Chap. XIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 269 



forming a nation, or having any other kind of government, except 

 the Patriarchal. In this way the people of Chili live at this day, ac- 

 cording to Freiier ; and the Patriarchs of the Jewifli nation lived 

 in the fame v^My. Now, fuch men are far removed from the natural 

 ftate. But Plato did not think it ^necefTary for his purpofe to go farther 

 back ; or, perhaps, he had not heard of men in a ftate more natural 

 than that defcribed by Homer in his account of the Cyclops j but 

 later difcoveries, even in antient times, fuch as thofe that Diodorus 

 Siculus mentions, make it evident that there were then men to be 

 found in a flate much nearer to the original ftate. And modern 

 difcoveries have put it beyond all doubt that men may live without 

 any of the arts mentioned by Plato, without fpeech, without clothes, 

 without houfes, without the ufe of fire, and even without fociety, 

 as it is a moft certain fadt that folitary favages have been found, at 

 different times, in different parts of Europe. And this being the 

 cafe, I have chofen to confider Man in the mere animal ftate in 

 which I think he adually did exift at fome time, and in fome part 

 of the world ; or, though I had not proved his a£tual exiftence in 

 that ftate, I think the progrefs which we know has been in the 

 arts, fhows evidently that there muft have been a time when there 

 were no arts at all j for, where elfe can we ftop in tliat progrefs ? 

 AVithout confidering Man in this way, I thought I could not have 

 given a proper account of the animal part of Aran's nature, as di- 

 ftind from his intelledual ; nor marked accurately the progrefs 

 from the Animal to the Man^ without which I fhould have thought 

 ibis part of my work very imperfed : For the progrefTion of Man, 

 from one ftate to another, is an effential part of his nature, diftin- 

 guifhing him from every other animal here below ; to which, if 

 we do not properly attend, we never can perfedly underftand the 

 jphilofophy of Man, nor explain the fcheme of Providence with re- 

 fpe6t to him, as will appear more evidently in the fequel. This I 



would 



