preserve'd by him, for that purpose, in the ark: a report apparently inconfiftent with the unchangeable nature of the fupreme being. However this may be, we fhal find, from sufficient authority, that many nations, as wel in the most ancient, if not, the earlyeft times, to even down to our own, have adhere'd to the divine primitive ordinance, whether real or imaginary. The most eminent historians, phyficians, philofophers, and poets of antiquity, agree, that the first generations of men did not eat flesh."* This golden age (first mention'd by Hefiod)+ is more beautifully describe'd by Ovid: "The teeming earth, yet guiltlefs of the plough, * Dr. Mackenzies Hiftory of health, p. 50; where he cites Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Porphyry, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Pliny. It was the opinion of Hippocrates, he fays, that, in the begining, man made ufe of the fame food with the beasts; and to this effect, likewife, quotes Lucretius : "Volgivago vitam tractabant more ferarum" "Like beafts they lay in every wood and cave, Gathering the eafey food that Nature gave." + "The fields as yet until'd, their fruits afford, And fil a fumptuous and unenvy'd board." It is the third age of which he says: "On the crude flesh of beafts they feed alone, Content with food, which Nature freely bred, or, as the inimitable Thomson expresses it: "The food of man, While yet he live'd in innocence and told A length of golden years; unflefh'd in blood, Death, rapine, carnage, furfeit and disease; The Chaldæan magi live'd entirely upon herbs; upon which, and cold water, fome of the Cynicks alltogether fubfifted.§ Zeno, the philofopher, fed heartyly upon figs; though, in his diet, he was very spareing; and a fhort pit * B. 1, v. 101. Dicearchus, according to faint Jerome, relateëd, in his books of Grecian antiquitys, that, dureing the reign of Saturn, when the earth, as yet, was fertile of itsfelf, no man ate flesh, but all live'd upon the fruits and pulfe which were naturally produce'd. (B. 2, To Jovian.) ' Spring. The Lotopbi of Homer were "A hospitable race; Not prone to il, nor ftrange to foreign gueft, They eat, they drink, and Nature gives the feaft; The trees around them all their fruit produce, Lotis the name, divine, nectareous juice." Diogenes Laertius, in his proem. Idem, Life of Menedemus, B. 6. tance of bread and honey, and a small draught of sweet wine, fatisfy'd his hunger.* The inhabitants of Mount-Atlas, in the age of Herodotus, neither ate the flesh of any animal, nor were ever interrupted in their fleep by dreams. Pelasgus, in the most ancient times, is fay'd to have perfuadeed the inhabitants of Arcadia, who fed on nothing but grafs, herbs and roots, fome of which were pernicious, to prefer the produce of the beech-tree. There were Indians, mention'd by Herodotus, the ancestors, no doubt, of the prefent Hindoos, who neither kil'd any animal, nor fow'd feed, nor builded houses, but contented themselves with what the earth freely afforded. § The ancient brachmans, or priests of these Indians, as we are told by Porphyry, ate nothing but fruit * Idem, Life of Zeno, B. 7. + Melpomene. The laws of Draco and Triptolemus, the moft ancient legislators of the Athenians, enjoin'd them to "Honour their parents and kil neither man nor beast. (Diogenes Laertius, in his proem.) Paufanias, B. 8, C. 1. According to his accurate En-' gleish translator, he perfuaded them "to feed on`acorns, though not indiscriminately, but onely thofe which 'grow on the beech-tree':" as if one were to fay of a man that he ate no apples but fuch as grow on a pear-tree. Acorns are peculiar to the oak; the fruit of the beech is mast. § Thalia. and rice, and would have thought themselves guilty of the greatest impiety, if they had touch'd any thing that had had life. The Ægyptians, a most ancient nation, feem to have abftain'd entirely from animal food; which was, probablely, one reason why they abominateëd the Jews, who had continually their fingers in the flesh-pots; the onely fubject of their lamentation when banish'd out of the country.† Talk to an Ægyptian, fays Origen, til your heart ake, and your breath fail you, yet he wil be fo far from renounceing his religion, that he wil perfift in it, if it be posfible, with greater obftinacy than before, and rather dye than be guilty of fo horrid a profanation, as he accounts it, as to eat and pollute the facred flesh of animals Diodorus fays it was reported that the Egyptians, in ancient times, fed upon nothing but roots and herbs, and colewort leaves, which grew in the fens and bogs; but above all, and most commonly, upon the herb * Of abftinence. + "The children of Ifrael allfo wept again, and say'd, Who fhall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick." (Num. XI, 5.) The vegetables they ate freely, the flesh by stealth, Against Celfus, B. 1, C. 42. called agrostis, because it was sweeter than any other, and very nourishing to mens bodys; and it is very certain, he ads, that the cattle much covet it, and grow very fat with it.* "The Hylophages wood-eaters), together with their wives and children," as is relateëd by the fame ancient historian, " go into the fields and climb the trees, and feed upon the buds and tender branches; and, by constant usage and practice, are fo nimble in geting up to the top of the highest branch that it seems allmost incredible. They skip from tree to tree, like fo many birds, and mount up upon the slendereft branches without the leaft hazard: for, being very flender and light-body'd people, if their feet fail, they catch hold with their hands; nay, if they fall down from the very top of the tree, they are fo light, they get no harm. They eafeyly chew every juicey twig of the tree, and as eafeyly concoct them. They allways go naked, and make use of their wives promiscuously, and, therefor, all their children they look upon to be common amongst them. They fometimes quarrel one with another for placeës of habitations. Their arms are clubs, with which they both * B. 1, C. 4. |