Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/299

 ecaped theirs. Hence that fine Adage, o thread-worn by the Philoophers, that Men are in all Countries the ame; that, as they have every where the ame Paions and the ame Vices, it is almot ueles to endeavour to characterie the different Nations which inhabit the Earth; a way of arguing little better, in a manner, than that which hould make us conclude, that it is impoible to ditinguih between Peter and James, becaue they have both a Mouth, a Noe, and a Pair of Eyes.

Shall we never again behold thoe happy Days, in which the common People did not intermeddle with Philoophy, but the Platos, the Thalees, and the PythogoraesPythagorases [sic], thirting after Knowledge, undertook the longet Voyages merely to gain Intruction, and viited the remotet Corners of the Earth to hake off the Yoke of national Prejudice, to learn to ditinguih Men by the real Conformity and Difference between them, and acquire that univeral Inight into Nature, which does not belong to one Age or one Country excluive of others, but being coexitent with every Time and Place compoes, as it were, the common Science of all wie Men?