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LETTER II.

thofe who collected forhitn; as ERASMUS observes,aster Out ntilian , in his judgment on Seneca.)But be this, vvhich was scarce vvorth a parentheíis,asitwill, he adds that Metrodoiius , Hermachus and Polyaenus , men of gréât note were forraedby living under tlie famé roof with Epicurtjjs , notby frequenting his fchool. These are instances ofthe force of immédiate example. But your îordstiipIcnows that the citizens of Rome placed the imagesof their ancestors in the vestibules òf their houles ;fa that, whenever they vvent in or out, thesevenerable bustoes met their eyes , and recalledtheglorious actions of the dead, to fire the living, toexcite them to imitate, and even to emulate theirgréât forefathers. Thesuccess answered the design.The virtue of one génération was transfused, bythe magie of example , into several : and a spirit ofheroisin was maintained through many ageà of thatcommon-wealth.- Now these are so many instancesof the force of remote example ; and from ail theseinstances we may conclude , that examples ofbothfonds are necessary.

The fchool of example, my lord, is the world;and the masters of this fchool are history andexpérience. L am far from contending that theformer is préférable to the latter. I think uponthe whole otherwise: t but this I fay, that theformer is absolutely necessary to prepare us forthe latter, and to accompany us whilst we areunder the discipline of the latter, that is, throughthe whole course of our lives. No doubt fomeíew men may be quoted, to wltom nature gave