292 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



degenerate the more vain. Now, Vanity Is the proper objed of Ilidi- 

 cule and Contenapt : Nor is any Animal that God has made, even 

 the meaneft and lowed, without Vanity, ridiculous or contemptible. 

 Religion, Philofophy, and good Learning, may for a while ftem the 

 tide of Corruption and Depravity, and retard the dellrudion of fuch 

 a Nation ; but, if tliefe be wanting, the fall will be precipitate, and 

 the conclufion muft be the utter extinftion of the Nation : For 

 it is a law of Nature, that whatever gr6ws worfe, and continues to 

 grow worfe, muft end at laft. We fee every day the extindion of 

 Families ; and, as a Nation confifts of Families, for the fame reafon 

 that Families are extinguiflied, whole Nations may be fo. Accord- 

 ingly, we know, with the greateft certainty, that Nations dlminifh in 

 numbers ; and there are examples in the hiftory ofmankind, of whole 

 Nations, by gradual diminution, difappearing at laft altogether. But, 

 as all the works of God are eternal, either as individuals or by fqc- 

 ceffion, nothing perifhes utterly, but every thing is renewed in fome 

 fhape or another ; and therefore I believe what the wife of antient 

 limes have taught, that there is to be a ■^x^tfymtrHf or Renovation of 



Things^ 



lible. But the fame Poet tells us, from the mouth of Neftor,that the men in his time, 

 or even in the time of the Trojan war, were nothing like thofe of the age preceding. 

 This, I know, the young men of the prefcnt age will not believe, but will think 

 it a vain boaftiiig of old men, pcevifli and difcontented with the prefcnt times. But 

 I defire to be informed how they can know paft times, otherwife than by the teftimo- 

 ny of thofe who lived in them. For, in order to compare two things, it feems ne- 

 ceffary that one fhould know both : And there is nothing but an extraordinary fupe- 

 riority of genius that can enable a young man to judge better of prefent and paft 

 times, than an old man who has known both. By the fame fuperiority of genius, 

 thsfe men pronounce decifively, that the modern life in Europe is preferable to thelife 

 of a Savage of North America, contrary to the judgment of many, both French and 

 Englifh, who have tried both lives, and could not be perfuaded to forfake the Sa- 

 vages, and return to their countrymen and friends. 



