eſcaped theirs. Hence that fine Adage, ſo thread-worn by the Philoſophers, that Men are in all Countries the ſame; that, as they have every where the ſame Paſſions and the ſame Vices, it is almoſt uſeleſs to endeavour to characteriſe the different Nations which inhabit the Earth; a way of arguing little better, in a manner, than that which ſhould make us conclude, that it is impoſſible to diſtinguiſh between Peter and James, becauſe they have both a Mouth, a Noſe, and a Pair of Eyes.
Shall we never again behold thoſe happy Days, in which the common People did not intermeddle with Philoſophy, but the Platos, the Thaleſes, and the Pythogoraſes, thirſting after Knowledge, undertook the longeſt Voyages merely to gain Inſtruction, and viſited the remoteſt Corners of the Earth to ſhake off the Yoke of national Prejudice, to learn to diſtinguiſh Men by the real Conformity and Difference between them, and acquire that univerſal Inſight into Nature, which does not belong to one Age or one Country excluſive of others, but being coexiſtent with every Time and Place compoſes, as it were, the common Science of all wiſe Men?
