AND LOWER EGYPT. 247 



self-same steps which he had trodden before. It 

 is impossible for them to comprehend the meaning 

 of that going and coming, without any apparent 

 object, and which they consider as an act of folly. 

 The more sensible among them conceive it to be 

 a prescription of our physicians which sets us a- 

 waiking about in this manner, in order to take an 

 exercise necessary to the cure of some disorder. 

 The negroes, in Africa, have a similar idea of this 

 practice, and I have seen the savages of South 

 America laugh at it heartily among themselves. It 

 is peculiar to thinking men ; and this agitation of 

 the body participates of that of the mind, as a kind 

 of relief to its extreme tension. Hence it comes 

 to pass that all those nations, whose head is empty, 

 whose ideas are contracted, whose mind is 

 neither employed, nor susceptible of meditation, 

 have no need of such a relaxation, of such a di- 

 version of thought: with them, immobility of body 

 is a symptom of the inert state of the brain. 



Those who arc oppressed by want of employ- 

 ment, and this is the heritage of the rich, retire to 

 the gardens, of which I have presented a sketch, 

 and, evermore seated, delight themselves with 

 breathing a cool and balsamic air, or in listening 

 to wretched music. If they do not choose to go 

 out of town, they repair to one of the coffee- 



11 4 houses, 



