Chap. XV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 193 



is what we call iv'ickednefs , vicCy ox folly. Tt was the confeqnence of 

 the fall of man, towards the recovery of which he cannot make any 

 progrefs in this life, as I have fhown, except by civil focicty. Now, 

 as in civil fociety man is not governed as lie was in the natural ftate, 

 tiiat is by inftind as the brutes arc, but by his own reafon forming an 

 opinion of what is good or ill, it was impoffible that, with a weak 

 intelied, very much weaker than that which ho had before his fall, 

 he iTiould not fall into many errors, and confequenily make him- 

 felf very unhappy; which I have fliown ia the preceding volume 

 to be the cafe. 



Here, I think, it is proper to obferve, that there are two fources of 

 moral evil in this life, both of them arifing from our wrong judgment 

 of what is good or ill. The flrft is indulgence in all the pleafures of 

 fenfe, of which the civilifed life affords very many more than are 

 to be found in the natural life, in which men can only indulge their 

 appetites with the natural produdtions of the earth, in the lame way 

 that brutes, fuch as horfcs and oxen, do. Now, the indulgence of 

 our appetites with all the luxuries and delicacies, both of eating and 

 drinking, which the arts of man have lurniflied, muft neceffarily de- 

 prave our intelledt, and make it employ itfelf in devifing means for 

 gratifying thefe appetites, inftead of employing itfelf in its improve- 

 ment and progrefs towards a better ftate. And not onlv is the 

 Gonfequence of this indulgence in fcnfual pleafure very great with 

 refpedt to the mind ; but when it is accompanied, as it commonly 

 is, with indolence and eafe, it produces difeafes without numbe?, 

 and thefe not confined to the parents, but going to the children, 

 and fo affeding the whole race. Man, living in the natural way, that 

 is, upon the fruits of the earth, and v^rithout the ufe of flefh prepar- 

 ed by fire or of wine or ftrong liquors of any kind, I hold not to be 

 liable to any difeafe, any more than the other animals of this earth 

 that live in the natural way: And, indeed, it would be impeaching the 

 Vol. VI. B b wifdom 



