ved in this, as in all other alteraAlterati- tions from our ordinary way of living, the changes must be made by

ons.

gentle and infenfible degrees; and

fo we may bring our bodies to any thing with-out pain and without danger.

How fond mothers are like to receive this doctrine, is not hard to forefee.

What can it

ཨི

be lefs, than to murder their tender babes, to ufe them thus? What! put their feet in cold water in froft and fnow, when all one can do is little enough to keep them warm? A little to remove their fears by examples, without which the plaineft reafon is feldom hearkened to: Seneca tells us of himfelf, Ep. 53, 83, that he used to bathe himself in cold springwater in the midst of winter. This, if he had not thought it not only tolerable, but healthy too, he would fcarce have done in an exorbitant fortune, that could well have born the expence of a warm bath, and in an age (for he was then old) that would have excufed greater indulgence. If we think his ftoical principles led him to this feverity, let it be fo, that this fect reconciled cold water to his fufferance. What made it agreeable to his health? For that was not impaired by this hard ufage. But what fhall we fay to Horace, who warmed not himself with the reputation of any fect, and least of all affected ftoical ufterities? yet he affures us, he was wont in

the

the winter feafon to bathe himself in cold water. But, perhaps, Italy will be thought much warmer than England, and the chillness of their waters not to come near ours in winter. If the rivers of Italy are warmer, thofe of Germany and Poland are much colder, than any in this our country; and yet in these, the Jews, both men and women, bathe all over, at all feafons of the year, without any preju dice to their health. And every one is not apt to believe it is miracle, or any peculiar vir tue of St. Winifred's well, that makes the cold: waters of that famous fpring do no harm to the tender bodies that bathe in it. Every one is now full of the miracles done by cold baths on decayed and weak conftitutions, for the recovery of health and ftrength; and therefore they cannot be impracticable or intolerable for the improving and hardening the bodies of those who are in better circumstances.

If thefe examples of grown men be not thought yet to reach the cafe of children, but that they may be judged ftill to be too tender, and unable to bear fuch ufage, let them examine what the Germans of old, and the Irish now, do to them, and they will find, that infants too, as tender as they are thought, may without any danger, endure bathing, not on. ly of their feet, but of their whole bodies, in cold water. And there are, at this day, Ladies in the Highlands of Scotland who use this discipline

difcipline to their children in the midft of winter, and find that cold water does them no harm, even when there is ice in it.

Swimming.

§ 8. I fhall not need here to mention fwimming, when he is of an age able to learn, and has any one to teach him. 'Tis that faves many a man's life; and the Romans thought it fo neceffary that they ranked it with letters; and it was the common phrase to mark one ill-edu. cated, and good for nothing, That he had neither learnt to read nor to fwim: Nec literas 'didicit nec natare.' But befides the gaining a fkill which may serve him at need, the advantages to health, by often bathing in cold water, during the heat of fummer, are fo many, that I think nothing need be faid to encourage it; provided this one caution be used, That he never go into the water when exercife has at all warmed him, or left any emotion in his blood or pulfe.

§ 9. Another thing that is of great advan tage to every one's health, but efpecially children's, is to be much in the open Air. air, and as little as may be by the fire, even in winter. By this he will accuftom himself alfo to heat and cold, fhine and rain; all which, if a man's body will not endure, it will ferve him to very little purpose in this world; and when he is grown up, it is too late to begin to ufe him to it. It

muft

must be got early, and by degrees. Thus the body may be brought to bear almoft any thing. If I should advise him to play in the wind and the fun without a hat, I doubt whether it could be borne. There would a thousand objections be made against it, which at laft would amount to no more, in truth, than being funburnt. And if my young mafter be to be kept always in the fhade, and never expofed to the fun and wind, for fear of his complexion, it may be a good way to make him a beau, but not a man of business. And altho' great

er regard be to be had to beauty in the daughters; yet I will take the liberty to fay, that the more they are in the air, without prejudice to their faces, the ftronger and healthier they will be; and the nearer they come to the hardships of their brothers in their education, the greater advantage will they receive from it all the remaining part of their

lives.

S 10. Playing in the open air has but this one danger in it, that I know; and that is, that when he is hot with running up and down, he should fit or ly down on the cold or moift earth. This I grant; and drinking cold drink, when they are hot with labour or exercise, brings more people to the grave, or to the brink of it, by fevers, and other diseases, than any thing I know. Thefe mifchiefs are easily enough prevented whilst he

is

is little, being then seldom out of fight. And if, during his childhood, he be conftantly and rigorously kept from fitting on the ground, or drinking any cold liquor whilft he is hot, the cuftom of forbearing, grown in

Habits. to habit, will help much to preferve him, when he is no longer under

his maid's or tutor's eye.

This is all I think

For, as years in

can be done in the cafe: creafe, liberty muft come with them; and in a great many things he must be trufted to his own conduct, fince there cannot always be a guard upon him, except what you have put into his own mind by good principles, and eftablished habits, which is the best and fureft, and therefore moft to be taken care of. For, from repeated cautions and rules, never fo often inculcated, you are not to expect any thing either in this, or any other cafe, farther than practice has eftablished them into habits. § 11. One thing the mention of the girls brings into my mind, which must not be forgot; and that is, that your fon's clothes be never made ftrait, efpeci ally about the breaft. Let nature have fcope to fashion the body as the thinks beft. She works of herself a great deal better and exacter than we can direct her. And if women were themfelves to frame the bodies of their children in their wombs as they often endeavour to mend their fhapes,

Clothes.

when.