Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/91

 owes its first Original to some particular Invention, and all its future Improvements to Superstructures raised by other Men upon that first Ground-work; and between Passions of the Mind, that are Congenial with our Natures; where Conversation will polish them, even without previous Intentions of doing so; and where the Experiences of a few Ages, if assisted by Books that may preserve particular Cases, will carry them to as great an Heighth as the Things themselves are capable of. And therefore, he that now examines the Writings of the Ancient Moral Philosophers, Aristotle for instance, or the Stoicks, will find, that they made as nice Distinctions in all Matters relating to Vertue and Vice; and that they understood Humane Nature, with all its Passions and Appetites, as accurately as any Philosophers have done since. Besides, It may be justly questioned, whether what Monsieur Perrault calls Politeneẞ, be not very often rather an Aberration from, and Straining of Nature, than an Improvement of the Manners of the Age: If so, it may reasonably be supposed, that those that medled not with the Niceties of Ceremony and Breeding, before unpractised, rather contemned them as improper or unnatural,