PREFACE.
The moſt uſeful and leaſt improved of all human Studies is, in my Opinion, that of Man, (2) and I dare ſay, that the Inſcription on the Temple of Delphos did alone contain a more important and difficult Precept than all the huge Volumes of the Moraliſts. I therefore conſider the Subject of this Diſcourſe, as one of the moſt intereſting Queſtions Philoſophy can propoſe, and, unhappily for us, one of the moſt knotty Philoſophers can labour to ſolve: For how is it poſſible to know the Source of the Inequality among Men, without knowing Men themſelves? And how ſhall Man be able to ſee himſelf, ſuch as Nature formed him, in ſpite of all the Alterations which a long Succeſſion of Years and Events muſt have produced in his original Conſtitution, and to diſtinguiſh what is of his own Eſſence, from what the Circumſtances he
