2i6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



but anoint *. In fhort, the care of the fkin is a principal part of 

 what the Romans called the ciira corporis. 



If our diet, unnatural as it is, and of which we often take more 

 than our natural appetite requires, were to be wrought off by regu- 

 lar exercife, though not fo violent as what the Greeks ufed in their 

 PaJaeftras, or Vv^hat the favage nations, fuch as thofe of North Ame- 

 rica, tile in hunting or in long journeys on foot, it would not be fo 

 pernicious : But when it is accompanied with indolence and eafe, and 

 when neither the outfides oi our bodies are kept clean by bathing, 

 nor the infide by phyfic, it is impoffible, by the nature of things, 

 that we can live long in good health ; and what, I think, is worfe 

 than a lliort life, we probably will die a long death. 



There is one pleafure of fenfe that I have not mentioned, greater 

 and more alluring tliau any other fenfual pleafure; I mean the plea- 

 fure of venery. It is, therefore, pradlifed in three fcveral ways; 

 Jirfl^ in the natural way with women; then in a moft unnatural way 

 with boys or young men ; and, hylly^ by men upon themfelves, 

 without either women or other men ; and this laft way is pradifed 

 chiefly by fchool-boys, and fo muft have a very bad effedl upon 

 vheir growth and ftrength. Of the intemperate ufe of this pleafure, 

 even in the natural way, I have fpoken at fome length in Vol. HI. 

 of this workf, and have fliown how much it wades the animal life; 

 where I have obferved J, " That the unnatural pradice of it by 

 " boys at fchool upon themfelves, which, as I have faid, is fo per- 

 " nicious to their growth and ftrength, appears to be a vice pecu- 

 " liar to modern times." 



Before I conclude this chapter, I will add fome obfervations upon 

 one pleafure of fenfe that I have not yet mentioned, but which I 



think 

 • See Vol IV. p. 57. f Page 178. and following. % Ibid. p. 181. 



