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

THE TRAVELS OF CYRUS. i7t
ling; but being fwell’d with pride, and forgetting
:hemfelves fo far as to refolve to fcale Heaven,
:hey were thrown down headlong, & buried in the
rentre of the Earth. They came out of their abyfs,
>roke thro’ the egg of the world , diffus’d evil
;hrough it, & corrupted the minds, hearts, & manners
of its inhabitants. The foul of the great Oftris for-
fook his body, which is Nature, & it became
• ia carcafs. Typhon tore it in pieces, difpers'd its
hmembers, & blafted all its beauties.
From that time the body became fubjed to difeafes
& death, the mind to error & to paffions. The ima-
ijgination of Man prefents him now with nothing
icbut chimeras. His reafon ferves only to contradict
rhis inclinations, without being able to reftify them,
s pLThe greateft part of his plealures are falfe & deceit-
itfful; &all his pains, even his imaginary ones, are
.5“ real evils. His heart is an abundant fource of reftlefs
jfdeftres, frivolous fears, vain hopes, diforderly in-
hclinations, which fucceffively torment him. A crowd
:cof wild thoughts, & turbulent paffions, caufe an
:d||inteftine war within him, make him continually take
ti armsagainfl: himfelf, & render him, at the fame'time,
od;both an admirer, &an enemy of his own nature.
I That which each man feels in himfelf, is a lively
ni image of what palfes in human fociety. Three dif¬
at ferent Empires rife in the world, & divide all forts
to|of men. The Empire of O p i n t o n, that of Am-
a* B i t i o n , & that of Sensuality. Error pre-
i Tides in the firft; Force has the dominion in the
.tl'fecond; & Folly reigns in the third.
Such is the prefent hate of human-nature. The
tfcGoddefs ifis goes over all the earth, feeking the
:it> difpers’d, deluded fouls, to lead them back to the
ui Empyreum: while the God Orus continually attacks
it the evil Principle. ’Tis faid, that he will at laft re-
:h eftablish the Kingdom of. oJirisT & will banish for
ever