Chap. Vlir. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 



97 



property afligned to them, without which no ftate or community 

 can fubfift, and were taught arts by which that property was to be 

 made ufeful. 



From what I have faid of the Indians in their wild flate, and the 

 methods that were ufed to civiUfe them, the following obfervationa 

 naturally arife. 



In ihefrjl place, it may be obferved, that though men may be af^ 

 fociated and live together, yet, if there be not government among them, 

 not even the family government, fo that every man does ivhat feemeth- 

 good in his oivn ejes, (the defcription which our fcripture gives us 

 of the worft ftate that I think men can be in), it is impoffible, by 

 the nature of things, but that in fuch a fociety there muft be the 

 greateft diforder. And when to that diforder is added the intem- 

 perate ufe of ftrong liquors, by which the diforderly paffions of fuch 

 men muft be very much inflamed : — And when to all this is added 

 the flefh diet, carried to fuch excefs as to make men devour every 

 thing of the animal life that comes within their reach, even their 

 own fpecies, the moft unnatural of all food, and fuch as no 

 land animal except man ufes, the diforders in fuch a fociety muft 

 go to fuch an excefs, as to make man a wild beaft, and vvorfe than 

 any other wild beaft which does not feed upon his own fpecies. 

 In fuch a fociery there can be no fenfe of the Pulchrum and Honcf- 

 ttini, which is the foundation of all virtue among men, and of eve- 

 ry generous and noble fentiment. Of this, it is obferved by Diodo- 

 rus Siculus and other writers, that nations living in the brutal ftate, 

 though not in a ftate fo brutal as that of the wild Indians, are in- 

 tirely void. And Polybius has very well obferved, tiiat this fenfe 

 comes to men only when government is eftablilhed among them : For, 

 though it be as natural to man as intellect and fcience, yet he has, in 

 the firft ftages of his progreflion, only the capacity of acquiring it as 

 Vol. IV. N well 



