Chap.XVl. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 205 



they fed upon the natural fruits of the earth and drank no wine, 

 we cannot Ukewlfe difbelieve what feveral authors, both Greek and 

 Latin, have told us of the long lives of men *. 



And thus much may fuffice with refpedl to our diet. I come now 

 to fpeak of another thing in our manner of living, which I think of 

 ftill greater confcqucnce ; I mean our houfes and our clothes Of 

 this 1 have faid a good deal in Vol. III. of this workf ; but I think 

 it a matter of fuch confequence, that I will add feveral things here 

 to what I have there faid. 



That the natural life of the brute animals is their beft way of liv- 

 ing, to which their inftiniTt diredts them, I think I have clearly prov- 

 ed in the paflage already referred to ; and particularly from the ex- 

 ample of horfes, which has fallen under my own obfervation : For 

 I have fliown, that by their inftintS they are not dir^-dled to go 

 into a ftable, though the door be open, except to feed ; and, after 

 they have fed, to come out again, even in the moft ftormy nights, 

 and to lye in the fields : And that in a day of wind and rain, when 

 they have an open fl\ade to go into, they will only flicker their 

 heads and ears from the weather, leaving their bodies expofed to 

 it J. There are animals which, by nature, are deftined to live un- 

 der ground, fuch as rnoles ; but man is none of thefe: And, there- 

 fore, I cannot believe that he is an exception to the general law of 

 nature, by which all the other animals of this earth are prompted by 

 their natures, that is, by inftinft, to live in the open air, with the 

 fhelter fometimes of a bank or a thicket, when the weather makes 

 that neceflary. Air, indeed, is the element in which we live, 

 as much as water is the element in which fifli live: And we not 

 only live in it, but wc live by it; nor can we live without it : For 

 we take it in not only by our mouths and noftrils, fo that we could 



not 

 • Sec p. 124. of the fame volume. f Page 78. J^c. % Vol. III. p. 79. 



