-90 ANTIKNT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



Life, without luch extraordinary communications with Superior 

 Minds. This was the opinion of all the antient world, philofophers 

 as well as other men ; and, accordingly, many different kinds of 

 Divination were pra£tifed by different nations, of which Dreams 

 appear to have been the moll antient. We fee from Homer what 

 credit was given to them in his time ; nor does there appear to have 

 been any other kind of Divination then pra£tifed, except that by the 

 flight of Birds : And, at this day, it is the only Divination among 

 the Indians of North America. 



How this kind of Revelation has ceafed among us and in other 

 nations of Europe, and how we come to be reduced to the State in 

 which Ifrael was in the days of Saul, ' When the Lord anfwcred 

 * not, neither by Dreams nor by Prophets *,' is a matter of long 

 difcuflion, and belongs not to this part of my woi'k. All I fhall fay 

 at pr-efent is, that it appears to me moft evident, both from the phi- 

 iofophy and the hiflory of Man, that he is not the fame animal, ei- 

 ther in Body or Mind, that he was in former ages ; and, if he be 

 fo much degenerated, as I fuppofe him to be, it is no wonder that 

 he is not a fit velTel for Divine Infpiration, or proper for Communi- 

 cation with Superior Minds : Tor the order of Nature requires that 

 there fliould be an aptitude in every thing for certain ends ; and, 

 in one ftate or condition, a thing will be fit for a certain purpofe, 

 and, in another condition, utterly unfit. The age, in which Syne- 

 fius lived, was far from being one of the beft : Nor do I believe that 

 he could have had thofe fupernatural communications by Dreams, 

 which he mentions, unlefs his Mind had been exalted by the ftudy 

 of the fublimeft philofophy, exceedingly different from what we now 

 call philofophy, which is nothing elfe but Menfuration and Com- 

 putation, FaiSts of Natural Hiflory, Mechanics, ar;d Properties of 



Lines 



* I Samuel, chap. Jucviii. v. I. i5. 



