212 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



their breads bare, without catching any cold ; and I was told, by 

 one of my countrymen who had pradii'ed phyfic in Ruflia for fc- 

 veral years, that the Ruffians are accuflomed to go about with their 

 necks bare, as children do among us, and yet a fore throat is a 

 difeafe not known in Ruffia. I am, therefore, convinced that our 

 children though defcended of parents, who, for fo many generations, 

 have been in the habit of wearing clothes, might neverthelefs be 

 brought up naked and continue fo all their lives in very much bet- 

 ter health than they do now *. 



There is one thing that fliould recommend the ufe of the cold 

 bath to all our fine gentlemen and ladies, that, without the ufe of it, 

 it is impoffible they can be clean, living in the filth of their own 

 body, but muft ftink, as the Ottaheite man, Omai, who came from a 

 coumry where the inhabitants bathed twice a day, faid, that all the 

 people of England didf. 



The Scythians were excellent foldiers, and conquered many coun- 

 tries; fo that their going naked neither leflened the fize and ftrength 

 of their bodies, nor impaired their courage : For our minds and bo- 

 dies are fo intimately connedted, that whatever is good for our 

 bodies alfo adds to the ftrength and vigour of our minds. 



But not only do we indulge ourfelves in the warmth of houfes 

 and clothes, but we ufe a warmth ftill more unnatural ; I mean the 

 warmth of fire : For the warmth we enjoy, proceeding from houfes 

 and clothes, comes from cur own bodies, and is only kept about us 

 by houfes and clothes ; but the warmth of fire is an extrinfic heat, 

 proceeding in Britain from a fulphureous mineral, that is coal^ which 

 is now almoft the only fuel that is ufed by us, and which, at the 

 fame time that it gives us an unnatural heat, corrupts the air by its 



fulphureous 



* Sec note on p. 44- of Vol. V. \ Vol. V. of this work, p. 34. 



