Chap. IV, ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 41 



The Greek athletic exercifes are necellary, if we would have 

 ftrong bodies, or even for health, if we will live full and eat a 

 great deal of fiefh and drink much wine. They are not, indeed, 

 fo ufeful in war as they were among the Greeks, but they ought 

 to be pradlifed by us to a certain degree, in order to repair, as much 

 as pofTible, that degeneracy of the human body produced by the 

 change of the fyftem of war, which we carry on now not fo much 

 by men as by machines. How much ftronger and more agile 

 muft our bodies have been, when the men of rank pradifed horfe- 

 manfliip, and the ufe of the fpear in tilts and tournaments, in or- 

 der to fit themfelvs for war; and when the paftime of the low- 

 er fort of people was fhooting with the bow, running, and cudgel- 

 playing, inftead of cards and. drinking ? But what I would recom- 

 mend moft, of the Greek regimen, is their bathing, anointing, and 

 rubbing. Without fridion, I hold that no houfed animal can keep 

 his health, any more than a horfe ; and, without the ufe of oil, by 

 much fridion we make our fkin too hard and dry, and not unlike 

 a piece of bend leather. And as to bathing, I hope I have made it 

 quite clear, that without it we can be no more clean than a dun<^- 

 hill. There is another Greek pradice which I would alfo greatly 

 recommend, and that is being naked as much as conveniently may 

 be, and even exerciling naked, and making our bed-chambers, with 

 the windows open, little palseftras for that purpofe. I knew a man 

 who dyed but lately, at the age of about 100, perfedly entire in 

 body and mind, (I mean General Oglethorpe), who exercifed himfelf 

 naked, in his room, after getting out of bed, the heft part of an 

 hour; and Pliny the younger mentions an old man, in his time 

 who, without exercifmg, by only fitting naked in the air and in the 

 fun, preferved his health. 



The Roman method of mixing rural occupations with the prac- 

 tice of military exercifes, I have already mentioned*; and, without 

 Vol. V. F it, 



* Page 30, and 31. 



