UG: 
The Natural Fiiftory of the Book I. 
drink on, they then hurry on the Blood, from a free to a rapid Motion : 
And if thefe are the natural Effedts of {pirituous Liquors in a very od 
Climate, what and how great muft they be in the oppofite Extreme r 
For the Velocity of the Blood, occafioned by the Warmth of the Climate, 
naturally attenuates and breaks the Cohefion of its Parts, hereby accele- 
rating its Motion to fuch a Degtee, as to raife a more than ordinary Flow 
of Animal Spirits : Thefe, in fuéh Cafés (as Experience teaches us), are too 
often, in moft Conftitutions, accompanied with an uncontroulable Flow of 
the irafcible Paffions of the Soul. 
If we allow Horace to be a Judge of Nature, fuch frequent Obferva~ 
tions upon the Effeé of {trong Drink might give him the Hint to caus 
tion us againft the Excefs of it : 
Tres prohibet fupra 
Rixarum metuens tangere Gratia. 
Hor. Lib, II. Ode rg, 
It might likewife give Birth to that frequent Cuftom of raifing Courage 
in common Soldiers, who often want nobler Motives to heroic Deeds, by 
giving them ftrong Liquors to heat their Blood immediately before an 
Engagement, that, by the Affiftance of fuch a borrowed Flow of Animal 
Spirits, they maybe the more refolute, and thoughtlefly ruth into the Heat 
of Battle, and ‘there a@ with an Intrepidity fuitable to fuch dangerous 
Circumftances ; for, as the fame Author elfewhere obferves, 
Quis pop vina gravem militiam, aut pauperiem crepat ? 
; Hor. Lib. f. Ode 18, 
Who in his Gups can feel the Weight 
Of Arms, or‘of a pinching State ? 
Should the grave Behaviour of the Spaniards, compared with the Spright- 
linefs of the French, who live in 4 colder Climate, be brought as an Ar- 
gument againft what I have faid, it is eafily anfwered ; for perhaps the 
too grave Behaviour of the one, and the too volatile Difpofition of the 
other, may not be intirely conftitutional to either; for the one may be 
partly the Effe@ of cultivated Levity, as the rigid Deportment of the 
_ other in Part the Improvement of an affected Gravity. 
But, however this may be, another very natural and very convincing 
Reafon why the Inhabitants of fome of the very hot Parts of Spain are 
more liable to be penfive, melancholy, and teyengeful, than others, 
is, that the {corching Heat of the Sun is there of long Continuance : 
And as Heat, in general, produces that Difpofition which is called bili- 
ous, it increafes the oily Parts of the Blood, and renders them lighter, 
and mote moveable, by leffening their Tenacity : Then the other confti. 
tuent Parts become more piquant, and the Salts they contain are more 
achive, in proportion as the blunting Oil is attenuated, 
The 
