196 AN TIE NT iMETAPHYSICS. Book IL 



except upon the authority of a cotemporary writer, himfelf an 

 Athenian and then refiding in the city *. 



Thus, I think, I have proved, not only that there is a degeneracy 

 in the human body, in fizc and flrength, as v^ell as in health and 

 longevity, conftantly going on in the ilate of civilization, from the 

 mod antient times; but, I think, I have fliown the caufes, why it not 

 only is, but muft be fo. Thole who maintain the contrary opinion, 

 if I could fufpedl them of any religion, I fhould think they were fu- 

 perftliious, and believed that God Almighty interpofed, in a mira- 

 culous manner, to preferve the human race, which otherwife muft 

 be deftroyed, at leaft, in the greateft part of the known world, and 

 would be in the whole of it, if we Europeans could carry our vices 

 and difeafes to every part of it, as we have done to a great part of 

 it. 



• Ifocrates, in Juopagitico, verfus finem. This Oration, together with the Ora- 

 tion de Facet I would recommend to the ferious ftudy of all the admirers of popu- 

 lar government. If ever there was a people on earth fit to govern themfelves, it 

 was the Athenians •, the noblefl people, in my opinion, that ever exifted, excelling 

 In arts and arms, generous and high minded, and, at the fame time, the acutefl: 

 and cleverefl: people in the world : Yet, in thofe two Orations, it is clearly fhown, 

 that they were undone, by the people pretending to govern themfelves ; for Virtue 

 there may be in a people, but Wifdom there never was nor ever v/ill be. 



C H A P. 



