Ghap. Xrr. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 263 



the variety alfo, both of Mind and Body, In the civilized ftate, is 

 very great. For, in the firfl: place, the civilized man is exceeding- 

 ly different from a perfe(5l favage : Then a civilized man, in the 

 firft ftages of fociety, is very different from the fame man in the la- 

 ter periods : And a philofopher, and a man of fcience, is very dif- 

 ferent from an ordinary man in every flage of the focial life. And, 

 when v^^e join to all thefe varieties the differences, which I have 

 fhown,exift betwixt individuals and families in the fame age, and in 

 the fame country, I think, we may conclude, with great certainty, . 

 that what I have faid in the beginning of this volume is no more 

 than the truth, that Man is the moft various animal which God has 

 made, fo far at leaft as we know. And, as he is undoubtedly the 

 mofl excellent animal on this earth, he is therefore, of all created 

 things, the nobleft fubjed for the fludy of the philofopher, at the- 

 fame time, that it is the fludy the moft important and interefting to- 

 him,. 



2dOy The varieties of the human fpecles being fo many and fo^ 

 different from one another, it would be wonderful, indeed, if there 

 were not to be found in it the common variety of fize, not greater, 

 M. BufTon fays, than of a foot in height, more or lefs*. In the dog- 

 kind, in which the vaiiety is much lefs than in the human, there is a 

 very much greater difference of fize from the Irifh wolf-dog, to the 

 dog that lies in a lady's lap. I am fo far from thinking that the fize 

 of the Patagonians is a thing incredible, that, on the contrary, I 

 fhould think.it abfolutely incredible, even in theory and fpeculation, 

 and, fetting afide fads altogether, that there were no men upon the 

 face of the earth taller than we are, by more than a foot, or that the 

 unnatural life continued from generation to generation for fo many 

 hundred years, fliould have made no alteration in the fize, as well 

 as in the flrength and health of men in different ages of the fame 

 nation. 



Vol. III. L I Iqftly^ 



* Page 132. 



