322 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book VII. 



As man, therefore; in his prefcnt ftate mud have aa cud, fo muft 

 his works. 



And here I conclude this Hiftory of Man in the civilized ftate ; 

 ^vhich I have endeavoured to make as complete as I could, by fliow- 

 inf^ how this flate began, and how it is to end. In it man is as va- 

 rious and as wonderful an animal, as he is in his progrefs to it : For 

 as I have obferved before*', from Horace, 



. quot cnpituni vivunt, totidem ftudioruni 



Millia.- 



Here Horace fpeaks only of the country and the civil fociety in which 

 he lived : But when we donfider how many civil focieties there are, 

 and have been upon earth, of polities and conftitutions quite diffe- 

 rent and, confequently, productive of characters and manners quite 

 different, the variety of men, in thofe leveral locieties that are or 

 have been, muft appear moft wonderful, and even incredible, to 

 thofe who have not ftudied the hiftory of man, but the hiftory only 

 of fome few particular nations. But thofe, who have ftudied the hif- 

 tory of man in a more general and liberal manner, will know, with 

 the greateft certainty, that he is the moft curious and moft wonder- 

 ful animal upon this earth, more fo than all the other animals put 

 together : Nor fhould we be furprifed that he is fo various an ani- 

 mal, when we confider that he is in himfclf a little world, contain- 

 ing a portion of every thing in the great world, viz. body, animal and 

 vegetable hfe, and, fuperadded to all thefe, an intelledtual mind, by 

 which he is diftinguiihed from every other animal here below. 

 This is his natural compofition ; and if he were not fo much con- 

 nected with us, as he is by being of the fame fpecies, yet the 

 ftudy of him would be, to a philofopher and lover of knowledge, a 

 matter of the greateft curiofity ; infinitely greater than the ftudy of 



flies 



*t 



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