's6o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



deformed, apparently by old age, than is a European woman 

 of 60. 



To come ftill nearer; it is a fa(5t known to naturalifts, and 

 which the appHcation of the thermometer fufficiently in- 

 dicates, that there is a great and fenfible difference in the 

 degree of animal heat in both {exes of different nations at 

 the fame ages or time of Ufe. The voluptuous Turk eftran- 

 ges himfelf from the faireft and fineft of his Circaffian and 

 Georgian women in his feraglio, and, during the warm 

 months in fummer, addids himfelf only to negro flaves 

 brought from the very latitudes we are now fpeaking of; 

 the fenfible difference of the coolnefs of their fkins leading 

 him to give them the preference at that feafon. On the 

 other hand, one brown Abyffinian girl, a companion for 

 the winter months, is fold at ten times the price of the 

 faireft Georgian or Circaffian beauty, for oppofite reafons. 



The very great regard I fliall conftantly pay my fair 

 readers has made me, as they may perceive, enter as ten- 

 derly as poffible into thefe difcuffions, which, as a philofo- 

 pher and a hiftorian, I could not, however, wholly omit : the 

 moft ufeful lludy of mankind is man,; and not the Icaft in- 

 terefting view of him is when, ftripped of his vain-glory and 

 the pageantry of palaces, he wanders naked and uncorrupt- 

 ed among his native woods and rivers.^ 



I MUST mention, greatly to the credit of two of the iirfl 

 geniufcs of this age, M. dc Buffon and Lord Kaimes, that they 

 were both fo convinced by the arguments above mentioned, 

 ftated in greater detail and with more freedom, that they 

 immediately ordered their bookfcllcr to ilrike out from the 

 J fubfequent 



