84 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



huufcii and icmples, but liLLlc ciiics with flrects ; and tlicic <xic lu- 

 Icriptions there in charafters more antient than the Shanfcrit, and 

 fuch as no hody now living can read *. The work, therefore, muft 

 be very old, and, 1 fhould fuppofe, before cement was invent- 

 ed ; and, if fo, they certainly could not, in any other way, have 

 made habitations that would have lafted longer. And, indeed, where 

 the material is fo hard, I am perfuaded, houfcs of that kind will laft 

 longer than any built with cement ; and I am not fure but thefe ve- 

 ry houfes are older than any building in the world, without except- 

 ing the Egyptian pyramids. 



Next, I believe, in order of time, came houfes above ground. 

 Thefe, I obferve, among fome of the barbarous nations, are very 

 large, particularly among the Indians of North America, where they 

 are from 150 to 180 feet long, and 2,^ feet broad, containing fome- 

 times 24 families f* UlyfTes's houfe in Ithaca had a room in it large 

 enough to contain 108 guefts at table, (the number of Penelope'* 

 fuitors), 8 fervants, befides the Herald and the Bard ; and there was 

 room enough for him befides to ftand at a diftance, and Ihoot the 

 fuitors with arrows %. The larger the houfe is, and the nearer to no 

 houfe, fo much the better : , Nor do I know any advantage that the 

 rich have over the poor, fo great as that of living in large rooms, 

 and under lofty cielings; and I am perfuaded that there are few things 

 more deftrudive of the human race than living in fmall cottages, e- 

 fpecially if they be much heated with fire. 



The next remove from the air, on which Virgil fays we feed §^ 

 was a greater remove ftill, and fuch as cannot be juflified by the ex- 

 ample of any Brute. I mean the invention of clothes, by which we 

 carry about with us a houfe, very much clofer than any other houfe> 



fa 

 • This iiiformntion I had from a very ingenious man, Dr Lind, once of Edin- 

 burgh, now of London, who, when he w.ts in the Eaft Indies, went to fee thefe 

 Ilrange habitations, and made a plan of them, which he fhowed me, 

 -)• Gabriel Sagard's Travels in the country of the Hurons. 

 :!: OdyfT. Lib. xvi. Verf. 105. et fcquen. 

 § Vefcimur aura. 



