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CHAPTER III.
 

Containing divers speculations on war and nego¬
tiations—shotving that a treaty of peace is a
great national evil.

It was the opinion of that poetical philoso¬
pher, Lucretius, that war was the original state
of man; whom he described as being primitive¬
ly a savage beast of prey, engaged in a constant
state of hostility with his own species, and that
this ferocious spirit was tamed and ameliorated
by society. The same opinion has been advoca¬
ted by Hobbes, * nor have there been wanting
many other philosophers to admit and defend it.

For my part, though prodigiously fond of these
valuable speculations, so complimentary to hu¬
man nature, yet, in this instance, I am inclined
to take the proposition by halves, believing
with Horace, t that though war may have been
originally the favourite amusement and indus¬
trious  employment of our progenitors, yet, like

* Hobbes' Leviathan.  Part i. chap. 13.

f Quum prorepserunt primis animalia terris,

Mutum ac turpe peciis, glandem atque cubilia propter,

Unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibiis, atque ita porro

Piignabant annis, qute post fabrioaverat usus.

Hor. Sat. L. i. S. 3.