Herodotus makes a scruple of so much as delivering an account of the difference of religion among foreigners, lest he should give offence.—Lib. ii.
The Egyptians more careful of preserving their cats than their houses in time of fire.—Id.
Plutarch says, that the effect of the naval power of Athens, established by Themistocles, was to render their government more popular: and that husbandmen and labourers are more friends to nobility than merchants and seamen are.—In Vita Themist.
Solon is the first person mentioned in history to have raised the value of money, which, says Plutarch, was a benefit to the poor in paying their debts, and no loss to the rich.—In Vita Solon.
PHILOSOPHY.
Men love pleasure more than they hate pain.—Bayle.
Men are vicious, but hate a religion that authorizes vice.—Id.
The accounts we have of the sentiments of the ancient philosophers not very distinct nor consistent. Cicero contradicts himself in two sentences: in saying that Thales allowed the ordering of the world by a mind, and in saying that Anaxagoras was the first.
Strato's atheism the most dangerous of the
ancient—holding the origin of the world from nature, or a matter endued with activity. Bayle thinks there are none but the Cartesians can refute this atheism.