120 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



Although it be not very fafe to argue from general principles to any- 

 particular fad, yet I think we may go fo far in abftrad reafoning 

 on this fubjedt, as to fay, that, as Man is fo much fuperior, in other 

 refpeds, to other animals, it is probable, at leaft, that he is not in- 

 ferior to them in this, and that he lives at leaft as long as a deer or 

 a crow. And, I think, we may fay further, that, as the chief pur- 

 pofe for which Man is in this world, is the improvement of his in- 

 telledtual part, which can only be by arts and fciences, it was necef- 

 fary, for the invention of them, that Man ihould have a very long 

 life ; for, I will venture to aifert, that, if Men, in former ages, had 

 not lived much longer than they do now, and in much better health, 

 very few arts and fciences would have been invented. 



But we are not, in this cafe, reduced to the necefTity of arguing 

 only from a comparifon with other animals, or from final caufes ; 

 for, though we have no record, nor, I think, can have any, of the 

 lives of Men perfed^y in the Natural State, we have one moft au- 

 thentic record of the lives of Men not far removed from that ftate ; 

 fo that we may conclude, with great certainty, that Men in that 

 ftate would live as long at leaft, however much longer. The record 

 I mean is no other than Mofes's account of the lives and generations 

 of the progenitors of the Jewifli nation. 



This record ought not only to be held in the higheft veneration 

 by every Chriftian, but it ftiould be confidered by every man, who 

 defires to be learned in the hiftory and philofophy of Man, as the 

 moft valuable hiftorical monument extant, and much more antient 

 than even the mythological hiftory of the Greeks ; for it goes beyond 

 their firft Deluge or Ogygian, as it was .called, which I believe to have 

 been the fame with the Deluge, the memory of which, as Diodorus 

 Siculus informs us *, was preferved among the Samothracians, and 



by 



* Page 223. Eilit. Stcphani 



