Chap. XVI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 215 



in the filth cf our own bodies, k-^pt about us by our clothes, that 

 I hold it to be abfolutely impoflible that a man, who lives in that way, 

 without cleaufing himfelf by bathing, can live in health the time that 

 God and Nature has deftined he fhould live. And the cold bath 

 has this advantage over the hot, that it not only cleanfes, but braces 

 and accuftoms a man to bear the cold; for which purpofe I would 

 advife every man, who takes that bath, to walk naked for fome 

 time in his room, with the windows open, and to practice fome ex- 

 ercifc, fuch as I ufe, by i'winging leads, and by that means to make 

 ibme amends for the want of a practice, which, I am perfuadcd, 

 contributed very much to the health and ftrength of the Greeks and 

 Romans; I mean the pradire of performing their cxerciies in the 

 Palaeftra or Campus Martius, naked. In Vol. III. of this work* 

 I have mentioned a gentleman, whom I knew in London, the 

 late General Ogilthorpc, who every morning exercifed himfelf 

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

 and lived to the age of 100, perfectly entire in mind and body. I 

 alfo anoint after bathing ; and I never omit it any day, even when 

 I do not bathe; and I anoint both in the morning when I rife and 

 in the evening before I go to bed. This practice I alfo learned from 

 the antlents ; for we hear of a man among the Romans, in the days of 

 Auguflus Cacfar, who lived to be very old, above the age of ninety; 

 and it was, as he thought, by the conftant pradice of anointing ; 

 whicli is fo much in ufe at this day among the Indians of the 

 Eaft, that, it is faid, our Seapoys could not ferve us if they were not 

 regularly anointed; and they are at great pains to work the oil into 

 their fklns, by what they cdWfiampooniiig. And when it is in this 

 ■way incorporated with the fkin, it certainly makes it fitter for per- 

 fpiration, and for taking in as well as for throwing out ; and, there- 

 fore, I think it is very properly praQifed by the people of the Pe- 

 lew Iflands, who, though they_ wear, no cloaths, yet not only bathe, 



but 

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