Chap. VII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 313 



Caufes, fuch as the change of the air ; but I hold it to proceed from 

 an Inftindl, native and congenial with the Minds of animals in their 

 natural ftate, or that are not far removed from it : For we obfervc 

 that even hogs domefticated have a prefcience of the weather ; and I 

 believe one of the fureft prognoftics of a ftorm is taken from their 

 carrying ftraw to make their beds. 



I have no doubt but that Man, in his natural flate, had the 

 fame inftin£l that other Animals, living in the fame way, have. And 

 I was informed by a gentleman who is ftifl alive, and to whom I 

 give entire credit, that the Hanoverian boy, (as he was called), a fa- 

 vage, who was catched in the woods of Hanover, and brought tc^ 

 England, where he lived many years, but never learned to fpeak,. 

 fhovved great difturbance and agitation before any great ftorm or 

 violent change of weather. And this I hold to have been fome re- 

 mains of his natural InftinQ : For I am perfuaded that man, in his 

 natural ftate, when he was under the direQion of Inftind; only, had 

 the prefcience of every thing neceflary for his oeconomy, which we 

 fee other animals have, and which, I think, belongs to the Animal 

 Nature ; and therefore I doubt not but, in that ftate, he forefaw 

 many things, which he cannot now difcover, except by extraordi- 

 nary communications. 



The mere modern reader, and admirer of the prefent ftate of So- 

 ciety and its refmements, will wonder that I fliould think the na- 

 tural ftate preferable in any refped to the civilized, or that the 

 Minds of Savages are poflcfled of higher natural endowments than 

 the Minds of civilized men. But every man who has been a- 

 mong favages knows, in the firft place, that their fenfes are much 

 more acute than ours : I do not mean the luxurious fenfes of Feel- 

 ing and Tafting, which as they do not cultivate fo much as we do, 

 they have them not, I believe, fo delicate, but the more ufeful Senfcs 

 Vol. II. R r of 



