176 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



And the Gentoos of India, who live upoa rice and water, though a 

 /lender people at prefent and of fmall ftature, can labour more, ei- 

 ther in drawing boats upon the rivers or canals, or in carrying men 

 in palanquins, than, I believe, any people in Europe And, with 

 refped: to the reafon of the thing, as, I think, I have proved that it 

 is not the natural diet of man, it will follow, of confequence, that 

 he cannot thrive upon it, in fize and ftrength, any more than in 

 health and longevity. It is true, the nature of man is fo pliable, 

 that it can fuit iifelf to that or even a worfe diet, fuch as that 

 of the Efquimaux upon fifh, and ilinking fifh too. But it will not 

 from thence follow that it is good for them, though it becomes very 

 pleafant to them : But fo things the moft pernicious are made by ha- 

 bit. Nor is man fingular in this ; for other animals may, by habit 

 likewifc, grow fond of what is certainly not their natural food. I 

 have heard of horfes that ate flefli ; and there was a fheep in my 

 neighbourhood in the country, who being brought up in the houfe 

 by the hand, learned to eat flelh, and even the flefli of its own fpe- 

 cies, and became fo fond of tobacco, that, after he v/as reflored 

 to his natural life with the flock, he would come up to a gentle- 

 man in the field, and take a piece of tobacco twift from him. And 

 yet, I believe, no body will maintain, that either flelh or tobacco is 

 proper food for a fneep, or that the animal will thrive upon fuch a 

 diet. Further, I fay that, if flefli is to be eaten, it ought to be eaten in 

 the way the animals, that are carnivorous by nature, eat it ; that is, raw, 

 and warm with the animal life, as Mr Bruce fays the AbyflTmians eat 

 their beef. And he avers, from his own experience, that it is much 

 eafier of digeflion, eaten in that way, than when prepared by Fire. 

 And the wild girl I faw in France, told me that the firft flefli that Ihe 

 ate roafted or boiled, lay upon her ftomach like fo much lead, 

 and threw her into a very dangerous difeafe, of which flie recovered, 

 chiefly by fucking the warm blood of chickens. 



I do 



