Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 27 



TFIUS, I think, I have fhown, that clothes and houfes, which 

 have been always ufed in the civilifed life, are hurtful to the 

 body, and therefore muft produce difeafes, and confequently fhorten 

 life : And I am now to account, why the diet in the civililed life, 

 is more unwholefome than the diet in the natural life. And I will 

 begin with the eating fleih, which, I fay, is food for a man, not fo 

 natural nor fo wholefome as vegetables. 



That flefh is of more difficult dlgeftion than vegetables, every 

 man's experience muft convince him. When 1 was in France, a- 

 bout 30 years ago, the moft of the difeafes of which the French- 

 died, proceeded from indigeftion of the great variety of flefli which 

 they ate; and it is well known in this country, that men are often 

 recovered from dangerous dileafes, and their lives faved, by the ve- 

 getable diet. Now, any diet that is good for reftoring health when 

 loft, muft be at leaft as good for preferving it. — And fo much for the 

 food in the civilifed life. 



As to the drink in this life, it is commonly wine, or fome fer* 

 mented liquor of one kind or another. That the excefs in fuch li- 

 quors is pernicious, no body difputes : But, I fiiy, even the mo- 

 derate ufe of them is not favourable to health; And the fame argu- 

 ment, which proves the unwholefomciiefs of fiefti, proves likewife 

 that wine and other ftrong liquors are alfo unwholefome ; for men 

 recover their health by a diet in which the ufe of ftrong liquors 

 as well as of flefti, is forbid. As to fpirits, they are the moft un- 

 natural drink, and confequently the moft pernicious, that can be 

 imagined; but of this I have faid enough already*. It is common- 

 ly thought, that the eating flcfti, and drinking ftrong liquor, give 

 flrength to the body: But the people of the Ladrone Illands are 



D2 a. 



* See vol. 3. p. 181. 



