Chap.XIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 267 



CHAP. xiir. 



2o inquire honjo the natural State began, not thefuhjecl: of this Vo- 

 limie. — Plato does not carry his State of Nature Jo far bcu k as the 

 Author does, — 7'he Men in Plato's Natural State lived in the Cy- 

 clopean manner, upon Tops of Hills, — In all Countries, before Civil 

 Government ivas 'well ejlablifhed, Men appear to have Uvea in 

 that Way. — Monuments of this yet remaijiing in Scotland. — Apology 

 for divelling fo long upon the State of Nature. — // is the Natural 

 Hifiory of Man^ as difinguifhedfrom his Civil Hflory, 



TO inquire how or when the natural f^ate began does not 

 belong to the fubjed of this volume, but to that where I 

 am to treat of Nature, to which Man, in his Animal State, ac- 

 cording to my definition of Nature, belongs *. There it will be 

 proper to examine that grand queftion agitated among the an- 

 tientphilofophers, concerning the eternity of the Material World,, 

 and particularly to inquire, Whether this Farth was always in the form 

 we fee it in ? or, Whether, as we are fure it has undergone fome 

 changes, it may aot, in very remote times, have u idergone Itill great- 

 er ? and Whether Man, the chief Animal in ir v;ho has gone through 

 fo many ftates fince the natural ftate, may n^.t, at li^>me time or an^ 

 other, have been, even upon this enrth, in a ftate diff-reni from 

 that natural Hate, or from any other Hate in which we have known 



L 1 2 him t 



* See the definition of Nature given Vol. ii. p. 360. where it is fliown thaC- 

 Natture is Mind without intelligence acUng in Body. 



