Chap. VI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 397 



mufic, that the mofl: favage people we read of, the Paraguayfe, were 

 converted to Chriftianity ; and, I am perluaded, if it were more 

 ufed by the MiiTionaries, among the barbarous nations, they would 

 fucceed better. 



As to the time when our Saviour came to eftablilh his religion on 

 this earth, I have obfers'^ed that it was in xhtfulnefs of time, accord- 

 ing to Scripture language, with refpe£t to arts and fciences ; and I 

 will now fhow, that it was alfo in fulnefs of time with regard to the 

 ftate of the human ipecies at that time. That men are at prefent 

 very much degenerated both in mind and body, and that they live 

 in fuch a way that their numbers are daily decreafmg, I think, I have 

 clearly proved in the third volume of this work. As to numbers, 

 I think, I will prove very clearly in the fequel of this work, that 

 they are decreafed, and continually decreafmg fo much, that, in 

 not very many generations, the fpecies mufl die out, though it were 

 not to be deftroyed by any convulfion of nature, fuch as is fore- 

 told in our facred books. Now, this degeneracy of man, and de- 

 folation of the earth, was begun, and had gone on for many years, 

 before the days of Auguftus Cxfar. The great empires of the Af- 

 fyrians, Medes, Perfians, and Macedonians, no longer exifled. Of 

 all thofe antient empires, none remained but the Roman, which was 

 eftablillied at a great expence of the human fpecies, even in Italy 

 itfclf, the feat of that empire ; for Italy was fo much depopulated, 

 that colonies were brought from other countries to repeople it; 

 and particularly Conftantine the Emperor fettled there 300,000 Sar- 

 matians*. As to arts and fciences, they were likewife upon the de- 

 cline. Egypt, once the fountain and feat of all arts and fciences, from 

 which they were propagated all over the world, and which, at one 

 time, was the beft governed country that ever exifted, had become, 

 in the days of Auguftus Cxfar, a Roman province, not famous for 

 arts and fciences, nor for any thing elfe. Greece was no longer the 



country 

 * Vol. V. of Origin of Language, p. 25. 



