232 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book If. 



people. Without health and morals, no people can be happy ; and 

 without numbers, they cannot be a great or poweiful nation. As 

 to the health of the people, we know very certainly that their nei- 

 ther is, nor ever was, upon the earth, a country where health was 

 more fludied, or more proper means ufed, both to preferve it, and 

 to reftore it when loft. They had phyficians for each difeafe ; and 

 they had prefcriptions for the cure of difeafes : And which 

 prefcriptions had come down to them from the remoteft anti- 

 quity, I think, very probably from the reigns of their Damons j 

 which rules their phyficians were obliged to follow ; And if they 

 deviated from them, it was at their own rifk ; for if the patient 

 died, they themfelves fuffered death. But what I admire moft in 

 their phyfic, was their application of it, not only to the cure of 

 difeafes, but to the prevention of them, and to the prefervation of 

 health, which is of greater value than the reftoring of it when loft. 

 For this purpofe, Herodotus tells us, that they cleanfed their bodies 

 very thoroughly by vomiting, purging, and glyftering, for three days 

 fucceffively in the beginning of each month. And the reafon they gave 

 for it was a good one, that, in fuch a climate as theirs, there were not 

 ihofe changes of weather, which produce fo many difeafes in other 

 countries : So that the only caufe of difeafe, among them, was in- 

 temperance in eating and drinking; to prevent the effects of which, 

 ihey cleanfed themfelves in the manner I have mentioned. This 

 they pradifed when Herodotus was among them : But when Dio- 

 dorus was there, they took their phyfic more frequently, but not at 

 once, and not fo violently; and the priefts pradifed a regimen which 

 I am fure, from my own experience, muft have contributed very 

 much to their health ; and that was bathing in cold water : This 

 they did twice in the day, and as often at night. The confequence 

 of this care of health among the Egyptians was, as Herodotus informs 

 us, that they were the healthieft of all men, excepting only the Ly- 

 bians, who lived the life of favages : And if we confider that they 



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