writer who mentions white powder for the hair, the fame we ufe 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 fpread by degrees through Europe. For 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 thefe accouttrements. The fword continues an article of drefs, though it diftinguishes not a gentleman from his valet. To fhow that a tafte for dress and ornament is deeply rooted in human nature, favages display that tafte upon the body, having no covering to difplay it upon. Seldom is a child of a savage left to nature: it is deprived of a testicle, a finger, a tooth; or its fkin is engraved with figures.

Clothing hath no flight influence, even with respect to morals. I venture to affirm, at the hazard of being thought paradoxical, that nakednefs is more friendly to chastity than covering. Adultery is unknown among favages, even in hot climates where they have scarce any covering. Drefs gives play to the imagination,

which pictures to itself many fecret beauties which vanish when rendered familiar by fight if a lady accidentally discover half a leg, imagination is inftantly inflamed; tho' an actress appearing in breeches is beheld with indifference: a naked Venus makes not fuch an impreffion as when a garter only is difcovered.

Cleannefs is an article in external appearance. Whether cleanlinefs be inherent in the nature of man, or only a refinement of polished nations, may at first appear doubtful. What pleads for the former is, that cleannefs is remarkable in feveral nations which have made little progress in the arts of life. The favages of the Caribbee iflands, once a 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 drink without washing before and after, and their garments, as well as their perfons, are kept free of spot 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, partiVOL. I. cularly

S f

cularly thofe of Ardrah in the flave-coaft, have a fcrupulous regard to cleannefs. They wash morning and evening, and perfume themfelves with aromatic herbs. In the city of Benin, women are employed to keep the ftreets 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 question. 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, "That they never wash face nor hands; "that they never clean a difh, a pot, nor

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*

a garment; that, like fwine, they make "food of every thing, not excepting the "vermin that crawl on them." The prefent people of Kamikatka answer to that defcription in every article. The nafi

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

nefs

nefs 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.

As cleannefs requires attention and induftry, the cleanness of some favages must be the work of nature, and the dirtiness. of others must proceed from indolence counteracting nature. In fact, cleanness is agreeable to all, and naftinefs difagreeable: no perfon prefers dirt; and even thofe who are the moft accustomed to it are pleafed with a cleanly appearance in others. It is true, that a tafte 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 indulge to excefs: the great fatigue they undergo in hunting, makes them fond of cafe at home; and dirtinefs, when once habitual, is not cafily conquered. But cleanness improves gradually with manners, and makes a figure in every induftrious nation. Nor is a tafte for clean

nefs

ness bestowed on man in vain: its final cause is confpicuous, cleannefs being extremely wholesome, and naftiness no less unwholefome *.

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, separated 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 houfes are much larger, and the streets wider, than before the great fire 1666. There is alfa 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. Pot-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 is cleannefs, which is growing more and more general, efpecially in the city of London. In Conftantinople, putrid difeafes reign as much as ever; not from unhealthinefs in the climate, but from the narrowness and naftiness of the streets. How it comes that Turkish camps differ fo much from the metropolis, I cannot fay. Bufbequius vifited a Turkish camp in the days of Solyman the Magnificent. The ordure was carefully buried under ground; not any noifome fmell; in every corner it was clean and neat. The excrements, which appear every where in our camps when

stationary