when they are out, we should as certainly have no perfect children born, as we have few wellfhaped that are ftrait-laced or much tampered with. This confideration fhould methinks, keep bufy people (I will not fay ignorant nurfes and bodice-makers) from meddling in a matter they underftand not; and they should be afraid to put nature out of her way in fashioning the parts, when they know not how the leaft and meaneft is made. And yet 1 have feen fo many inftances of children receiving great harm from ftrait-lacing, that I cannot but conclude there are other creatures as well as monkeys, who, little wifer than they, deftroy their young ones by fenfelefs fondnefs, and too much embracing. § 12. Narrow breafts, fhort and flinking breath, il lungs, and crookednefs, are the natural and almoft conftant effects of hard bodice, and clothes that pinch. That way of making flender waifts, and fine fhapes, ferves but the more effectually to fpoil them. Nor can there indeed but be difproportion in the parts, when the nourishment prepared in the feveral offices of the body cannot be diftributed as nature defigns. And therefore what wonder is it, if, it being laid where it can, on fome part not fo braced, it often makes a fhoul der or hip higher or bigger than its juft proportion? 'Tis generally known, that the wo men of China, (imagining I know not what kind of beauty in it) by bracing and binding them hard from their infancy, have very little feet. I faw lately a pair of China fhoes, which I was told were for a grown woman : They were fo exceedingly difproportioned to the feet of one of the fame age among us, that they would fcarce have been big enough for one of our little girls. Befides this, 'tis obferved, that their women are also very little, and short-lived; whereas the men are of the ordinary ftature of other men, and live to a proportionable age. Thefe defects in the female fex of that country, are by fome imputed to the unreasonable binding of their feet, whereby the free circulation of the blood is hindered, and the growth and health of the whole body fuffer. And how often do we fee that fome fmall part of the foot being injured by a wrench or a blow, the whole leg or thigh thereby lofe their ftrength and nourifhment, and dwindle away? How much greater inconveniences may we expect, when the thorax, wherein is placed the heart and feat of life, is unnaturally compreffed, and hindered from its due expanfion? Diet. § 13. As for his diet, it ought to be very plain and fimple; and, if I might advife, fleh fhould be forborn as long as he is in coats, or at leaft till he is two or three years old. But whatever advantage this may be to his prefent and fu ture ture health and strengh, I fear it will hardly be confented to by parents, misled by the cuftom of eating too much flesh themselves, who will be apt to think their children, as they do themselves, in danger to be ftarved, if they have not flesh at least twice a-day. This I am fure, children would breed their teeth with much lefs danger, be freer from difeafes whilft they were little, and lay the foundations of an healthy and ftrong conftitution much furer, if they were not crammed so much as they are by fond mothers and foolish fervants, and were kept wholly from flesh the first three or four years of their lives. But if my young mafter muft needs have flesh, let it be but once a-day, and of one fort at a meal. Plain beef, mutton, veal, &c. without other fauce than hunger, is beft; and great care fhould be used, that he eat bread plentifully, both alone and with every thing else; and whatever he eats, that is folid, make him chew it well. We English are often negligent herein; from whence follow indigestion, and other great inconveniences. § 14. For breakfast and fupper, milk, milkpottage, water-gruel, flummery, and twenty other things that we are wont to make in England, are very fit for children. Only, in all these, let care be taken that they be plain, and without much mixture, and very sparingly feafoned with sugar, or rather none at all; espe cially all fpice, and other things that may heat the blood, are carefully to be avoided. Be fparing alfo of falt in the feafoning of all his victuals, and ufe him not to high-feafoned meats. Our palates grow into a relish and liking of the feafoning and cookery, which by cuftom they are set to: and an over-much ufe of falt, befides that it occafions thirft, and . over-much drinking, has other ill effects up. on the body. I fhould think, that a good piece of well-made and well-baked brown bread, fometimes with, and fometimes without butter or cheese would be often the beft breakfast for my young mafter. I am fure 'tis as wholfome, and will make him as ftrong a man as greater delicacies; and if he be used to it, it will be as pleasant to him. If he at any time calls for victuals between meals, ufe him to nothing but dry bread. If he be hungry more than wanton, bread alone will down; and if he be not hungry, 'tis not fit he should eat. By this you will obtain too good effects: 1. That by cuftom he will come to be in love with bread; for, as I faid, our palates and ftomachs too are pleafed with the things we are used to. Another good you will gain hereby is, that you will not teach him to cat more nor ofther than nature requires. I do not think, that all people's appetite's are alike; fome have naturally flonger, and some weakcr ftomachs. But this I think that many are made made gormands and gluttons by cufton, that were not fo by nature: And I fee in fome countries, men as lufty and strong, that eat but two meals a-day, as others that hive fet their ftomachs by a conftant ufage, like larums, to call on them for four or five. The Romans ufually fafted till fupper, the only fet meal even of thofe who eat more than once a-day; and thofe who ufed breakfatts, as fome did, at eight, fome at ten, others at twelve of the clock, and fome latter, neither eat flesh, nor had any thing made ready for them. Auguftus, when the greatest monarch. on the earth, tells us, he took a bit of dry bread in his chariot. And Seneca, in his 83d epiftle, giving an account how he managed himself, even when he was old, and his age, permitted indulgence, fays, that he used to eat a piece of dry bread for his dinner, without the formality of fitting to it, tho' his eftate would as well have paid for a better meal (had health required it) as any fubject's in England, were it doubled. The mafters of the world were bred up with this fpare diet; and the young gentlemen of Rome felt no want of ftrength or fpirit, because they eat but once a-day. Or, if it happened by chance, that any one could not fait fo long as till fupper, their only fet meal, he took nothing but a bit of dry bread, or at most a few raifias, or fome fuch flight thing with it, to ftay his fto |