Chap. ir. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 99 



a profound ileep, and in that ftate was carried aboard the canoe in 

 which he had come *. If thefe fo big and ftrong men were fo much 

 affed;ed by a fingle glafs of fpirits, what muft be the effed of it up- 

 on men fuch as we ? I myfelf knew a young man that had never 

 tafted fpirits, and drank very little wine, who was, by a dram 

 which was prefcribed him for the cure of a choiic, very near killed. 

 It is therefore evident, that nothing but a bad and unnatural habit 

 of body, produced by the cuftom of drinking fpirits, can make the 

 ufe of them, even in fmall quantities, tolerable to us. But, though 

 cuftom will make them not only tolerable but pleafant, and even ne- 

 cefTary at laft, it is impoffible that any cuftom can make them good 

 and wholefome, any more than laudanum, which fome people, we 

 know, can take in confiderable quantities, without finding any im- 

 mediate inconvenience from it, but, on the contrary, it appears to 

 do them good for the time. 



From this we may judge whether it be poffible that a man in the 

 natural ftate can by inftindt, his governing principle in that ftate, 

 be led to take of fuch a violent drug ; and whether, on the con- 

 trary, he muft not have naturally a ftrong aveifion to it. The aver- 

 fion, however, to this internal fire, as well as to external, may 

 be overcome by habit ; and, accordingly, we Europeans have been 

 at great pains to overcome it among all the barbarous nations 

 with whom we have had any intercourfe ; and have fucceeded fo 

 well, that fome of them we have abfolutely deftroyed, and the 

 reft we are in a fair way of deftroying. 



Thus, I think I have proved, that Man is by nature a moft hardy 

 animal, and can endure as much extremity of weather as any ani- 



N 2 mal 



* Callender's Colledlion of Voyages, Vol. lil. p- 178. where it is to be obfcrved 

 that the ifland, by miftake, I fuppofe, of the printer, is called Magorif whereas the 

 true name of it is Pagan- 



