Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPPIYSICS. 27 



nature, it tends, as the natural ftatc of an Animal is its full growth 

 and ftrength ; and in this fenfe the term was ufed by the Stoics, 

 who very properly applied it to Virtue, which they defined to be 

 ** A Life according to Nature;" — Or it is the ftate from which this 

 progrefTion begins. It is in this fenfe that I ufe the term, denoting 

 by it the original ftate of Man, before focieties were formed, or 

 arts invented. This ftate, I think, may alfo be called a ftate of 

 Nature, in contradiftindtion to the ftate in which we live at prefent, 

 which, compared with it, is certainly an artificial ftate. In fuch a 

 ftate, I fay, Man had not the ufe of Intellect, which was then latent 

 or dormant in him, as it is in a child among us, till it was produced 

 by the intercourfe of fociety, and the invention and praQice of Arts. 

 Man, therefore, in that ftate, could be nothing but a mere Animal, 

 without cloaths, houfes, the ufe of fire, or even fpeech. In fuch a 

 ftate, it is certainly moft proper to confider his Animal Nature, be- 

 caufe we have it there pure, and unmixed with the Intelledtual, and 

 the Arts from thence derived ; for the ftate we are in at prefent is 

 fo mixed of Nature and Art, that it is exceedingly difficult to fay 

 what is Nature in us, and what is Art* 



if fiich a ftate did never adually exift, which many believe to be 

 the cafe, it would not be improper to ufe it as an hypothefis, in order 

 lo ftiow what Man, confidered as a mere Animal, is. But, in the 

 Firft Volume of the Origin and Progrefs of Language, I think I 

 have proved, by the teftimony both of antlcnt authors and modern 

 travellers, that fuch a ftate did once exift, and does now exift *. 



There are, 1 know, among us, who will hardly believe any 

 thing but what they fee with their own eyes. Thefe arc our Ma- 

 nual Philofophers, who defire to difcover every thing in Nature by 

 experiments, and the evidence of their fenfes. Such men believe as 



D 2 little 



* Book ii. C.ip. 3. 4. 5. 6' and 7. 



