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 ther Experience, and be rejected by Posterity. Such mighty Revolutions have happened in human Affairs, and so many Events have arisen contrary to the Expectation of the antients, as are sufficient to beget the Suspicion of still farther Changes.

had been observ'd by the Antients, that all the Arts and Sciences arose among free Nations, and that the Persians and Egyptians, notwithstanding all their Ease, Opulence and Luxury, made but faint Efforts towards a Relish in those finer Pleasures, which were carried to such Perfection by the Greeks, amidst continual Wars, attended with Poverty, and the greatest Simplicity of Life and Manners. It had also been observ'd, that as soon as the Greeks lost their Liberty, tho' they encreased mightily in Riches, by Means of the Conquests of Alexander; yet the Arts, from that Moment, declin'd among them, and have never since been able to raise their Head in that Climate. Learning was transplanted to Rome, the only free Nation at that Time in the Universe; and having met with so favourable a Soil, it made prodigious Shoots for above a Century; till the Decay of Liberty produced