368 ANTTENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



and confuming the fpecies : And thefe difeafes and weaknefTes go 

 to our children, and deftroy fo many of them, when they are infants 

 and could not have acquired any difeafes themfelves, that I do not 

 believe a fourth part, of thofe that are born, live to be men and 

 women ; though I hold that man, as he is fuperior to other animals 

 of this earth in many refpedts, is fo alfo in ftrength of conftitution, 

 of which I have given (Vol. IV. p. 52.) a proof that is not com- 

 monly attended to. There however I have only fpoken of the life of 

 the rich and luxurious in towns ; but the way of living of all the 

 people in Europe, rich and poor, fhows a ftrength of conftitution 

 much fuperior to that of the brute, though it has not been attended 

 to. What I mean is the cloaths we wear, by which we are deprived 

 of the free ufe of the air, the element in which we live, and with- 

 out which we could not live a few minutes : For other things, fuch 

 as meat and drink, we ufe only occafionally and at certain times, 

 but, we live in the air, as fifh do in the water ; we muft there- 

 fore ufe it conftantly and in every way in which by nature it can 

 be ufed. Now a man, that is cloathed, takes in the air only by 

 his mouth and noftrils ; but nature has appointed that he fhould take 

 it in alfo by the abforbing veffels of his fkin : This however is pre- 

 vented by his cloaths ; by which not only the pure air of the atmof- 

 phere is hindered from being taken in by the fkin, but the filth of 

 his own body, thrown out by perfpiration, and which is more than 

 what he throws out by ftool or urine, is kept about him; fo that he 

 lives in the filth of his own body, and muft neceflarily take in again 

 a great part of it. But of this I have fpoken at great length in other 

 parts of this work *. I will only add here, that the life of the 

 brute, in his natural ftate, is in this refpefl altogether different : 

 For, not being cloathed nor even houfed, he takes in not only by his 

 mouth and noftrils, but by his fkin, the pure atmofphere ; and the 

 filth, which he throws out from his fkin by his perfpiring veffels, is 



carried 

 • Vol. V. p. 19. 



