304 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



nations, men multiplied Co very faft, that they could not be main- 

 tained, neither by the iiatural fruits of the earth nor by thofe which 

 agriculture produced, without the ufe of both flefh and fifh. In 

 Egypt I think it was impolhblc that the wonderful numbers of men 

 there could have been maintained, even in that moft fruitful country 

 upon the grain produced in it by agriculture, without ufing for 

 food both the fifli that the river afforded and the land animals. 

 Even in later times, when we hear of men multiplying fo faft in 

 fome nations, particularly in Latium, where the Romans, before 

 their Rate was 500 years old, fent out 30 colonies*, I think the peo- 

 ple muft have fed, not only upon corn, but upon the animals 

 which their country and its rivers produced : And in general the 

 multiplication of men in thofe lirft ages of civil fociety was fo great, 

 that the fruits of the earth could not fupport them without feeding 

 upon animals. 



By what I have faid here I do not mean to retradl what I have 

 clfewhere maintained, that the natural food of man, and confequently 

 the moft wholefome, is the fruits of the earth not flefli or filh : And 

 I think a demonftrative proof of this is, that we recover our health 

 by the vegetable diet, which we could not have done, if we had 

 continued to feed upon flefli. Now what will recover health, when 

 it is loft, is certainly more proper for preferving it than any other 

 diet. 



And here an objedion may be made to the wifdom and goodnefs 

 of God, That man, the nobleft animal, and the governing animal, 

 on this earth, £hould be reduced to the neceffity of eating a food, 

 which is not natural to him and which of confequence muft be hurtful 

 to his health and muft tend to fhorten his life. But to this I anfwer, 

 that, the firft commandment given to man was to increafe and multi- 



we 



» Vol. V. p. 266. 



