Chap. IX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 317 



by which kingdoms and empires are armed againft one another, and 

 wonderful havoc is made of the human fpecies. 



It may appear ftrange that no hiftorian or philofopher, of antient 

 times, feems to have had any idea of fuch an end of our fpecies. Some 

 of the antient philofophers appear to have been convinced that man, in 

 his prefent ftate, was a degenerated and miferable animal ; and that it 

 was not confiftent with the goodnefs of God that he fhould for ever 

 remain in that ftate: And, therefore, they held that there was to be a 

 renovation of the fpecies, or a ^ctXi^/^sv <r.a, as they called it. But nei- 

 ther hiftorian nor philofopher, of the Antient World, appear to have 

 had any notion of the fpecies cealing to exift in the way 1 fuppofe. 

 Diodorus Siculus,. who fpeaks fo much of the depopulation of the 

 earth in his time *, does not give the leaft hint of his believing th it it 

 was, in procefs of time, to be wholly depopulated. But if he had iived 

 to fee fuch depopulation as is in modern times, very much greater 

 than any that had happened before his time, particularly in the New 

 World, where it is faid that one half of the human race was deftroy- 

 ed + ; — and if he had forefeen the deftrudion made by trade carried 

 on to the moft diftant countries, and by colonies fettled in thofe coun- 

 i tries for the purpofe of carrying on that trade^ and how fatal the Eaft 

 and Weft Indies have been to the nations of Europe ; 1 cannot doubt 

 but that he would have been as much convinced as I am, that this 

 fcene of man is drawing to an end. Whether we can, by compu- 

 tation, fix the period when it is to end, as the author 1 have mention- 

 ed :|: thinks may be done with rcfped to France, I will not pretend 

 to determine. Bur this, I think. I may infer, with great certainty, 

 that, in not very many generations, the whole human fpecies will 

 die out, as we have feen families and even nations do, if fo linger- 

 ing a death be not prevented by fome convuHion of nature. 



If there were any doubt tliat the fpecies Man is to end in not 



many 



* See p. 256, of this vol, t Ibid. p. 55. j ^bitl. p, 071. 



