Chap. XVI, ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 207 



the covering by our clothes muft be much more hurtful than the 

 antient clothing by fkins, efpecially if it confift of three or four 

 coverings, one above another: For it muft keep our bodies intirely 

 from any communication with the air, fo that we can take in no air 

 by our (kins, except by a fmall part of them, fuch as our faces and 

 hands ; and even thefe the delicate people among us cover not only 

 by houfes, but even when they go abroad by clofe vehicles in 

 which they are carried, or by gloves that they wear upon their hands 

 when they walk or ride. 



We are, therefore, hindered, in this way, from taking in the air 

 by our abforbing veffels. But the other thing I mentioned is ftill of 

 worfe confequence; I mean the hindering our fkin from throwing out, 

 by our perfpiring veflels, a great deal of the filth of our body, more 

 than we difcharge either by ftool or urine*. Of this filth there is 

 not fo much thrown out when we are clothed as when we are naked; 

 for by experiment it is made certain that we perfpire more when 

 we are naked and in the open air, than when we are clothe^. And 

 whai is thrown out is kept about our body ; fo that a man, who is 

 clothed, lives in the filth of his own body, and takes in again a con- 

 fiderable part of it, by which means there is a circulation of filth in 

 his body f . If this be fo, can there be any doubt, that of all the 

 many inventions of man, for the deftrudion of his body, this is one 

 of the worft : And as the mind and body are fo intimately connec- 

 ted, 1 have no doubt that it muft have likewife an effect upon the 

 mind. I am perfuaded, therefore, that the antient Gymnofophifts, 

 in India, philofophifcd better by being naked, than they would have 

 done if they had been houi'ed and clothed ; and, I believe, better 

 than many of the Greek philofoplicrs, who were covered from tb 

 air, both by houfes and clothes ;— though they may have fed, : 

 thefe Gymnofophifts did, upon vegetables only. 



It 



• Vol. V. p. 19. f Ibid, p, /p. and 20. 



