Nature has

been kinder to Man than is

Nature has fhewn a Tenderness to all her Creatures univerfally, and there is not one which fhe has not amply furnished with all the Means neceffary for the Prefervation of its Being: commonly ima- For, as to the vulgar Complaints which I gined. hear Men make (the Extravagance of whofe Notions lifts them up, one while, to the Clouds, and then finks them down to the Antipodes) that we are the only Animal abandoned naked upon the bare Earth, tied and bound, not having wherewithal to arm and cloath himfelf, but by robbing the other Animals; whereas all the other Creatures are covered, by Nature, with Shells, Husks, Bark, Hair, Wool, Prickles, Leather, Down, Feathers, Scales, Fleece, and Briftles, according as is neceffary for their Existence; armed with Claws or Talons, Teeth and Horns, for Attack as well as Defence ; and Nature itself has equipped them with what is neceffary for their Swimming, Running, Flying, Singing; whereas Man knows neither how to walk, fpeak, eat, or do any Thing but weep, without ferving a fort of Apprenticefhip to it.

Tum porrò puer, ut fævis projectus ab undis,
Navita nudus humi jacet infans, indigus omni
Vitali auxilio, cùm primùm in luminis oras
Nexibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,
Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut æquum eft,
Cui tantum in vitâ reftet tranfire malorum.
At varie crefcunt pecudes, armenta, feræque,
Nec crepitacula eis opus eft, nec cuiquum adbibenda eft
Alma nutricis blanda atque infracta loquela:
Nec varias quærunt veftes pro tempore cæli:
Denique non armis opus eft, non mænibus altis,
Queis fua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia largè,
Tellus ipfa parit, naturaque dadala rerum.

Like to the wretched Mariner, when toft
By raging Seas upon the defart Coast,

a Lucret. lib. v..v. 223,-235

The

The Infant is caft naked on the Earth,
Wanting Life's Neceffaries at its Birth:
When Nature firft prefents it to the Day,
Freed from the Mother's Womb in which it lay;
Straight with most doleful Cries it fills the Room,
Too fure Prefages of its woeful Doom:

But Beasts, both wild and tame, greater and less,
Do of themselves in Bulk and Strength increafe;
They need no Rattle, nor the broken Chat,
By which the Nurfe coaxes its Child to prate :
They look not out for diff'rent Robes to wear,
According to the Seafons of the Year;
Nor for their Safety Citadels prepare,
Nor forge the murd'rous Inftruments of War;
Since Earth uncultivated freely grants,

And Nature's lavish Hands fupply their Wants.

Thefe Complaints, I fay, are falfe: There is, in the Policy of the World, a greater Equality, and a more uniform Relation. Our Skins are as good a Defence for us against bad Weather, as theirs; witness the several Nations who have not yet known the Ufe of Cloaths. Our ancient Gauls were but flenderly clad, no more than the Irish, our Neighbours, in fo cold a Climate. But we may better judge of this by ourselves, for all thofe Parts of the Body that we are pleased to expose to the Air, are very able to bear it If there be a tender Part about us, which is moft likely to fuffer by Cold, it must be the Stomach, in which Digestion is performed, and yet our Ancestors always went open-breafted; and our Ladies, as tender and delicate as they are, go fometimes bare as low as the Navel. Neither is the Binding and Swathing of Infants more neceffary, for the Lacedemonian Mothers' brought up their Children by leaving their Limbs to all the Freedom of Motion, without any Ligature at all. Our Infancy Cries are common to most of the other Animals, there being scarce any but what are obferved to groan and bemoan themselves a long Time after their Birth, forafmuch as it is a Behaviour fuitable to their weak Condition.

M 2

Plutarch, in the Life of Lycurgus, ch. 13.

As

1

As to the Practice of Eating, it is in us, as it is in them, natural, and without Inftruction.

C

Sentit enim quifque fuam quam poffit abuti .

i. e.

For ev'ry one foon finds his nat❜ral Force,
Which he, or better, may employ, or worse.

Who doubts but an Infant, when come to be able to feed itself, may make a Shift to get its living; and the Earth produces wherewithal to fupply its Neceffity without Culture or other Art; and, if not at all Times, neither does it fo to the Beafts; witnefs the Provifion we fee the Ants and other Creatures hoard up against the barren Seasons of the Year. Those Nations, lately discovered with Meat and natural Drink, without Care and without Cookery, demonftrate to us, that Bread is not our only Food, and that, even without Tillage, had plentifully furnished us with all that is neceffary for us; nay, as it is probable, more copiously and richly than fhe does now that we have mingled our Art with it

;

Et tellus nitidas fruges vinetaque læta
Sponte fuâ primum mortalibus ipfa creavit :
Ipfa dedit dulces fœtus, et pabula leta,
Quæ nunc vix noftro grandefcunt auta labore,
Conterimufque boves, et vires agricolarum .

i. e.

The Earth did first spontaneously afford

d

Choice Fruits and Wines to furnish out the Board;
With Herbs and Flow'rs unfown in verdant Fields,
But scarce by Art fo good a Harvest yields;
Though Men and Oxen mutually have strove,
With all their utmost Force, the Soil t' improve.

the Debauchery and Irregularity of our Appetites being too great for any Thing that we can invent to fatisfy them.

As to Arms, we have more, that are natural, than most of the other Animals; more various Motions of the Limbs, and acquire more Service from them by Nature, and

Lucret. lib. v. v. 1032.

Lucret. lib. ii. v. 1157, &c.

and without Inftruction. Those who are Man is furtrained up to fight naked, are fure to throw nifhed with themselves into the like Hazards that we do. natural WeaIf any of the Beafts furpafs us in this Ad- pons..... vantage, we furpafs many others: And as to the Induftry of fortifying the Body, and guarding it by acquired Means, we have it by the Inftinct and Law of Nature. So the Elephant grinds and whets the Teeth he makes Ufe of in War (for he has particular Teeth for that Service, which he fpares, and never puts to any other Ufe.) When the Bulls go to fight, they tofs and throw the Duft all round them. The wild Boars whet their Tufks; and the Ichneumon, when he is to engage with the Crocodile, fortifies his Body, covers and crufts it all over with a flimy fort of well-mixed Mud, which sticks to him like a Cuirass; and, may we not fay, 'tis as natural for us to arm with Wood and Iron ?

As to Speech, 'tis certain, that, if it be not natural, it is not neceffary; yet 'tis my Opinion, that, if Whether Speech an Infant was to be brought up in a De- is natural to fart, remote from all Society with Mankind, Man, (which would be a Trial very hard to make) he wouldhave fome kind of Speech to exprefs his Meaning by :: And 'tis not to be supposed, that Nature has denied us the Means which it has given to feveral other Animals: For what is it but Speech, that Faculty, which we difcern in. them, of complaining, rejoicing, calling to one another for Help, and the Invitations of one another to Love; all which they exprefs by different Sounds? The Beafts And why should they not speak to one ano- have a Lanther? They speak to us, and we to them: In guage of their how many feveral Tones do we speak to our Dogs, and they answer us? We converfe with them in, another fort of Stile, and with other Appellations than we do with Birds, Swine, Oxen, Horfes; and alter the Idiom according to the Species.

Cofi per entro loro fchiera bruna,
S'ammufa l'una con l'altra formica,
Forfe afpiar lor via, et lor fortuna ".

M 3

own.

• Dante nel Purgatorio, Cant. xxvi. v. 34, &c.

i. e.

i. b.

Thus from one Swarm of Ants fome fally out, To spy another's. Stock, or mark its Rout. Lactantius, I think, attributes to Beafts, not only Speech but Laughter: And the Difference of Language, which is manifeft amongst us, according to the Variety of Countries, is alfo obferved in Animals of one and the fame Species. Ariftotle, to this Purpose, inftances in the various Calls of Partridges, according to the Situations of the Places.

variæque volucres

Longe alias aliæ jaciunt in tempore voces,

Et partim mutant cum tempeftatibus unà

Raucifonos cantus!.

i. e.

And fev'ral Birds do, from their warbling Throats, At fev'ral Times utter quite diff'rent Notes,.

And fome their hoarfe ones with the Seafons change. But the Thing to be known is, what Language would fuch a Child speak, of which what is faid by Conjecture is not very probable.

If, in Oppofition to this Opinion, any Man will tell Why those who me, that they who are born Deaf do not are born Deaf, fpeak; I anfwer, that this is the Case, not don't speak. fo much because they could not receive Inftruction to speak by the Ear, as because the Faculty of Hearing, which they are deprived of, has a Relation to that of Speaking, and they hold together by a natural Connection, in fuch a manner, that what we speak we must first speak to our own Breafts, and make it found in our own Ears, before we utter it to others.

Men and the Animals alike Subject to the

We are
All that

All this I have faid, to prove this Resemblance which there is in human Things, and to bring us back, and join us to the Crowd. neither above nor below the reft. is under Heaven (fays the Wifeman) ject to one Law, and one Fortune.

Law of Na

ture,

Lucret. lib. v. v. 1077,-1080, -1082, 1083.

is fub

Indu