every other flagitious violation of the "moral duties; are they not perpe"trated folely from this fingle motive? "Reason, on the other hand," continued Archytas, "is the nobleft gift which "God, or nature, has bestowed on the "fons of men. Now nothing is fo

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great an enemy to that divine en"dowment, as the pleasures of sense. "For neither temperance, nor any "other of the more exalted virtues, can "find a place in that breast, which is "under the dominion of the volup"tuous paffions. Imagine to your❝ self a man in the actual enjoyment of "the highest gratification that his ani"mal nature is capable of receiving; "there can be no doubt that during his "continuance in that ftate, it would "be utterly impoffible for him to exert

any one power of his rational facul"ties." From hence our philofopher inferred" that the voluptuous enjoy"ments are attended with a quality of "the most noxious and destructive kind;

" fince,

fince, in proportion to their strength "and duration, they darken or extin

guish every brighter faculty of the "human foul."

Archytas expreffed these sentiments in a conversation with Caius Pontius, father of that famous Samnite commander, who obtained a victory over the confuls Spurius Poftumius and Titus Veturius, at the battle of Caudium": and it was related to me by our faithful ally, and my very worthy hoft, Nearchus of Tarentum. My friend assured me he received this account by tradition from his ancestors: and he added, that Plato was a party in this converfation. This circumftance is indeed by no means improbable; as I find that philofopher vifited Tarentum in the confulate of Lucius Camillus and Appius Claudius *.

* They were confuls in the year of Rome 404, about 350 years before the commencement of the Christian æra,

The

The inference I mean to draw from the authority I have cited is, that if the principles of reason and virtue have not been fufficient to infpire us with a proper contempt for the fenfual pleafures; we have caufe to hold ourselves much obliged to old-age at least, for weaning us from those appetites which it would ill become us to gratify. For the voluptuous paffions are utter enemies to all the nobler faculties of the foul; caft a mist, if I may fo express it, before the eye of reafon; and hold no fort of commerce or communion with the manly virtues.

To illuftrate the truth of this'affertion by a particular inftance; I will mention a fact concerning Lucius Flamininus, who was brother to that bravé commander Titus Flamininus. It was with much regret that feven years after he had been raised to the dignity of conful, I found myself under the neceffity of expelling him from the fenate :

but

but I thought his fcandalous debaucheries ought not to pass without marks of public difgrace. This unworthy man when he commanded, during his confulfhip, our army in Gaul, was prevailed upon by his pathic at an entertainment, to put to death one of the prifoners who were in confinement for a capital offence and this infamous act escaped with impunity during the time that his brother Titus was cenfor. But when I fucceeded him in that office, neither myself nor my colleague Flaccus, could by any means be induced to think, that fo wanton and flagitious an inftance of abandoned cruelty and lewdness, ought to pass without severe and diftinguished animadverfion *; efpecially as it reflected dishonour, not only on the base perpetrator himself, but in fome measure too on the high office with which he was invested.

my

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I have frequently heard from fome of friends who were much my feniors,

a tra

a traditionary ancedote concerning Fabricius. They affured me, that in the early part of their lives they were told by certain very old men of their acquaintance, that when Fabricius was ambassador at the court of Pyrrhus, he expreffed great astonishment at the account given him by Cineas, of a philofopher at Athens, (for a philofopher it feems, he ftiled himself) who maintained, that the love of pleasure was univerfally the leading motive of all human actions". My informers added, that when Fabricius related this fact to M'Curius and Titus Coruncanius, they both joined in wishing that Pyrrhus and the whole Samnite nation might become converts to this extraordinary doctrine; as the people who were infected with fuch unmanly principles, could not fail, they thought, of proving an easy conquest to their enemies. M'Curius had been intimately connected with Publius Decius, who in his fourth confulate (which was five years before the forF

mer