28 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



little of fads that they have not feen, as they do of Mind which 

 they cannot fee. I will, however, fuggeft fome things to them, 

 which they may think it worth their while to confider. 



In the firjl place, they will not deny, hecaiife they fee it, that 

 there is a progrefs in our children, from the mere Animal to the In- 

 tellectual Being. Now, why may they not fappofe that, in fome 

 country of the Earth, or in this very country which we inhabit in 

 fome very remote period, this interval was very much longer, as it 

 certainly would be with refpedl to our children, if they were not in- 

 ftruded both by precept and example, which it may be fuppo- 

 fed thofe antient men wanted. The fpecics Man confifts, like every 

 other fpecies, of individuals ; and I think there is nothing more na- 

 tural than to fuppofe the fame progrefs in the fpecies, that we ob- 

 ferve in the individual, that is, from the mere Animal to the Intel- 

 ledual Being. But, it is to be obferved, that this progrefs did not 

 go on at the fame time among all the inhabitants of the different 

 parts of the earth ; on the contrary, we are fure from hiftory, that 

 fome nations v^^ere in a high ftate of civility, while others were no 

 better than mere animals : But what I fay is, that all nations mufl 

 be fuppofed to have been, at fome time or another, in that ftate, in 

 which we know that fome have been, and fome are at this day. 



Further, they will not maintain, that all the Arts were at once in- 

 vented, having feen Arts invented in their own time. If fo, the only 

 queftion will be, What Arts, at certain times, in certain countries, 

 were not invented ? They muft admit that, in fome countries, there 

 was a time when thofe moft ufeful, and, as we think, neceffary 

 Arts of Agriculture and Metallurgy were not known ; but they 

 will not admit that there ever was, in any country, a time when the 

 ufe of the things I have mentioned, cloaths, houfes, fire, and fpeech, 

 was not known. 



Aa 



