Adventure and adventurers > New Cyropaedia, or The travels of Cyrus

THE TRAVELS OF CYRUS. 169
* The primitive ftate of Man was very different
from what it is at prcfent. Without, all the parts
of the Univerfe were in a perfeft harmony : Within,
all was in fubjedtion to the immutable laws of reafon.
Every one carried his rule within his own breall.
Sc all the Nations of the earth were but one Re-
publick of Sages.
Mankind liv'd then without difcord, ambition ,
orpompe, in perfedt peace, equality,&: fimplicity.
Each man , however, had his particular qualities Sc
paffions; but all paffions led to the love of virtue;
&all talents tended to the difcovery of truth. The
beauties of Nature, & of its Author, were the di-
'verfion, entertainment, 8c ftudy of the firfl men.
The imagination, being well regulated, prefented
1 nothing then but juft & pure ideas. The paflions,
'• being fubjedt to Reafon , did not difturb the mind;
and the love of pleafure was always conform to
the love of order. The God Of/ris, the Goddefs
i ]Jis,8c their Son Orar, came & converfed with men
I 8c taught them all the myfteries of wifdom.
j= This terreftrial life, how happy foever, was never-
I thelefs but the infancy of our beings, in which Souls
I were prepar’d for a fucceffive progrefs of inrelli-
I gence & happinefs. After having lived a certain
time upon earth, Men chang'd their form without
■ dying, & flew away to the liars, where they en¬
joy’d new pleafures 8c new knowledge, new fenl'es,
and new light. From thence they were rais’d to
another world, then to a third ;&fo pafl’ed through
the immenfe ipaces by endlefs changes,
A whole age, & according to fome, many ages;
pafs’d in this manner. At length there happened a
fad change both in Spirits 8c in bodies. Typhon 8c his
companions inhabited heretofore this happy dwel-
L s lingj;
* See the Egyptian Theology, in the Ditc. pag 517,