Chap. VIII. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 99 



roots of the fern and what fifh they can catch ; and have no ufe 

 at ail of ftrong liquors. And it appears that they have a regular 

 government, and pra£lice an art, of which there could be no ufe 

 except in a regular and a free government, I mean the Rhetorical 

 Art *. How different the charader and manners of thefe two na- 

 tions muft be from thofe of the wild Indians, is evident at firfl 

 fight. And the truth appears to be, that, as I have elfewhere ob- 

 ferved f, man, while he is yet a mere animal with only the capacity 

 of being a rational creature, is not a focial, and much lefs a political, 

 animal ; for, as Marcus Antoninus has very vi'ell obferved in his 

 Meditations, be is Political becaufe he is Rational J. We are not 

 therefore to wonder that the Indians of Paraguay, living without 

 arts or civility, and feeding only upon flefli, and even the flefh of 

 their own fpecies, and having their paffions inflamed by the mod 

 intemperate ufe of ftrong liquors, l"hould be fo favage and wild a 

 people as they are defcribed by the Jefuits. 



I will now proceed to make fomc refledions upon the methods 

 that were ufed to recover the Paraguaife from fo barbarous a ftate. 

 The firft method 1 mentioned was Religion, without which, as I 

 have faid, no nation ever was clviliied. For, the belief of a power 

 fuperior to man, I hold to be abfolutely neccflary, when men have 

 come to think at all, or to have any ufe of reafon ; nor do I be- 

 lieve, that there either is or ever was any aflemblage of men, deferv- 

 ing the name of a nation, that did not believe that there are pow- 

 ers that govern in this world, infinitely fuperior to man. This no 

 man, who thinks and obferves what palTes around him, can doubt 

 of. Upon fuch powers he will fuppofe that his happinefs or mife- 

 ry muft depend ; and he will naturally believe them to be moved, 

 as he himfelf is, by fupplications and intreaties ; and that they will 



N a favour 



• Origin of Language, vol. VI. p. 4. 



t Page 62. of this Volume. 



% E»-Ti T» ^«Y(ii«r, tvlvf %mi To^iTtJcsF, Meditat, Lib. tO. 



