Chap. VI. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. i8i 



has travelled as far eaft as Kamfchatka, where the favages have always, 

 among their feraglios of women, one male drefled in woman's clothes*. 



I pafs over other monftrous kinds of venery that have been prac- 

 tifed, to fpeak of one, which, perhaps, does more mifchief in our 

 time, and contributes more to the weakening of the race of the better 

 fort of men, than any other that 1 have mentioned, becaufe it begins 

 in the mofk early age and is practiced in the moft fecret manner. It 

 is well known to be the vice of boys at fchool ; and more need 

 not be faid of it, except that it appears to be a vice peculiar to mo- 

 dern times. 



There is another thing peculiar to thefe times, and which, I be^ 

 lieve, is ftill more pernicious, as the influence of it is much more ex- 

 tenfive, efpecially among the lower fort of people ; what I mean is 

 the ufe of fpiritous liquors ; a thing fo ruinous and deftrudtive 

 to the human fpecies, that, if all the devils were again to be 

 affembled in Pandemonium, to contrive the ruin of the human 

 fpecies, nothing fo mifchievous could be devifed by them. The ef- 

 fect of them upon the bodies of other animals is well known. If we 

 have a mind to flunt the growth of a puppy, fo as to make it a dog 

 fit for a lady's lap, we have no more to do than to give it brandy ; 

 and the fame effcO:, no doubt, the fame liquor will have upon the hu- 

 man body. And, I am perfuaded, the diminution of fize, among the 

 people of this ifland, living at a diftance from the wealth of great 

 cities, fuch as the Scottiih Highlanders, is chiefly owing to the ufe of 

 fpiritous liquors ; and fo, I know, they think themfelves. 



About the year 1736, the ufe of fpirits, by the lower fort, women 

 as well as men, in London and the neighbourhood, was come to 

 that height in which it is reprefented, and, as I have been told, not 

 much exaggerated by Hogarth in his prints. And I remember an 



expreflion 



* See L' Abbe Chappe's Travels in Siberia. 



