Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 243 



be contrary to nature, and unfit for anfwering the purpofe for which 

 it was intended, viz. the reftoring of man to the ufe and exercife of 

 intelle£t; but the fadt truly is, that, in the firft ages of civil fociety, 

 men multiply more than in the natural ftate, for the reafon I have 

 mentioned, and for another reafon, that fociety is then free of thofe 

 vices and difeafes, and thofe unhealthy occupations which confume fo 

 many men in the advanced ages of fociety. • 



The confequence of this multiplication of men, in the firft ages 

 of civil fociety, was, that their country could not maintain them. 

 Hence thofe migrations of nations in antient times, which were 

 then fo frequent, that they make a great part of the hiftory of thofe 

 times: And v/hat Thucydides fays of Greece*, " That antiently it 

 " was no^ firmly ovjiably inhabited," is true of all countries in thofe 

 antient times ; for one nation firft drove another out of a country, 

 and then was driven out in its turn by new comers. 



Of thefe migrations of nations I think it is proper to give here fome 

 account, as I reckon them a very important part of the hiftory of 

 man: And I will begin with the migrations from Egypt, which I am 

 perfuaded were greater than from any one country of this earth. Of 

 thefe I have fpoken pretty fully in the fourth volume of this workf. 

 Here I will only add, that, as I believe no people ever were 

 more attached to their natale fi)lum than the Egyptians, it could 

 not be any diflike of their own country that made them leave it, 

 but only the want of the neceffaries of life : For they increafed 

 fo faft, that Egypt, though the moft fertile country in the world, 

 being every year made a new country by the overflowing of the 

 Nile, and that river abounding very much both in fifh and in herbs, 

 proper for the maintenance of man, could not maintain its inhabi- 



H h 2 tants; 



* Thucydides, in the beginning of his hiftory: His vrords tin 

 \- Book 3. Chap. 11 and 2. 



