Chap.XlI. ANTIFNT METAPHYSICS. 261 



ihip, off the coaft of Newfoundland, in the year 1720, for iwo 

 hours together, and often a: the diftance of no more than two or 

 three feet. The account was drawn up by the pilot of the veflel, 

 and figned by the Captain and all thofe of the crew that could 

 write, and was fent from Brcft by Monfieur Hautefort to the Count 

 de Maurepas, on the 8th of September 1725. The flory is told 

 with fo many circumftances, that it is impoffible there can be 

 any deception or miftake in the cafe ; but, if it be not true, it is 

 -as impudent a forgery as ever was attempted to be impofed on the 

 public. 



Thefe and fuch like fads I believe, as they appear to me fuffi- 

 ciently attefted ; and are not, as I think, by the nature of things, 

 impoffible ; for there does not appear to me any impoffibility 

 or contradidtion that there fhould be a marine animal of the 

 human form, which can live in the water, as we do in the air, 

 or even that this animal fhould not have two legs, as we have, 

 but fhould end in a tail like a fifh. There are, however, I know, 

 many, who are difpofed to fet bounds to the works of God, 

 and who cannot be perfuaded that even the land- animal Man exif}:s 

 with the varieties I have defcribed. But I follow the philofophy of 

 Ariflotle, who has faid that every thing exifls which is poffible to 

 •exifl *. Nor, indeed, can I well conceive that a benevolent and 



omnipotent 



* The words are, To yu^ tv^i^zr^xi tow tivtn ov^iv ^««^eg« ti» t«<; «i^<o<5. De Naturali 

 Aufcultatione, Lib. iii. Cap. 5. Paragr. 6. 



This maxim, Arifl:otle> as we fee, has reftrifted to things eternal; by which 

 he means the things of Nature, (which he confidered as eternal), in contradiftin^lion 

 Co human a£liohs and refolutionsj with refpedl to which it is certainly not true, 



that 



