194 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



wifdom and goodnefs of God, to fuppofe that he had fo framed the 

 nobleft animal on this earth, and the image of himfelf, as to be the 

 only animal liable to thofe internal diforders, we call difeafes ; and, 

 accordingly, we do not read of any one of the Antedeluvian Patri- 

 archs, who all lived upon the natural fruits of the earth, without 

 the ufe of flefh or of ftrong liquors, though we have a very parti- 

 cular account of their lives and deaths, that died of any difeafe. 



As to the eating of fleflii — If it were eaten aUvays with vegetables, 

 and ufed only to give a relifh to vegetables, which is the way I eat 

 it, I am perfuaded it would not produce near fo many difeafes : 

 "Whereas, if it be eaten in great quantities, as it was by the inhabi- 

 tants of Paraguay, whofe only food it appears to have been before 

 they were civilifed, or, as it may be more properly expreffed, hu- 

 mani%td by the Spaniards*, it produces a great number of difeafes, 

 even without the ufe of ftrong liquors, whicli the Paraguains had 

 not • for, as we are told, they were more difeafed than any other 

 barbarous nation. 



The other fource of the mlfery of man, in the civilifed ftate, does 

 not proceed from his indulgence in fenfual pleafuies, but from the 

 intellecl itfelf ; for it proceeds from the fenfe of the Beautiful, the 

 TO KoO.ov of the Greeks and the pidchrum and hrntjtuin of the La- 

 tins. When a proper ufe is made of this lenfe, it is, as I have 

 fhown, the foundation of virtue, and alfo of religion: For there can 

 be no true religion without a fenfe of the beauty of holinofs; and, as 

 beauty is the obje£t of love, the love of God is alfo a nectflary part 

 of religion, and Jove, as our Scripture tells us, without any mixture of 

 fear f . But in the fenfe of the beautiful, as in other tilings, our im- 

 perfect 



* See Vol. IV. of this work, p. 98. 



t See what I have fnid at fome length on this fubjei.% in p. 391. of Vol. IV. of this 

 ■work. 



