252 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



cieties of this kind, men can multiply? — Or whether, on the contrary, 

 they muft not neceiTarily decrcafe in their number? That they decreafc 

 in the fize and ftrength of their bodies, I think, I have very clearly 

 proved in the third volume of this work ; and if fo, I think, it is 

 d neceflary confequence, that their lives cannot be fo long. From 

 thence, I think, it may be inferred, that they muft alfo decreafe in 

 numbers, as well as in fize and ftrength of body and in longevity. 

 But, in this chapter, I think, I fhall be able to prove, from the hiftory 

 of man and from fads, that this is the cafe: And I will confider the 

 hiftory of man in three periods, and the population of the earth at 

 each of thefe periods ; ly?. That before the coining of our Saviour ; 

 idly^ Vv'^hat the population was at the time of his coming ; and, 

 lafily^ what it has been after his coming, and what it is at prefent. 



I will begin this proof from lilftory wiih the moft antient as well 

 as the moft authentic hiftory w^e havej I mean the hiftory of the 

 Jews given us by Mofes: From which I Ihall be able to iliow a 

 w^onderful increafe of that nation in antient times. 



The hiftory of this people, as we have it from Mofes, is, I think, a 

 very important part of the hiftory of man; for it is the heft account 

 we have of the family fociety and patriarchal government, which 

 is a fociety that neceflarily muft have preceded the civil fociety: 

 And there is there a proof of a moft curious fad:, that a whole na- 

 tion, and a moft numerous nation too, may come out of the loins 

 of one man, and arife from a fmgle family. Among the nations of 

 North America there is a tradition preferved, that each of them was 

 formed by the coalition of three families : But here it is proved, 

 not by tradition, but by an authentic written record, that the Jew- 

 Ifh nation was formed out of one family, the family of Abraham. 

 This family, after having led a vagrant paftoral life for fome gener- 

 ations in the plains of Afia, fettled at laft in Fgypt, when they were 



under 



