8o ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



But, befides this argument from analogy, the fads I have already 

 mentioned * clearly prove, that the human body can not only bear 

 the extremity of cold, but is the better for it. For we cannot doubt 

 that our travellers upon the fide of Hudfon's Bay, as they were 

 not hurt by the cold, were the better fpr it ; becaufe every man*s 

 experience muft convince him, that the more cold he endures, if he 

 can bear it, the greater his appetite will be, and his vigour, both of 

 body and mind : Yet thefe travellers had been houfed all their lives, 

 and had lived in the fadory, in clofe houfes heated with great fires, 

 and had drunk ftrong liquors, like other men ; and, though all fud- 

 den changes are apt to hurt the Animal Body, they w^ere not in the 

 leafl: afFeded by a change as violent and fudden as can w^ell be ima- 

 gined. 



A moft remarkable inftance of this kind is well known to the offi- 

 cers who ferved in the laft war under Prince Ferdinand. He took 

 the troops out of their winter-quarters in the month of January, and 

 carried them into the field, without tents, even in the climate of 

 Germany. The men were but a very little afFcded by the fudden 

 change, even at firfl: ; but, in a very fhort time, they were all in 

 perfecl health, and good fpirits : And I know an officer, who had 

 been fickly for fome years before, but recovered his health that 

 winter campaign, and has been perfedly we'll ever fmce. 



But the contrary tranfition, from a life in the open air to the 

 jioufcd life, is extremely dangerous, efpecially if one has been very 

 long without doors. This was the cafe with the wild girl I faw in 

 France, who was as averfe to be houfed, as the cattle and horfes 

 that have been bred wild : And, after fhe was houfed, fhe made a 

 moft defperate effort to regain her liberty ; for the Abbefs of the 

 Convent of Chalons in Champagne, where fhe was confined, fhow- 

 ed me a windov/, a great deal more than three ordinary ftories 

 high, out of which fhe leaped into the ftreet. How^ever^ fhe did 



not 



, Page 32. — 35. in the Note. 



