258 Of moj'al Restraint. Bk. iv. 



vilized life, were not pointed out to the attention 

 of man at once; but were the slow and late result 

 of experience, and of the admonitions received 

 by repeated failures. 



Diseases have been generally considered as the 

 inevitable inflictions of Providence ; but, perhaps, 

 a great part of them may more justly be consi- 

 dered as indications that we have offended against 

 •some of the laws of nature. The plague at Con- 

 stantinople, and in other towns of the East, is 

 a constant admonition of this kind to the inhabi- 

 tants. The human constitution cannot support 

 such a state of filth and torpor; and as dirt, 

 squalid poverty, and indolence are, in the highest 

 degree, unfavourable to happiness and virtue, it 

 5eems a benevolent dispensation, that such a state 

 should, by the laws of nature, produce disease 

 and death, as a beacon to others to avoid splitting 

 on the same rock. 



The prevalence of the plague in London till the 

 year 1666 operated in a proper manner on the 

 conduct of our ancestors; and the removal of 

 nuisances, the construction of drains, the widen- 

 ing of the streets, and the giving more room and 

 air to the houses, had the effect of eradicating 

 completely this dreadful disorder, and of adding 

 greatly to the health and happiness of the inha- 

 bitants. 



In the history of every epidemic it has almost 

 invariably been observed that the lower classes 

 of people, whose food was poor and insufficient, 

 And who lived crowded together in small and dirty 



