MAMMALIA. PRIMATES. Man. 5 t 



** ings which thou feeft, and all that thy imagination can fuppofe to exift hereafter ; 

 " for death calls equally upon all, whether they be good, or whether they be evil." 

 Seneca, ii. 59. 



$ 4. Naturally. — Jnnocuo vivite, Numen adeft ! 



Man, the Prince of animated beings, who is a miracle of Nature, and for whom all. 

 things on this earth were created, is a mimic animal, weeping, laughing, finging, i'peak- 

 ing ; tractable, judicious, inquifitive, and moft wife ; he is weak and naked, unprovided 

 with natural weapons, expoled to all the injuries of fortune, needful of afliitance from 

 others, of an anxious mind, folicitous of protection, continually complaining, change- 

 able in temper, obftinate in hope, and flow in the acquilition of wifdom. He defpifes 

 the time which is pall , abufes that which is prefent, and fets his affections on the un- 

 certain future ; thus, continually neglecting winged time, which, though infinitely pre- 

 cious, can never be recalled : For thus the belt and readied time, in every age, flies 

 on with miferable mortals ; fome it fummons to attend their daily and burthenfome 

 labours ; fome it confines to luxurious inaction, pampered, even to fuffocation, with 

 fuperfluities ; fome it folicits in the ever reftlefs paths of ambition ; fome it renders 

 anxious for the acquifition of wealth, and diftreffes by the pofTeffion of the thing de- 

 fired ; fome it condemns to folitude, and others to have their doors continually crouded 

 with vifitors ; here one bewails the conduct of his children, there one grieves their 

 lofs : Tears will fooner fail us than their caufes, which only oblivion can remove. " On 

 " every hand our evils overbalance our advantages ; we are furrounded with dangers ; 

 " we rufh forwards into untried fituations ; we are enraged without having received 

 " provocation ; like wild beafts, we defiroy thofe we do not hate ; we wifh for favou- 

 " rable gales, which lead us only to deftrudion ; the earth yawns wide, ready for our 

 " death." Seneca. — " Other animals unite together againft enemies of a kind different 

 " from their own, while man fuffers moft injuries from his own fpecies." Pliny. 



§ 5. Politically. — Eflo antiqua virtuie et fide ! 



Man, infiead of following that which is right, is fubjecled to the guidance of mani-. 

 feft error ; this envelops all his faculties, under the thick veil of cuflom, as foon as he 

 is born ; according to its dictates he is fed, educated, brought up, and directed, in all 

 things ; and by its arbitrary rules his honefty, fortitude, wifdom, morality, and reli- 

 gion, are judged of; thus, governed by opinion, he lives conformably to cuflom, in- 



G 2 ftead 



