^6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book L 



And thus it appears, that man is not by God and Nature deftlned 

 to live delicately and out of the air, in any country, at leaft not in 

 Europe or North America. The Egyptian method of phyfic, there- 

 fore, without air or exercife, will not preferve our health; and we 

 are now to confider the Greek method of living. 



Among the Greeks there were two arts belonging to the human 

 body, the gymnaflic and the medicinal. By the firft of thefe they 

 preferved their health, gave ftrength and agility to their bodies, and 

 at the fame time grace and beauty; for they were exercifed decora 

 more palajlrce'^ ; and it v/as no fmall addition to the wholefomenefs 

 of their exercifes, that they performed them naked, as the name 

 imports, and fo were reflored, for fome hours of the day, to their 

 natural ftate. In this way they not only preferved health, but ac- 

 quired it when loft; for certain exercifes were prefcribed for the cure 

 of certain difeales, fuch as the dropfyf. And not only did they thus 

 acquire health, but they formed that habit of body which they call- 

 ed gygf/a, in which a horfe is \^\\tnifi good order ^ as we exprefs it; 

 and, if a man among them was not in that order, it was as well 

 known by his look and appearance, as a fkillful groom, among us, 

 knows, in that way, whether a horfe be in good order J. 



How much thofe exercifes, which, among the Greeks, were an 

 cifential part of education, and to excel in them a matter of the 

 higheft praife, muft have fitted their bodies for war, is needlefs to 

 obferve: And not only their bodies but their minds; for, as Arif- 

 totle has obferved, thofe exercifes of emulation and contention, not 

 only give ftrength to the body, but vigour and fortitude to the 



mind. 



* Horat. Lib. i. Ode lo. 



\ Si no/rsftifiuSy ctirres kydropicus. — HoRAT. Epift. 2. Lib. I. 



\ 'Q.i »5i4<T<x*5 iy,u<; TO Quiax, " Holu like ts that of a vulgar man is the habit of youi' 

 body;' faid Socrates to one of his followers, ^Yho had negle<^ed his exercifes. — Xem^ 

 fhont. Metmrabiiia, 



