Chap. ir. ANTIE NT METAPHYSICS. 85 



fo clofe, that the air is wholly excluded from the body. Now, that 

 the contad; of the air, and its adlion upon the body, tends to ftrength- 

 en and invigorate it, is obvious to the fenfes. For the {kin, that is 

 expofed, to it, has a lirmnefs and elafticity, v/hich no fkin covered 

 can have ; and the colour 'of fuch a fkin is the true carnation, 

 very different from the livid white of our clothed fkins, which is 

 truly the colour of a white negroe, (a difeafed and unnatural a- 

 nimal), not of men in the natural ftate. It was, I think, an 

 excellent ftratagem of Agefilaus, recorded by Xcnophon in his life : 

 Soon after his landing in Afia, in order to encourage his men by 

 fhowing them what enemies they had to deal with, having got fome 

 Perfian captives, he ftripped them, and Ihewed them naked to his 

 foldiers, who feeing their white, fofc, flaccid bodies, (the effed:, fays 

 Xenophon, of their never being ftript nor excrcifed, and always 

 travelling in carriages), confidered them as no better than women, and 

 were no longer afraid of them. And, indeed, it was chiefly by their 

 exercifmg fo much naked in the open air, that tlie Greeks were ena- 

 bled to overcome men that were by nature bigger and ftronger than 

 they ; for fuch it appears the Perfians were. 



Further, by clothing our bodies, we give a check to that natural 

 evacuation, which every body in health muft have by perfpiration ;, 

 for it is now difcovered by experiment, that a man naked perfplres 

 more than the fame man wrapped up in blankets, and in the warmeft 

 bed. This, I know, is contrary to the opinion of the generality of 

 men ; but the error arifes from confounding fweating with perfpira- 

 tion ; for, by wrapping a man up, and keeping him very warm, 

 we make him fvveat, but he perfpires lefs. 



But neither is this all the mifchief that clothes do ; but there is a 

 greater fl;ill remains to be told, which, I believe, is not generally 

 known even to fome of our dodors. It is this, that, inftead of 

 living in the pure circumambient air, we live in a fordid bath of 

 the vapours of our own bodies, which are kept about us by our 

 clothes. And even this is not all ; for thefe very vapours we 



mufl: 



