264 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



IN the preceding chapter I have fliown what the ftate of man was 

 with refpe(St to population, and in other refpeits, at the time of 

 our Saviour's coming ; and I am now to fhow what his ftate has 

 been, and is in the laft period I have mentioned. — The time that 

 has pafled fmce the coming of our Saviour. 



From what has been already faid, the reader will not be dlfpofed 

 to think that things are much mended in the laft 1796 years. So 

 far from that, I fhall fliow that they are become very much worfe, 

 and particularly with refped to population, the numbers of men are 

 decreailng fo faft, that our fpecies may be faid to be in a galloping 

 confumption, as the doctors exprefs it. In the firft place, difeafes, 

 which, as I have faid, even in the days of Pliny, amounted to no 

 lefs than 300, are now greatly increafed : For we have difeafes en- 

 tirely unknown to the antients, fuch as the fmall and great pox, and 

 the meafles; which we have imported from different parts of the 

 world: And there are new difeafes, daily appearing, for which our 

 dodors have not names, much lefs cures. 



As to vices, thefe, as I have ftiown in a preceding part of this 

 volume, muft neceflarily increafe in all civil focieties, as they grow 

 older: And there is particularly one vice of modern times, altogether 

 unknown to the antient world, which has increafed in Europe, and 

 particularly in Britain, to a wonderful degree. The vice I mean is, 

 that of fpirit drinking ; by which more people are deflroyed in Eu- 

 rope, than, I believe, by all the other vices put together : And, as 

 the people of Europe trade with fo many diiferent p^rts of the world, 

 they have imported that vice, and a moft fatal difeafe, I mean the 

 fmall-pox, into many other countries, and particularly into America, 

 by which, and the drinking of fpiriis, a confiderable part of North 



America 



