S6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



muft take in again by thofe abforblng veflels wbich are gaping all 

 over our fkin, it being as neceilary for our animal oeconomy that 

 we fliould inhale, as that we fliould exhale ; but it mufl: make a 

 great difference whether we inhale what may be called the excre- 

 ment of our bodies, or the pure atmofphere. 



I have heard it objetfted to the naked ftate, that in it we are liable 

 to be wetted by every fhower that falls ; and wet, it is faid, does more 

 harm than cold. But this, fo far from being an objedion to Nakednefs, 

 is an argument in its favour ; for moifture does not hurt, otherwife 

 than by the cold it produces. Now, that cold is much greater while 

 the wet clothes are about us, and greater ftill when they begin to 

 dry ; for it is well known that evaporation produces a great degree 

 of cold. But the naked Savage is free of both ; for the wet is not 

 kept about him, but runs off him as it falls; and, when that is the 

 cafe, there can be no evaporation to produce cold, - 



There are only three ways of obviating thefc mifchiefs of clothing, 

 and they are but partial remedies. The firft is, to wear as few clothes 

 as may be, and thefe as loofe and flowing as poffible. This, I ob- 

 fervc, was done by all nations in the firft ages of their civility. 

 There are feme barbarous nations, which cover only thofe parts, 

 that Nature, when it begins to be cultivated, direds us to hide. The 

 Romans, as Aulus Gellius tells us, wore at firft only a gown, and 

 no tunic under it. And the Lydians, as Herodotus informs us, be- 

 fore they were conquered by the Perfians, wore nothing but a fmgle 

 garment, till Cyrus, by the advice of Croefus, obliged them to wear 

 a waiftcoat, in order to make them effeminate *. ' I fay, therefore, 

 that, to wear many clothes, and thefe ftrait and clofe to the body, 

 is very weakening, and few things more deftru<ftive to health. 



The 



"' Lib. i. cap. 155 — 156 



