them, we muſt deny that, even before the Deluge, ſuch a State ever exiſted among Men, unleſs they fell into it by ſome extraordinary Event: a Paradox very difficult to maintain, and altogether impoſſible to prove.
Let us begin therefore, by laying aſide Facts, for they do not affect the Queſtion. The Reſearches, in which we may engage on this Occaſion, are not to be taken for Hiſtorical Truths, but merely as hypothetical and conditional Reaſonings, fitter to illuſtrate the Nature of Things, than to ſhow their true Origin, like thoſe Syſtems, which our Naturaliſts daily make of the Formation of the World. Religion commands us to believe, that Men, having been drawn by God himſelf out of a State of Nature, are unequal, becauſe it is his Pleaſure they ſhould be ſo; but Religion does not forbid us to draw Conjectures ſolely from the Na-
