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endeavour to enlighten the minds, and to kindle 

 the zeal of the connmon people, ought we not to 

 inftrudt them moreover in the necefTary means of 

 preferving their health ? Without this, how fhall 

 we enable them to encounter with alacrity their la-, 

 borious purfuits? Without health the daily taflc 

 cannot be performed. The plough and the team 

 lie ufelefs — the bufy loom becomes filent — and all 

 the oeconomical arts languifh! Till confined to the 

 bed of ficknefs, this ufeful clafs of people arc of all 

 others the mod inattentive to their health. It is 

 not till then that they begin to be truly fenfible of 

 its value, and then with heartfelt fighs they deplore 

 its abfence ! Each rural fcene that lately delighted 

 the fenfes, has on a fudden loft all its charms, and 

 the gay face of nature is now beheld with an eye of 

 indifference, or even difguft. 



For what are fields, or flow'rs, or ftreams to me, 

 Ah! taftelefs all, if notenjoy'd with Thee, 

 O Health! 



It is always much eafier to prevent difeafes than 

 to cure them. Therefore to imprefs the common 

 people with a due fenfe of the importance of their 

 health, and to put them on their guard againft one 

 of the moft frequent, though unfufpeded caufes of 

 many of their chronick difeafes, is the bufinefs of 

 this elTay. 



the 



