Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 89 



medy, and much lefs a thing, that will not admit of a complete re- 

 medy. 



I think, therefore, I may conclude with great certainty, tliat Man, 

 in his natural ftate, has no clothes; and how, indeed, could Men be 

 clothed, that had none of the arts of Vulcan or Minerva, and were 

 neither farmers, manufadurers, nor hunters ? And, I think, I have 

 likewife proved, that they were much the better for not being clo- 

 thed, and that therefore the naked favages of California, when they 

 refufed the offer the Spaniards made them of clothes, were much in 

 the right '^. 



If Man, in his natural ftate, had not houfes or clothes, I think, it 

 will not be prefumed that he had the ufe of fire. And, indeed, his 

 cafe would be quite fingular, and different from all other animals, 

 if, in that ftate, he had not an abhorrence and terror of fire, like the 

 people of the Ladrone Iflands above mentioned f. 



I obferved before J, that it appears moft extraordinary, that what 

 at firft was a terror and abhorrence, fhould have become a neceflliry 

 of life to us. But Habit will account for this, which is commonly 

 faid to be a Second Nature, and, in fome cafes, it overcomes the 

 firft. And it does fo wdth refped to fire, not only among us, but 

 Vol. III. M a- 



* See Gemelli Carerl's Voyages, in Churchill's CoIIe£lions, Vol. iv. p. 4*70. In 

 the fame country of California, but further north, the favages were likewife quite 

 naked, though the cold was fo extreme that many of the crew of a Spanifh fhip died 

 of it, and the reft fell fick, fo that they were obliged to leave the country, and go to 

 a warmer latitude ; p. 4'')g. It was in this country that the natives likt^wlfe refufed 

 the invitation which the Jefuits gave them, to fleep in their huts, but rather chofe to 

 lie at the doors of them j See p. 83. 



t Page 38. 

 1; Page 39. 



