For time dreffed the head extremely high; environing it with many treffes of false hair, disposed in knots and buckles, so as to refemble a regular fortification. Jofephus reports, that the Jewish ladies powdered their hair with gold dust; a fashion that was carried from Afia to Rome. The first writer who mentions white powder for the hair, the fame we use at prefent, is L'Etoile, in his journal for the year 1593, He relates, that nuns walked the streets of Paris curled and powdered. That fashion spread by degrees through Europe. many years after the civil wars in France, it was a fashion in Paris to wear boots and fpurs with a long fword: a gentleman was not in full drefs without these accoutrements. The fword continues an article of drefs, tho' it distinguishes not a gentleman from his valet. To fhow that a tafte for drefs and ornament is deeply rooted in human nature, favages difplay that tafte upon the body, having no covering to difplay it upon. Seldom is a child left to nature it is deprived of a testicle, a finger, a tooth; or its skin is engraved with figures. Cloathing hath no flight influence, even with respect to morals. Y vénture” të af branded 4 firm, at the hazard of being thought paradoxical, that hakedness is more friendly to chastity than covering. Adultery is unknown among favages, even in hot cli mates where they have scarce any covering. Drefs gives play to the imagination; which pictures to itself many secret beauties, that vanifh when rendered familiar by fight: if a lady accidentally difcover half a leg, imagination is inftantly inflamed; tho' an actress, appearing in breeches, is beheld with indifference:sa naked Venus makes not fuch an impreffion, as when a garter only is discovered. 59700 Cleannefs is an article in external ap pearance. Whether cleanliness be inherent in the nature of man, or only are'o finement of polifhed nations, may at first fight appear doubtful. What pleads for the former is, that cleannefs is remarkable in feveral nations, that have made little progress in the arts of life. The favages of the Caribbee iflands, once ba/numerous tribe, were remarked by writers as neat and cleanly. In the island Otaheite, or King George's ifland, both fexes are cleanly they bathe frequently, never eat nor odrink I drink without washing before and after, and their garments as well as their perfons are kept free of fpot or blemish. Ammianus Marcellinus, defcribing the Gauls, fays, that they were cleanly; and that even the poorest women were never feen with dirty garments. The negroes, parti-' cularly thofe of Ardrah in the flave-coaft, have a fcrupulous regard to cleannefs. They wash morning and evening, and perfume themselves with aromatic herbs. In the city of Benin, women are employ'd to keep the streets clean; and in that respect they are not outdone by the Dutch. In Corea, people mourn three years for the death of their parents; during which time they never wash. Dirtiness must appear difmal to that people, as to us. But inftances are no lefs numerous that fayour the other fide of the queftion. Ammianus Marcellinus reports of the Huns, that they wore a coat till it fell to pieces with dirt and rottennefs. Plan Carpin, who vifited the Tartars anno 1246, fays, * Many animals are remarkable for cleannefs. Beavers are fo, and fo are cats. This must be natural. Tho' a tafte for cleannefs is not remarkable in dogs, yet like men they learn to be cleanly. : VOL. I. Sf "That "That they never wash face nor hands; "that they never clean a dish, a pot, nor 66 a garment; that, like fwine, they make "food of every thing, not excepting the "vermin that crawl on them." The prefent people of Kamskatka answer to that defcription in every article. The naftinefs of North-American favages, in their food, in their cabins, and in their garments, paffes all conception. As they never change their garments till they fall to rags, nor ever think of washing them, they are eat up with vermin. The Esquimaux and many other tribes are equally nafty. As cleannefs requires attention and induftry, the cleannefs of fome favages must be the work of nature; and the dirtinefs of others must proceed from indolence counteracting nature, In fact, cleanness is agreeable to all; and naftiness disagreeable: no perfon prefers dirt; and even those who are the most accustomed to it, are pleased with a cleanly appearance in others. It is true, that a taste for cleannefs, like that for order, for fymmetry, for congruity, is extremely faint during its infancy among favages. Its strongest antagonist is indolence, which favages in dulge dulge to excess: the great fatigue they undergo in hunting, makes them fond of ease at home; and dirtinefs when once habitual, is not easily conquered. But cleannefs improves gradually with manners, and makes a figure in every indu ftrious nation. Nor is a tafte for cleannefs bestow'd on man in vain its final caufe is confpicuous, cleannefs being extremely wholesome, and naftinefs no lefs unwholesome *. 1 1 Thus *The plague, peftilential fevers, and other putrid difeafes, were more frequent in Europe formerly than at prefent; especially in great cities, where multitudes were crowded together in fmall houses, feparated by narrow streets. Paris, in the days of Henry IV. occupied not the third part of its prefent fpace, and yet contained nearly the fame number of inhabitants; and in London the houses are much larger, and the streets wider, than before the great fire, 1666. There is alfo a remarkable alteration in point of diet. Formerly, people of rank lived on falt meat the greater part of the year: at prefent, fresh meat is common all the year round. Pote -herbs, and roots are now a confiderable article of food about London in particular, the confumption at the Revolution was not the fixth part of what it is now. Add the great confumption of tea and fugar, which I am told by phyficians to be no inconfiderable antifeptics. But the chief caufe of all : | |