye of "him who had but one he thould lose both his own; that "where a man never planted it thould be death to take "away; that it should be death for a man to be taken in "drink. Solon's letters, at the end of his life in Laertius, give "us a truer idea of the man than all he has written before, " and are indeed very fine. Solon's to Croefus are very gen"teel; and Pittacus's, on the other fide, as rude and philofo"phical however, both fhew Croefus to have been a very "great man.-Anacharfis has an epiftle to Croefus to thank "him for his invitation; and Periander one to all the Wife "Men to invite them to Corinth to him after their return from "Lydia.-Epimenides has an epiftle to Solon to invite him "to Crete under the tyranny of Pififtratus. Epimenides often "pretended that he rose from death to life.Socrates is faid "to have affifted Euripides in his tragedies. He was a great "champion of democracy, and extols pleasure as the beft "thing a man could enjoy, as Xenophon witnesses in his Sym"pofium.-Xenophon was modeft to excefs, and the moft "lovely perfon living.-Bion ufed to fay it was more eafy to "determine differences between enemies than friends; for "that of two friends one would become an enemy, but of "two enemies one would become a friend.-Aristippus was "a man of a foft temper, and could comply with all perfons, "places, and feafons. He could enjoy and fcorn pleasure if "too expensive to his way of living. He faid pleasure was no "crime, but it was a crime for a man to be a flave to his "pleasure. We can have no true character of him from his

He took his first degree in arts December 8th 1685, and thence proceeded regularly to that of Ma

"life in Laertius, for it is certain he was an exact courtier, and "the reft of the philofophers, the Grecians, were generally "averse to him because he could endure to live in the court "of Dionyfius, whereas they were all for a democracy, and "could not endure to fee a Greek complaisant to a monarch, "being a thing, as they thought, below the dignity of his "birth. Pleafure was the thing he fought after; and the He

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gefiacks, his followers, tell us there was nothing either plea"fant or unpleafant by nature; but that through fcarcity, "novelty, and fatiety, fome things were delightful, others "diftafteful; that wealth and poverty had no relation to plea"fure, for that the pleasures of the rich and the pleasures of "the poor were ftill the fame. They were of opinion that the "tranfgreffions of men were to be pardoned, for that no man "committed a voluntary fin but by the impulse of some na"tural paffion or other; that a man ought to propose to him66 felf, as his chicfeft end, to live a life freeft from trouble and "pain, which happens to them who are not over eager in the "chafe and purfuit of pleasure. See in the life of Ariftippus "the notion of the Cyreniacks about friendship, and how they "thow the pleasure that is in it.-Theodorus the Atheift de"nied friendship, as neither appearing really in fools nor "wife men; for in the firft as foon as the benefit ceases the friendship dies; and wife men trust so much to their own "abilities that they fland in need of none.-Laertius has "made verfes on moft of the philofophers which are very " dull. The Phrygians profuse in their tempers.—Menedemus, when a ftupid fellow talked impertinently to him, "faid, "Haft thou'any lands?" The fellow answered, "Yes; "feveral farms." "Go, then," faid he, " and look after "them, left thou lose thy wealth, and come to be a poor fool." "Timon, an inveterate enemy to theAcademick philofophers, has written a fatire upon them all.-There is a very fine ade of Ariftotle's in Diogenes Laertius concerning virtue and

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