Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 29 



€at only of what they offer to the Gods; and it is only the Bramins, 

 their Priefts, that eat of that. And they do more for health than the 

 antient Egyptians did ; for they drink no ftrong liquors. Tiieir diet, 

 therefore, is as natural as any diet can be; for they eat nothing but 

 rice, and drink nothing but water: Befides all that, they ufe bathing 

 and anointing conftantly ; yet they are fhorter lived than we are, 

 though they be lefs difeafed ; for they are old at the age of 50, and 

 very few of them exceed the age of 60. But they are houfed, 

 clothed, and ufe fire, with which they prepare their vidluals, and 

 ufe no phyfic to prevent difeafe; and as they are the old eft nation 

 now in the world, fmce the Egyptian nation is now no more, they 

 have been in that ftate for feveral thoufand years. This fmgle in- 

 ftance, joined with the obfervations I have made upon the civilifed 

 life compared with the natural, demonftrates as much as any thing 

 of the kind can be demonftrated by fact and argument, that the ci- 

 vilifed and domefticated life, though conducted with the greateft 

 care and caution, tends to impair health, ftrength, and longevity, 

 and, I may add, fize of body : For the Indians, when Alexander 

 was among them, were men of 5 cubits, and their Princes, fuch as 

 Porus, taller ; but now they are men about our ftature. 



Before I quit this fubje(3:, of the comparifon of the natural diet 

 with the diet of our civilifed life, I will give an advice to my read- 

 ers, that I take to myfelf: Which is, to join together the two kinds 

 of diet, fo as never to eat flcfh without vegetables, (I mean roots or 

 greens, befides bread, which every perfon eats with flefli), and never 

 to drink wine without a mixture of water, of which the antients al- 

 ways put fome even into their fmalleft wines*. This pradicc, I am 

 perfuaded, will make both the eating flefli, and drinking wine, lefs 

 unwholefome. 



I will only fay one thing more upon the fubje<£l oi the bodies of 



men 



* See Barry on the Wines of the Antionts. 



