THROUGH FINLAND. 
299 
ful than the extremities which man is capable of enduring through 
the power of habit. 
The Finnifh peafants pafs thus inftantaneoufly from an atmo- 
iphere of 70 degrees of heat, to one of 30 degrees of cold, a tran- 
fition of a hundred degrees, which is the fame thing as going out 
of boiling into freezing water ! and what is more aftonifhing, with¬ 
out the leaft inconvenience ; while other people are very fenfibly 
affe<fted by a variation of but five degrees, and in danger of being 
afflicted with rheumatifm by the moft trifling wind that blows. 
Thofe peafants allure you, that without the hot vapour baths they 
could not fuftain as they do, during the whole day, their various 
labours. By the bath, they tell you, their ftrength is recruited as 
much as by reft and fleep. The heat of the vapour mollifies to 
iiich a degree their {kin, that the men eafily fhave themfelves with 
wretched razors, and without foap. Had Shakfpeare known of a 
people who could thus have pleafure in fuch quick tranfition from 
exceffive heat to the fevereft cold, his knowledge might have been 
encreafed, but his creative fancy could not have been affifted:—- 
Oh! who can hold a fire in his hand, 
By thinking of the frofty Caucafus ? 
Or wallow naked in December fnow. 
By thinking on fantaftic fummer’s heat ? 
Q q 2 
CHAPTER 
