combated together naked as when born, In a later pēriod, the Spartan dames were much corrupted; occafioned, as authors fay, by a fhameful freedom of intercourfe between the fexes. But remark, that corruption was not confined to the female fex, men 'having degenerated as much from their original manhood as women from their original chastity; and I have no difficulty to maintain, that gold and filver, admitted contrary to the laws of Lycurgus, were what corrupted both fexes. Opulence could not fail to have the fame effect there that it has every where; which is to excite luxury and fenfuality. The Spartans accordingly, fhaking off aufterity of manners, abandoned themselves to pleafure: the most expensive furniture, the fofteft beds, fuperb tapestry, precious, vafes, exquifite wines, delicious viands, were not now too delicate for an effeminate Spartan, once illuftrious for every manly virtue. Lycurgus understood human nature better than the writers do who carp at him. It was his intention, to make his countrymen foldiers, not whining lovers: and he juftly thought, that familiar intercourfe between the fexes would confine their appetites within the bounds of nature; an useful leffon to women of fashion in our days, who expofe their nakedness in order to attract and enflame lovers. What juftifies this reasoning is, the afcendant that Spartan dames had over their husbands while the laws of Lycur gus were in vigour: they in effect ruled the ftate as well as their own families. Such afcendant cannot be obtained nor preferved but by ftrict virtue: a woman of loofe manners may be the object of loofe defire; but seldom will fhe gain an afcendant over any man, and never over her husband. Among no people was there more freedom of intercourfe than among the ancient Germans: males and females flept promifcuously round the walls of their houfes; and yet we never read of an attempt upon a married woman. The fame holds true of the Scotch highlanders.

Cleanliness is an article in external appearance. Whether it be inherent in the nature of man, or only a refinement of polished nations, may at firft fight appear doubt

ful. What pleads for the former is, that cleanliness is remarkable in feveral nations that have made little progrefs in the arts of life. The favages of the Caribbee islands, once a numerous tribe, were remarked by writers as neat and cleanly. In the ifland Otaheite, or King George's ifland, both fexes are cleanly: they bathe frequently, never eat nor 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 pooreft women were never feen with dirty garments. The negroes, particularly thofe of Ardrah in the flave-coaft, have a fcrupulous regard to cleanli nefs. They wafh morning and evening, and perfume themselves with aromatic herbs. In the city of Benin, in Guinea, women are employed to keep the streets clean; and in that refpect 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. Dirtinefs must appear difmal to that people, as to us." But inftances are no lefs numerous that favour the other fide of the queftion. Ammianus Marcellinus reports of the Huns that they wore the fame coat till it fell to pieces with dirt and rottennefs. Plan Carpin, who vifited the Tartars anno 1246, fays, "That they

*

"" never wash face nor hands; that they never clean a "difh, a pot, nor a garment; that, like fwine, they made "food of every thing, not excepting the vermin that "crawl on them." The prefent people of Kamfkatka 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 Efquimaux, and many other tribes, are equally nafty..

Beavers are fo,

* Many animals are remarkable for cleanliness. and fo are cats. This must be natural. Though a tafte for cleanlinefs is not remarkable in dogs, yet, like men, they learn to be cleanly.

As cleannefs requires attention and indufry, the cleanliness of fome favages must be the work of nature; and the dirtinefs of others muft proceed from indolence counteracting nature. In fact, cleanlinefs is agreeable. to all; and naftinefs difagreeable: no perfon prefers dirt; and even those who are the moft 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 ftrongeft antagonist is indolence, which favages indulge to excefs: the great fatigue they undergo in hunting makes them fond of cafe at home; and dirtinefs, when once habitual, is not eafily conquered. But cleanlinefs improves gradually with manners, and makes a figure in every induftrious nation. Nor is a tafte for cleannefs beltowed on man in vain : its final caufe is confpicuous, cleannefs being extremely wholesome, and naftinefs no lefs unwholefome *.

Thus it appears, that a tafte for cleannefs is inherent in our nature. I fay more cleanliness is evidently a branch of propriety, and confequently a felf-duty. The performance is rewarded with approbation; and the neglect is punifhed with contempt (c).

* The plague, peftilential fevers, and other putrid diseases, were more frequent in Europe formerly than at prefent; especially in great cities, where multitudes were crowded together in small houses, and narrow streets. Paris, in the days of Henry IV. occupied not the 'third part of its prefent space, 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. Potherbs 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 is cleanlinefs, which is growing more and more univerfal, especially in the city of London. Conftantinople, putrid diseases reign as much as ever; not from unhealthinefs in the climate, but from the narrowness and naftinefs of the ftreets.

(c) Elements of Criticism, chap. 10.

In

A tafte for cleannefs is not equally diftributed among all men; nor indeed is any branch of the moral fenfe equally distributed: and if by nature one perfon be more cleanly than another, a whole nation may be fo. I judge that to be the cafe of the Japanese, so finically clean as to find fault even with the Dutch for dirtinefs. Their inns are not an exception, nor their little houses, in which water is always at hand for washing after the operation. I judged it to be alfo the cafe of the English, who, high and low, rich and poor, are remarkable for cleanliness all the world over; and I have often amufed myfelf with fo fingular a refemblance between islanders, removed at the greateft diftance from each other. But I was forced to abandon the resemblance, upon a difcovery that the English have not always been fo cleanly as at prefent. Many centuries ago, as recorded in monkish history, one cause of the averfion the English had to the Danes, was their cleanlinefs: they combed their hair, and put on a clean fhirt once a week. And the celebrated Erafmus, who vifited England in the reign of Henry VIII. complains of the naftinefs and flovenly habits of its people; afcribing to that cause the freqnent plagues which at that time infefted them. "Their floors," fays he, are commonly of clay "ftrewed with rushes, under which lies unmolefted a "collection of beer, greafe, fragments, bones, fpittle, "excrements of dogs and cats, and of every thing that

is naufeous (d)." A change fo extraordinary in the tafte and manners of the English, roufes our curiofity; and I flatter myself that the following caufe will be fatisfactory. A favage, remarkably indolent at home, though not infenfible of his dirtinefs, cannot roufe up activity fufficient to attempt a ferious purgation; and would be at a lofs where to begin. The industrious, on the contrary, are improved in neatness and propriety by the art or manufacture that conftantly employs them: they are never reduced to purge the ftable of Augeas; for being prone to action, they fuffer not dirt to reft unmolested.

(d) Epift. 43%.

Induftrious nations accordingly, all the world over, are the moft cleanly. Arts and induftry had long flourished in Holland, where Erasmus was born and educated: the people were clean above all their neighbours, because they were induftrious above all their neighbours; and upon that account the dirtinefs of England could not fail to ftrike a Hollander. At the period mentioned, induftry was as great a ftranger to England as cleanliness: from which confideration, may it not fairly be inferred, that the English are indebted for their cleanlinefs to the great progrefs of induftry among them in later times? If this inference holds, it places industry in an amiable light. The Spaniards, who are indolent to a degree, are to this day as dirty as the English were formerly. Madrid, their capital, is naufeously nafty: heaps of unmolested dirt in every ftreet raise in that warm climate a peftiferous fteam, which threatens to knock down every ftranger. A purgation was lately fet on foot by royal authority. But people habituated to dirt are not easily reclaimed to promote industry is the only effectual remedy *. The naftiness of the streets of Lisbon before the late earthquake was intolerable; and fo is at prefent the naftiness of the ftreets of Cadiz.

Though induftry be the chief promoter of cleanliness, yet it is feldom left to operate alone: other caufes mix, fome to accelerate the progrefs, fome to retard it. The moisture of the Dutch climate has a considerable influ ence in promoting cleanliness; and joined with industry produces a furprizing neatnefs and cleanlinefs among people of bufinefs: men of figure and fashion who gene

* Till the year 1960, there was not a privy in Madrid, though it is plentifully fupplied with water. The ordure, during night, was thrown from the windows into the streets, where it was gathered into heaps. By a royal proclamation, privies were ordered to be built. The inhabitants, though long accustomed to an arbitrary government, refented this proclamation as an infringement of the common rights of mankind, and struggled vigorously against it. The phyficians were the most violent oppofers: they remonftrated, that if the filth was not thrown into the streets, a fatal ficknefs would enfue; because the putrefcent particles of air, which the filth attracted, would be imbibed by the human body..