22 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book t 



ber ; nor is it poffible that fuch a fad in natural hiftory fliould be 

 proved by indudion of many examples. And indeed I think it is 

 furprifing that fo many fhould have been found in a civilized coun- 

 try, fuch as Europe, where it is impoffible that any individuals 

 iliould have been found in this ftate, except fuch as, by fome acci- 

 dent, were expofed when they were infants. But if there were any 

 doubt in the matter, the way of walking of our own infants, upon 

 all four, fhould convince us that it is the natural motion of man. 

 And I am perfuaded, that if we were not at pains t© give them the 

 ered pofture very eaily, they would continue to walk upon all four 

 as long as the children of the Hottentots and Carribbees do; and if 

 they were allowed to run wild as long as the Saxon favage did, they 

 would be ereded with as much difficulty as he was, to whofe fhoul- 

 ders they were obliged to hang weights, to counterad that natural 

 propenfity he had to fall prone ; and which would be as ftrong ia 

 our children, if bj cuftom, from their eaxlieft infancy, it were not 



toatt'iciaifkd! 



Now, from a quadruped, and a creature only capable of Intelled 

 and fcience, what a wonderful progrefs to man in his prefent ftate. 

 And firft, as to body, what a difference betwixt fuch an animal, and 

 the noble, ered, ftately figures of the heroic age, or even of fuch men 

 as we are : And as to the mind, what comparifon can there be be- 

 twixt a mind void of all ideas, and the minds of the Egyptian 

 priefts, or the fages of Greece, replete with fcience and philofophy. 

 Then what a number of arts of neceffity, eafe, pleafure, and ele- 

 gance have been invented by this quadruped, more than I believe 

 have yet been numbered. In (hort he has made a world of art, to 

 which nothing we know can be compared, except the great world 

 of nature, the work of Infinite Wifdom and Power. In forming 

 this world of art, he has ufed all the materials which the natural 

 world afforded him, and has ranfacked the animal, vegetable, and 



mineral 



