Chap.VJ. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 193 



Tobacco we got from America ; and h is now ufcJ by all 

 ranks and orders of men in Europe. It is a tWinz of univcrfd ufe 

 over the world, more univerfal than even corn or rice, or than any- 

 thing elfe that we know the earth produces ; and yet I heard an 

 eminent phyfician, who is lately dead, I mean Sir John Pringle, 

 fay, that it is as pernicious as fpirits. In this he may have exagge- 

 rated a little ; but, as liardly any thing is indifferent in human life, I 

 believe, even the moderate ufe of fo unnatural a thing is not good, 

 and the immoderate ufe of it pernicious. 



If vices and difeafes, and an unnatural way of living, muft necef- 

 farily weaken men, though living in the country and in fmgle hou- 

 fes, or in hamlets and fmall villages, much more muft it do fo in 

 great towns, where trade and fedentary arts are carried on. In fuch 

 towns, the air, fouled with the breath of fo many animals, and im- 

 pregnated with exhalations from the dead, the dying, and things 

 corrupted of all kinds, muft be little better than a flow poifon, 

 and fo offenfive, as to be perceptible by the fenfe of thofe who are 

 not accuftomed to it ; for it is faid, that the w^andering Arabs will 

 fmell a town at the diftance of feveral leagues. In this country 

 it is well known that our cottagers, who are driven, by the avarice of 

 landlords and great tenants, into towns, to- feek for a livelihood 

 there, are very foon deftroyed by the change of air and manner 

 of life. And, even among thofe who have been born and brought 

 up in towns, the -mortality is very much greater than in the country, 

 as in the inftances I have given from Birmingham and the neigh- 

 bouring village of Monton *. And the common rate of mortalicy, 

 in the feveral great towns in Europe, is ojie out of twenty-five or 

 thirty; whereas, in the feveral countries of Europe, it is o?ie out 

 of forty-five or fifty, The deftru6tion of children, particularly in 

 Vol. in. B b towns, 



* See p. 185. 



