hap. VI. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 461 



ing, whom they call the Great Spirit, and in whofe name they make 

 their treaties. 



And this may fuffice for the hiftory of Religion, of which, I think, I 

 have faid as much as was proper in a work of this kind. 1 have aUb 

 given the hiftory of Arts and Sciences, and likewife of Government; 

 which, together with Religion, comprehend what I call the Hiftory of 

 Man, at lead in the ftate of civil fociety : For, as intelligence is of 

 the effence of man, and that which diilingulllies him from other 

 animals on this earth, 1 confider his hiftory to be that of the opera- 

 tions of his intelledual faculty, which are all guided and direded by 

 the three things I have mentioned, arts and fciences, government and 

 religion ; as it is by thefe that his chara£ler, fentiments, manners, 

 cuftoms, and inftitutions, are produced. As to the various events 

 that have happened in the feveral nations of this earth, fuch as wars, 

 conquefts, migrations of nations, and revolutions of government, 

 they are the fubje(fl of what is commonly called Hiftory ; but they 

 are no part of what I call the Hiftory of Man: Nor, indeed, do 

 I pay much regard to them in reading the hiftories of particular na- 

 tions, except in fo far as they fhow the charadlers of men; for, 

 otherwife confidered, they are things which might have happened 

 or not happened, and therefore cannot be the fubjed of any fcience. 



And here I conclude this volume of Metaphyfics, which, though it 

 has run out to a great length, much greater than I expedled, does not 

 finilh the hiftory of Man. For I have a great deal to add upon the 

 natural life of man, which neceffarily preceded his life of civility 

 and arts : Then I am to fhow the difference betwixt thefe two lives, 

 and all the evils which arife from the civilifed life : And this will na- 

 turally lead me to that great queftion of Metaphyfics, with which I 

 propofe to conclude this work, concerning the origin of evil in this 

 ftate of man, and how it is to be reconciled with the wifdom ard 



Vol. IV. 3 E goodnefs 



