Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 303 



the Greeks ufe a food, v.-hich appears flill more unnatural, as it 

 comes not from the earth, but from another element ; I mean ^Jh, 

 which Homer tells us *, the crew of Ulyfles's fhip were obliged to 

 kill and eat for want of other food. 



And this neceflity of eating flefh may ferve to explain to us what 

 we read in fcripture. When man was created, though he got do- 

 minion over all the animals in the fea, in the air, and on the earth, we 

 are told that he got for food only the herbs bearing feed and the 

 fruit of trees, (Gen. Chap. I. v. 28 and 29) ; while in the next 

 verfe God gives to the hearts of the earth and the fowls of the air 

 every green herb for meat : So that here a difference is made betwixt 

 the food of man and of brutes ; for man gets for food every herb 

 bearing feed and every tree of which the fruit yields feed ; whereas 

 the hearts get for food only green herbs. But after the flood God 

 gives to Noah and his family for food every moving thing that 

 liveth ; evefi as the gi-een herh^ have I given yon all things \. And 

 as in the preceding verfe, he had given into their hands not only 

 the hearts of the earth and the fowls of the air, but the fifhes of the 

 fea, I think it is evident that he gave them for food /ijh as well as 

 jftcjh ; only the bloody which, it is faid, is the li/e of the animal 

 they are forbidden to eat %. Now it appears that immediately after 

 the flood, when by it the natural fruits of the earth were dertroyed 

 and when there was no time for raifing corn by cultivation, it was 

 neceffary that man fhould be fupported by eating both flefli and fifh. 

 And in this way I think the difference, betwixt the diet prefcribed to 

 man after his creation and that now allowed him after the flood 

 may be accounted for. 



But even after agriculture was invented and praQifcd by many- 

 nations, 



* OdyfTey XII. v. 331. 

 ■J- Genefis, Chap. IX. v. 3. 

 % Ibid. V. 4. 



