Chap. X. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 23s 



marked, that I am perfuaded there is no man that is not born with a 

 genius more for one thing than another. Foetae nafcimur, — is a com- 

 mon faying : But I fay farther, that we are all born with a capacity 

 of excelling, more or lefs, in one thing rather than in another ; 

 and one of the greateft excellencies of any political conftitution is to 

 clafs men according to their feveral talents and difpofitions, and to 

 make them ferve the public in that way. This was the wifdom of the 

 moft antient governments known in the world, thofe of Egypt and 

 India, where the legiflature, obferving the different talents of dif- 

 ferent men, caft thofe of the fame talents into the fame clafs or cajl^ 

 (as it is called in India), to which they were to be confined, pradi- 

 fing that art, or bufmefs, for which they were by Nature in- 

 tended, and no other ; and, as they underftood that the quali- 

 ties of the Mind went to the race, as well as thofe of the Body 

 (of which more anon), they obliged every man to marry in his own 

 clafs. 



That, therefore, there is a natural difference, both in the Minds 

 and bodies of Men, in the civilized flate, independent of any edu- 

 cation or culture, I hold not to be a matter of theory only, but of 

 fad and obfervation. But the queftion at prefent is concerning Man 

 in his natural flate : And I think that, alfo, in that ftate, there is a 

 great difference in the individuals, both in Body and in Mind. 



.-vWithrefped to the Body, the difference is certainly not fo great 

 as in the civilized life ; for there, by means of the various occupa- 

 tions of Men, their feveral vices and difeafcs of different kinds and 

 different degrees, their bodies mull needs be very different in health, 

 ftrength, ^.and fize ; whereas, in the natural flate, in which none of 

 thefe caufes affeding the Body are to be found, the difference of Bo- 



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