Chap. VI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 285 



man race, as never was heard of in any other age or country. T am per- 

 fiiaded the mortality is not near fo great in other towns of Fngland ;, 

 but, I believe, it will be found to be in proportion to the fize of the 

 towns : In Manchefter, for example, it is certainly not fo great af in 

 London, yet it is very great when compared with the mortility of a lit- 

 tle town in its neighbourhood, viz. Monton *. When fo many children 

 and young perfons die of this difeafe, it muft be the confequence of the 

 difeafes or weaknefl'es of the parents ; and if there were no other 

 reaion to make one believe that we liy;e in a worfe manner than any 

 antient nation, this is fufficient : For there is no example in antient 

 times of fuch a mortality among children; fo great, that, I am perfua- 

 ded, not a fourth of thcfe that are born live to be men and women. 

 Of this my father's family is a melancholy example; for of 17 

 children, that my mother bore, only four lived to be men and 

 women. 



That there v/as no fuch mortality among children, in thofe very 

 antient times recorded by Mofes, is evident ; for we have from him 

 a very particular account of the children of the antient Patriarchs^ 

 particularly of thofe of Abraham and Jacob, not one of whom is" 

 laid to have died under age. 



The next moft antient record that we have, is the writings of 

 Homer ; where we have recorded the geneologies of many of the- 

 heroes of Greece, but no mention made of any of their children 

 dying under age. That in later times, among the Greeks, fome 

 children may have died young, 1 do not doubt ; but if as many, or 

 near as many, of them had died as among us, I think it mull have 

 been mentioned by fome of their hiftorians or phyficians. And I fay 

 the fame with regard to the Romans, among whom there is one au- 

 thor, who, as I have faid f, treats of difeafes, and mentions the num- 



N n 2 ber 



* See what I have faid of the mortality of Manchefter and Monton, in vol. 3. p. 195.. 



t Page 85. 



