Of the Salubrity of Warm Bathing. 597 



most certainl}^ understood warm bathing as well as any 

 nation ever did ; and, if there be any thing in our cli- 

 mate which renders any deviations necessary from the 

 manner commonly practised in constructing baths in 

 warmer countries, there is no doubt but those luxurious 

 foreigners, who had possession of this island for so 

 many years, must have found them out. The plans 

 they have left us may therefore be adopted with safety 

 as models for our imitation. 



I am far from wishing to see the baths of Diocletian 

 and Caracalla rise up in all their splendour in the 

 neighbourhood of London ; for I am well aware that 

 the magnificent and ostentatious exhibitions of a nation 

 of conquerors and slaves would but ill accord with the 

 manners of a free, enlightened, and industrious people ; 

 but still I cannot help wishing that the inhabitants of 

 this island, and all mankind, might enjoy all the in- 

 nocent luxuries and comforts that are within their 

 reach. 



I am even jealous of the poor Russian peasant ; and 

 when I see him enjoying the highest degree of delight 

 and satisfaction in the rude cave which he calls a warm 

 bath, without wishing to diminish his pleasure, I 

 greatly lament that so useful and so delightful an 

 enjoyment should be totally unknown to so great a 

 portion of the human species. 



Who knows but that the poor Russian, in the midst 

 of his snows, with his warm room and warm bath, may 

 not, on the whole, enjoy quite as much happiness as 

 the inhabitant of any other country .? And, if this be 

 really the case, what an addition would it be to the 

 enjoyments of the inhabitants of other more favoured 

 countries to add the warm room and warm bath of the 



