The Preface.
and a looſe kind of life: Even ſo amongſt you, theſe Pirates and Plunderers of Philoſophy are wholly given to Luſts and Compotations; and this I ſuppoſe is an Evil that proceeds from the Blindneſs and Improvidence of your Laws. For ſhould any Man-ſtealer be be found amongſt you, or ſhould any adulterate your Coyn, theſe were Offences Capital, and puniſhed with Death: But for ſuch as counterfeit and corrupt Philoſophy, your Law corrects them not, neither have you any Magiſtrate ordained to that purpoſe. Thus we ſee in what reſpect the Greek Sophiſtry was with the Indians, and that clamorous Liberty they had to diſtract one another; ſome of them being Epicures, ſome Cynics, ſome Stoics, ſome again Peripatetics, and ſome of them pretended Platonics. It is not to be doubted, but the ſcuffling and ſquabling of theſe Sectaries did at laſt produce the Sceptic, who finding nought in the Schools but Oppoſition and Bitterneſs, reſolved for a new courſe, and ſecured his Peace with his Ignorance.
Phraotes
