Chap. XVr. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 215 



fulphureous vapour, and, in a great town, produces fuch an atmol'- 

 phere, tliat when we fee it at a diftance, we fliould think, if we were 

 not sccuftomed to it, that no animal couki breath in it. 



But q{ fire I have faid a great deal in Vol. III. of this work* ; 

 where I have obferved that the conllant and familiar ufe of fire by 

 man, and his making; it even a neceffary of life, is a moft extraordU 

 nary thing in the hi (lory of our fpecies, when we confider that it is 

 the terror of all other animals, and even of man when he firfl fees it, 

 as I h.ave made evident from the example of the Wild Girl whoni 

 I faw in France, to whom it was at firft both an abhorrence and a 

 terror f . 



That the unnatural heat of fire, befides corrupting the air, mufl 

 produce a great many difeafes among men, I think is certain ; and, 

 accordingly Horace has told us, that, 



Poft ignem aetherea domo 

 SubduiStum, macies et nova febrium 

 Cohors incubuit tern's - 



And when to the unnatural warmth of fire we join the ufe of houfes 

 and clothes, which, befides the unnatural warmth that they like- 

 wife produce, keep from us the free ufe of t!ie air, an element fo ne- 

 ceflary for our exiftence ; — and when to all this is added our unnatu- 

 ral diet, I fay it again, that it is abfolutely impolfible, by the nature of 

 things, that we fhould live fo long, or continue fo long in health, as 

 by God and Nature we are deftined to do, unlefs we could fuppofe 

 that man has invented for himfelf a better life than God has def- 

 tined he fhould live. 



As, therefore, men live in fo unnatural a way, eating the food of 

 an animal of quite a different kind, I mean a carnivorous animal, 



and 

 * Page 38. and following. f Vol. IV. p. 33. 



