Chap. VII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS, 20,^ 



age, as it was called, in which men are faid to have lived the moft 

 happy life poffible. Of the fame kind v/as the age of Saturn in I- 

 taly, who firfl introduced government and the arcs of civil life in- 

 to that part of Italy, called Latium, from being his hiding place ; 

 whither he came, 



Arma Jovisfugiens^ et regnis exiil ademptis» 

 Is genus indocile ac difperfiun montihiis altis 

 Compofuit^ lege/que dedit ; Latiiimque 'vocari 

 Maluit^ his quoniam latuijjet tutus in oris. 

 Aurea^ quae perhibent^ illofuh rege fuerunt 

 Saecula; Jic placida poptilos in pace regehat : 

 Deterior donee paulatim ac decolor aetas 

 Et belli rabies^ et amor fuccejfit habendi *. 



In which lines, I am perfuaded, Virgil has recorded, as a faithful 

 hiftorian, the traditions of his country ; of the truth of which, I 

 think, there is very little reafon to doubt. 



Of what kind the life of our firft parents was before the fall, and 

 whether that may not be called the golden age in the land of Chal- 

 daea, I will nor prefume to inquire. But one thing feems pretty e- 

 vident, that thofe progenitors of ours, before they ate of the tree of 

 knowledge of good and evil, had not thofe opinions concerning 

 good and evil which have made the mifery of their defcendants ever 

 fmce. But, whether they were fuperior beings, who had not opi- 

 nions concerning good or ill, which may be either true or falfe, 

 and, when falfe, are the fource of all vice and folly, but had cer- 

 tain knowledge of that diftindion ; — or whether they were animals 



C c 2 or 



• ^neid. viii. V. 320. 



