ICO ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



mal God has made, without any artificial covering ; fo that he may^ 

 if he have a mind, be all face, like the Scythian of old, and he fo 

 much the better for it ^' : Further, that he has no need of fire, ci- 

 ther for warming him, or preparing his viduals : And, laftly, that 

 his natural food is vegetables, and his drink water. 



It now remains to be confidered in what ftate fuch an Animal 

 muft be, with refpedt to ftrength and fize of Body, health and lon- 

 gevity. — But this muft be the fubjed: of another Chapter. 



* See Elian's Various Hijioryy Lib. vii. cap. 6. This faying, I think, was a mod 

 fenfible one ; nor do I think it is pcflible to give any good reafon why the fore part 

 of our head fhould be bare, and not our whole head and our whole body. The Ruf- 

 fian peafants, 1 am perfuaded, might in the fame manner make themfelves all neck j 

 for they go about, in that raofl: fevere climate, with their necks bare ; and yet fore 

 throats are a difeafe almoft unknown among them. This I know by information 

 from a phyfician in that country, Dr Guthrie, who has publifhed in the Philofophi- 

 cal Tranfadlions, a particular account of the manner of living of thefe peafants, (Vol. 

 68. p. 622.) And here, in our own country, we fee boys and girls going about, in 

 the fevereft weather, with their necks, and a great part of their breads, bare. 



CHAP. 



