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in his domestic fervice, thinking it too mean for them, and too costly for him: adding, That perfonal fervice was the work of the lowest order of the people.' He would never fuffer offices of juftice to be fold; For,' faith he, it is not strange that men fhould fell what they buy;' meaning juftice. He was impartial in correction: My friends,' fays he, are dear to me, but the commonwealth is dearer.' Yet he would fay, That fweetening power to the people, made it lafting. That we ought to gain our enemies, as we keep our friends;' that is, by kindnefs. He faid, That we ought to defire happiness, and to bear afflictions; that thofe things which are desirable, may be pleafant; but the troubles we avoid, may have most profit in the end.' He did not like pomp in religion for it is not gold that recommends the facrifice, but the piety of him that offers it. An house being in contest betwixt fome Christians and keepers of taverns, the one to perform religion, the other to fell drink therein, he decided the matter thus: That it were much better, that it were any way employed to worship God, than to make a tavern of it.' Behold! by this we may fee the wisdom and virtue that fhined among the Heathens.

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XII. Aurelianus, the emperor, having threatened a certain town that had rebelled against him, that he would not leave a dog alive therein; and finding the fear he raised, brought them eafily to their duty, bid his foldiers go kill all their dogs, and pardoned the people.

XIII. Dioclefian would fay, that there was nothing more difficult than to reign well; and the reafon he gave was, that thofe who had the ears of princes, do fo continually lay ambufhes to furprize them to their interefts, that they can hardly make one right ítep.

§. XIV. Julian, coming to the empire, drove from the palace troops of eunuchs, cooks, barbers, &c. His reafon was this, That having no women, he needed no eunuchs; and loving fimple, plain meat, he needed no cooks: 'and," he faid, one barber would ferve a great many.' A good example for the luxurious Christians of our times.

. XV. Theodofius the younger was fomerciful in his nature, that instead of putting people to death, he wished it were in his power to call the dead to life again.

Thefe were the fentiments of the ancient grandees of the world, to wit, emperors, kings, princes, captains, ftatefmen, &c. not unworthy of the thoughts of perfons of the fame figure and quality now in being: and for that end they are here collected, that fuch may with more ease and brevity, behold the true statues of the ancients, not loft, or leffened by the decays of time.

III. I will now proceed to report the virtuous doctrines and fayings of men of more retirement; Juch as philofophers and writers both Greeks and Romans, who in their respective times were

mafters in the civility, knowledge, and virtue, that were among the Gentiles, being most of them many ages before the coming of Chrift, viz.

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. 1. Thales. §. 2. Pythagoras. §. 3. Solon, f. 4. Chilon. §. 5. Periander. . 6. Bias. 7. Cleobulus. §. 8. Pittacus. f. 9. Hippias. 10. The Gymnofophiftæ. §. 11. The Bambycatii. §. 12. The Gynaecofmi. f. 13. Anacharfis. f. 14. Anaxagoras. §. 15. 15. Heraclitus. f. 16. Democritus. §. 17. Socrates. f. 18. Plato. §. 19. Antifthenes. §. 20. Xenocrates. §. 21. Bion. §. 22. Demonax. f. 23. Diogenes. §. 24. Crates. §. 25. Ariftotle. §. 26. Mandanis. §. 27. Zeno. §. 28. Seneca. §. 29. Epictetus.

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§. I. THALES, an ancient Greek philofopher, being asked by a perfon that had committed adultery, if he might fwear, anfwered, By no means; for perjury is no less finful than adultery; and fo thou wouldeft commit two fins to cover one?' Being afked what was the best condition of a government; anfwered, That the people be neither rich nor poor: for he placed external happiness in moderation. He would fay, That the hardest thing in the world was to know a man's felf; but the best to avoid those things which we reprove in others' an excellent and clofe faying. That we ought to chufe well, and then to hold faft." That the felicity of the body confists in health; and that in temperance: and the felicity of the foul in wifdom.' He thought, That God was

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man is termed God, by participation: the rational foul, if directed by the mind, inclines the will to virtue, and is termed the good dæmon, genius, or fpirit; if by fantafy and ill affections it draws the will to vices, the evil dæmon: whence Pythagoras defired of God, To keep us from evil, and to fhew every one the dæmon, or good fpirit, he ought to ufe. The rational man is more noble than other creatures, as more divine; not content folely with one operation, as all other things drawn along by nature, which always act after the fame manner, but endued with various gifts, which he ufeth according to his free will; in respect of which liberty,

Men are of heavenly race,

Taught by diviner nature what t'embrace.

By diviner nature, is meant the intellectual foul. As to intellect, man approaches nigh to God, as to inferior fenfes, he recedeth from God: chorus, the infinite joy of the bleffed fpirits, their immutable delight, ftiled by Homer,

650s yaws inextinguishable laughter; for, what greater pleasure than to behold the ferene afpect of God, and next him, the ideas and forms of all things, more purely and tranfparently, than fecondarily, in created beings. The Pythagoreans had this diftich, among those commonly called the golden verfes:

Rid of this body, if the heavens free
Yo: reach, henceforth immortal you shall be

Or thus:

Who after death arrive at th' heavenly plain,
Are strait like gods, and never die again.

§. III. Solon, esteemed as Thales, one of the feven fages of Greece, a noble philofopher, and a lawgiver to the Athenians, was fo humble that he refused to be prince of that people, and voluntarily banished himself, when Pififtratus ufurped the government there;' refolving never to outlive the laws and freedom of his country. He would fay, that to make a government last, the magistrates muft obey the laws, and the people the magistrates. It was his judgment, that riches brought luxury, and luxury brought tyranny. Being afked by Crefus, king of Lydia, when feated in his throne, richly clothed, and -magnificently attended, if he had ever feen any thing more glorious; he anfwered, cocks, peacocks, and pheafants; by how much their beauty is natural. Thefe undervaluing expreffions of wife Solon, meeting fo pat upon the pride and luxury of Crofus, they parted: the one defirous of toys and vanities; the other an example and inftructor of true nobility and virtue, that contemned the king's effeminacy. Another time Croefus afked him, who was the happiest man in the world;' expecting he fhould have faid Crafus, because the most famous for wealth in thofe parts; he answered,

Tellus, who, though poor, yet was an honest and good man, and contented with what he had that after he had ferved the commonwealth faithfully, and feen his children and

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