Chap. XVI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 217 



think very well deferves to be noticed. It is the pleafure, which 

 our fenfc'of fmelling affords us, the moft innocent of all the plea- 

 fures of fenfe ; for it is pure and unmixed with pain, which 

 neither precedes it, accompanies it, nor is fubfequent to it ; and in it 

 we do not hear of any excefs, which is fo frequent in other pleafures 

 of fenfe. It is fo f;ir from being hurtful to health, that it is benefi- 

 cial to it ; for the perfumes, which are fo agreeable to our fmell, 

 improve the air that we breathe. It was, therefore, very much ufed 

 by the wifeft of all nations, I mean the Egyptians, who chofe, with 

 great care and attention, the feveral odours with which they perfumed 

 the air. Upon this fubje£t Plutarch has faid a good deal in his 

 treatife De Ifide et Ofiride^' ; where he obferves, that the Egyptians 

 gave the greateft attention to every thing that regarded health, as 

 they thought that the habit and difpofition of the mind was inti- 

 mately connected with the habit of the body. And he has there 

 quoted Ariftotle, as faying that the odours of perfumed oils and 

 flowers not only give great pleafure, but are alfo very beneficial to 

 health : He adds, that the phyficians, in order to prevent the 

 bad effeds of a peftilential air, recommended the burning of odori- 

 ferous woods, fuch as the cyprefs and juniper ; and he mentions a 

 phyfician in Athens, one Acron, who, in the time of a peftilence 

 there, got great reputation by prefcrlbing, for thofe who were ill 

 of the plague, the burning fuch woods. Indeed, I think it is 

 impoffible not to believe, that, as odours are fo mixed with air, 

 they mufl: have a great cffedl upon it of one kind or another. 

 We are, therefore, not to wonder that perfumes were fo much ufed 

 by the Greeks and Romans. Among the Romans it was a piece of 

 luxury, which was in conftant ufe, and which was not hurtful to 

 their health, like their other luxuries, but beneficial to it. There 

 was, therefore, among them, no fupper of any elegance, in which 

 the company were not all anointed with perfumed oils, or migticnts 

 Vol. VI. E e as 



* Tom. II. p. 38J. of the P.iris edition. 



