Chap. Vr. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 63 



venience or neceflity that firft made men herd together. The Ou- 

 rang Outangs affociate for the fame reafc-n that they are armed with 

 a ftick ; that is, to defend themfelves agalnfl the elephants, and to 

 drive them out of their pafture ; alfo to fight with the blacks, and 

 with one another, when they quarrel. And as they build huts, 

 they, no doubt, join in companies for that purpofe. He is there- 

 fore a political animal for the fame reafon that he is gregarious, that 

 Is, for the fake of neceffity and convenience. 



That men, when they were no farther advanced in the focial and 

 political life, lived together in the brutifh way, copulating promif- 

 cuoufly, without diftindlion of families or races, is evident from an- 

 tient hiftory *. And indeed men could not be faid to be removed 

 from the brutes, when they only herded together, and carried on 

 fome work jointly for the behoof of the whole herd ; for there are 

 fundry fpeciefes of brutes that herd together for that purpofe, parti- 

 cularly the beaver, an animal which refembles man in this parti- 

 cular, that he can live either by himfelf or in fociety ; and is not, 

 by the neceffity of his nature, Tocial and political, like the bee or 

 ant t« 



Thus 



tlie New Zealanders, will abominate the ufe of their own fpecies for food, though 

 there are fundry examples of their being driven by neceflity to take to it ; and the 

 men, fo neceflitated, have all agreed with the North Americans, mentioned in the 

 pafTage quoted in the beginning of this note, that it is the moft delicious of all flefh. 

 And it is faid, that a lion, that has once tafted human flefh, prefers it to all other : 

 So that here we may fee another excellency of our fpecies, that our flefli is a more 

 deli.ioas food than that of any other animal. 



* Origin of Language, vol. I. book 2d. chap. 3d. 



t Ibid. p. 417. and following, where there are examples given of other animals 

 living in the fame way. 



