Chap. IX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 321 



is faid that 200,000 people perifhed. By fuch calamities happening 

 often, and in many countries of the earth, the human race will cf- 

 cape that lingering death with which it is threatened, and have a 

 much better exit than if it were to be feveral generations in dying 

 out. 



I have only further to add, that fome of my readers may think it 

 inconfiftent with the goodnefs and mercy of God, that the civilized 

 ftate, in which he has placed us, fhould have produced fo much mi- 

 fery, as I fay it has done. But it was not God who placed us in 

 that ftate ; it was man himfelf that did fo by his fall, which made 

 that ftate neceffary for recovering the intelligence that he had loft ; 

 For I fhall prove, in the next volume, where 1 am to inquire con- 

 cerning the origin of evil, that as man loft the ufe of his intelled 

 by the abufe he made of that free-will, which is efTential to every 

 intelligent animal, he could not recover it but by a better ufe of his 

 free-will, and by the cultivation of his intellect by arts and fciences, 

 which could not be except in a ftate of civil fociety. So that if man 

 had been otherwife reftored to the ufe of it, it would have been con- 

 trary to the natural order of things, and to that fyftem, which we 

 muft fuppofe in the univerfe, as it is the produdion of infinite wif- 

 dom. 



Nor fl-iould we be furprlfed that man fliould be changed from the 

 ftate of civil fociety, in which he is at prefent, to another ftate, 

 when we confider what changes have been on this earth by land 

 being turned into water and water into land, and even in the hea- 

 vens, by ftars appearing and difappearing. Now, thcfe are the 

 works of God in which thofe changes have happened. But civil 

 fociety is the work of man, for a moft ufeful purpofe indeed ; but 

 ftill it is his work. Now, 



Debemur morti nos noftraque. 



Horat. Ars Poet'icci. 



Vol. V. S s As 



