40 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



. cum jam glandes atque arbuta facrae 



Deficerent fylvae, et vidum Dodona negaret, 



then, and not till then, they took to hunting and fifliing ; for a 

 flefli or filh diet I hold to be unnatural to man, as unnatural as to aa 

 horfe or ox *. But fo pliable is the human conftitution, that he can 

 fuit himfelf to it, and even become very fond of it ; and it was fit 

 that he fliould be fuch an animal, as he was deftined, by God and 

 Nature, to fpread all over the earth, and to live in every country 

 and climate of it. 



That man, before he took to agriculture, lived upon the natural 

 fruits of the earth, and by hunting and fifhing, is well known to 

 thofe who have (ludied the hiftory of man in antient books. Dio- 

 dorus Siculus f has given us an account of many favage nations in 

 India, and upon the coafts of the Red Sea, who lived altogether up- 

 on the natural fruits of the earth, or upon hunting and fifliing, 

 which they pradifed in many different ways, fome of them very ex- 

 traordinary ; and 1 think this is a very curious and entertaining part 

 of his work, which is preferved to us, as it {hews us that man, in his 

 diet and manner of life, as well as in other refpeds, is the moft va- 

 rious animal on this earth. But it is not neceflary that we {hould 

 go to antient books, to be informed that man can live in that way, 

 and even prefer it to the life of agriculture ; For a great part of the 

 Tartars at this day live in that way, travelling in hords from place to 

 place in fearch of food ; and it is an execretion among them, That a 

 man may be condemned to live in one place, and to labour like a Ruf- 

 fian. But in this nomad life, men could have no regular polity, nor be 



governed 



* That it was necefflty which Erft drove men to this unnatural diet, is the opi- 

 nion of Plutarch, a-s^i s-u^xo^ayix;, p. 4j6. cdit. Frobein. 



\ Book 3d. cap. ij. and fol'.owing. 



