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which is the fruit of a tree yielding feed, to

66 you it shall be for meat

*."

In all that admirable variety of appearances which Nature exhibits to our view, the eye of a just observer must ever recognise that beautiful fimplicity and economy which uniformly pervade her works.

ONE man and one woman were fufficient to

people the earth. The creation of more perfons of the human fpecies than one male and one female, who were under the special care of the Divine Being, was unneceffary.

THE first man and woman must have been formed in full poffeffion of those instincts, which lead to felf-prefervation and the propagation of the fpecies. Having come out of the hand of the Creator perfect in their kind, they unerringly obeyed the laws of their nature: they ate of

*Genefis, ch. i. v. 29.

.

the

the fruits of the earth, which grew in profufion around them: they increafed and multiplied. While they remained in the garden of Eden, they were fecure from the attacks of ferocious animals: the bounties of Nature gratified in abundance their appetite for food: there existed not, as yet, any fituations or circumstances to call forth the difplay of those arts of contrivance and ingenuity which the human mind puts in practice in the progressive stages of society.

PRIMEVAL Man, unaffailed by the anxieties which a scanty provifion of food creates, obeyed the dictates of his nature without control: he fed, he flept; or, incited to action by the native enjoyment which is felt in the exercise of the members of the body, he fported in innocence, and gratified the focial difpofition of his

kind.

IN fuch happy ftate it was not the lot of humanity long to continue. Man received from

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of the fun's genial rays, the food of Man grew in profusion before his eyes: prepared by the hand of Nature, it required no degree of human art to make it palatable. Like all other granivorous animals, the human fpecies herded together, and fed in common. The air which they breathed, the water which they drank, the food which they ate, were all equally the bounties of Nature, and were indifcriminately enjoyed in the state of primeval fimplicity.

THE happiest climates are not blessed with a constant fun and a ferene fky. The grateful light periodically withdraws its cheering influence: Man finds himself enveloped in darkness; that feafon in which the fierce tribes of carnivorous animals fally forth from their dens in fearch of their prey. Man muft, therefore, have very early employed his art in building a fufficient fence against fuch dangerous enemies, or have taken the benefit of receptacles already prepared by Nature for his nightly habitation:

Proque

Proque domo longis fpelunca receffibus ingens
Abdita, vix ipfis invenienda feris *.

MAN, advanced in refinement of manners,. and practising those arts of improved civility and studied policy which link together the fubjects of great states, nations, and empires, cannot eafily quit his artificial ftation, and defcend to the level of his primeval ancestors. He is apt to confider the accounts given of early focieties of mankind living in caves, in the holes of rocks, or hollows of trees, as the effufion of poetical fancy, as the offspring of the vain credulity of fabulous hiftorians, or as the invention of travellers who delight in the relation of marvellous things. But the philofophic enquirer will not haflily reject the teftimony of authors recounting facts relative to the original state of Man, because they are inconfiftent with the train of his experience in improved fociety; or because it may be confidered

*Ovid. 1. Faft..

as

as incompatible with the elevation and dignity of station which the human fpecies are observed to hold among all fublunary beings, to be affimilated to the beafts of the field, herding together, cohabiting promifcuously, feeding in common upon the flesh of other animals, or upon fruits, roots, and herbs, without any regular notion of religion, government, arts, or property.

"MISERET atque etiam pudet aflimantem, fit frivola animalium nobiliffimi origo

quam

It is, however, no less unwife than unphilofophical, to give way to fo painful a feeling upon the fubject of the original state of Man's exiftence, whether he is confidered in his individual or aggregate capacity. All things are the work of the Supreme Author of the Universe : from the energy of his power every being

derives his existence.

* Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vii. cap. 7.

Ab

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