Chap. rV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 119 



As to his health, it Is impoflible, by the nature of things, that an 

 animal living upon fo iimple and natural a diet, and conftantly in 

 the air, fhould not be in the heft habit of Body. And, indeed, it 

 would be a grievous accufation of Nature, to charge her v^'ith fet- 

 ting down an Animal on this earth, that could not be in health, li- 

 ving in the only way in which he could live. — Further, I maintain, 

 that Man, in this Hate, is liable to no difeafe ; for no difeafe pro- 

 ceeds from God and Nature, who are the Authors of all good and 

 no evil, but only from an unnatural life. Accordingly, the wild a- 

 nimals, I fay, have no difeafe, and are not even affected, as I before 

 obferved*, by peftilential difeafes, which deftroy fuch numbers of ci- 

 vilized men. We ought, however, to except fuch wild animals as 

 feed upon the food of Men, that is, herbs and fruits raifed from 

 dung; and it is to this diet that I afcribe thofe difeafes that hunters 

 obferve among hares. Even the death of fuch an animal is not 

 painful ; for it is the death of Nature, and rather fleep than death : 

 Whereas the death produced by intemperance and by an unnatural 

 life, is commonly both painful and lingering. Men in that way are 

 nine years a-killing, as Othello wifhed that CafTio fliould be. 



Longevity is fo far neceffarily connected with health, that it is 

 impoffible a fickly animal can be long lived ; but a healthy animal 

 may not be long lived. There is nothing in which natural hiftory 

 is more defective, than in the knowledge of the length of the lives 

 of wild animals ; and, particularly, we are quite ignorant of the 

 natural life of Man ; and 1 hold it to be impoffible to get certain 

 information of it. For, if wc knew the Oran Outan better than 

 we do, it would not, I am perfuaded, be in one, two, or three, ge- 

 nerations of ours, that we fhould difcover the length of his life ; it 

 would be the work of hiftory and record to afcertain it. 



Although 

 * Page 78. 



