wear the fame cloaths winter and fummer, and that without any incon- § 6. I HAVE faid [he] here, because the principal aim of my difcourfe is, how a young gentleman fhould be brought up from his infancy, which in all things will not fo perfectly fuit the education of daughters; though, where the difference of fex requires different treatment, it will be no hard matter to distinguish. 7. I WOULD also advise his feet to be washed every day in cold water; Feet. and to have his fhoes fo thin, that they might leak and let in water, whenever he comes near it. Here, I fear, I fhall have the mistress, and maids too, against me. One will think it too filthy; and the other, perhaps, too much pains to make clean his ftockings. But yet truth will have it, that his health is much more worth than all fuch confiderations, and ten-times as much more. And he that confiders how mischievous and mortal a thing, taking wet in the feet is, to those who have been bred nicely, will wish he had, with the poor people's children, gone bare-foot; who, by that means, come to be fo reconciled by custom, to wet their feet, that they take no more cold or harm by it, than if they were wet in their hands. And what is it, I And what is it, I pray, that makes this great difference between the hands and the feet in others, but only custom? I doubt not, but if a man from his cradle had been always used to go bare-foot, whilft his hands were conftantly wrapped up in warm mittins, and covered with handfhoes, as the Dutch call gloves; I doubt not, I fay, but fuch a custom would make taking wet in his hands as dangerous to him, as now taking wet in their feet is to a great many others. The way to prevent this, is to have his shoes made fo, as to leak water; and his feet washed conftantly every day in cold water. It is recommendable for its cleanliness: but that, which I aim at in it, is health. fore I limit it not precifely to any time of the day. I have known it used every night, with very good fuccefs, and that, all the winter, without the omitting it fo much as one night, in extreme cold weather: when thick ice covered the water, the child bathed his legs and feet in it; though he was of an age not big enough to rub and wipe them himfelf; and when he began this cuftom, was puling and very tender. But the great end being to harden thofe parts, by a frequent and familiar use of cold water, and thereby to prevent the mifchiefs, that ufually attend accidental taking wet in the feet, in thofe who are bred otherwife; I think it may be left to the prudence and convenience of the parents, to chufe either B 2 And there night ། night or morning. The time I deem indifferent; fo the thing be effec tually done. The health and hardinefs procured by it, would be a good purchafe at a much dearer rate. To which if I add the preventing of corns, that to fome men would be a very valuable confideration. But begin first in the fpring with luke-warm, and fo colder and colder every time, till in a few days you come to perfectly cold water, and then continue it fo, winter and fummer. For it is to be observed in this, as in all Alterations. other alterations from our ordinary way of living, the changes must be made by gentle and infenfible degrees; and fo we may bring our bodies to any thing, without pain, and without danger. How fond mothers are like to receive this doctrine, is not hard to forefee. What can it be lefs, than to murder their tender babes, to use 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 himself, ep. 53 and 83, that he used to bathe himself in cold spring-water in the midst of winter. This, if he had not thought it not only tolerable, but healthy too, he would scarce have done, in an exuberant fortune, that could well have borne 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 severity; let it be so, 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 armed not himself with the reputation of any fect, and least of all affected stoical aufterities? yet he affures us, he was wont in the winter season 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, those of Germany and Poland are much colder, than any in this our country; and yet in thefe, the Jews, both men and women, bathe all over, at all feafons of the year, without any prejudice to their health. And every one is not apt to believe it is a miracle, or any peculiar virtue 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 strength; and therefore they cannot be impracticable, or intolerable, for the improving and hardening the bodies of those who are in better circumstances. IF these 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 only 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 3 discipline difcipline to their children, in the midst of winter; and find that cold water does them no harm, even when there is ice in it. §. 8. I SHALL not need here to mention swimming, when he is of an swimming. age able to learn, and has any one to teach him. It is 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-educated, and good for nothing; that he had neither learned to read, nor to swim: "Nec literas didicit, nec natare." But befides the gaining a skill, 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 to 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 pulse. not endure No 89. ANOTHER thing, that is of great advantage to every one's health, Air. but especially children's, is, to be much in the open air, and very little, as may be, by the fire, even in winter. By this he will accuftom himfelf alfo to heat and cold, fhine and rain; all which if a man's body will it will ferve him to very little purpofe in this world: and when he is grown up, it is too late to begin to use him to it: it must be got early and by degrees. Thus the body may be brought to bear almoft any thing. If I fhould advife him to play in the wind and fun without a hat, I doubt whether it could be borne. There would a thouTand objections be made against it, which at laft would amount to no more, in truth, than being fun-burnt. 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 bufinefs. And although greater 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. 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 fhould fit or lie down on the cold or moift earth. This, I grant, and drinking cold drink, when they are hot with labour or exercife, brings more people to the grave, or to the brink of it, by fevers, and other difeafes, than any thing I know. These mischiefs are eafily enough prevented, whilft he 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 custom of forbearing, grown into a habit, will help much to preserve him, when Habits. he is no longer under his maid's or tutor's eye. This is all I think can be done in the cafe. For, as years increase, liberty must come with them; and, in a great many things, he must be trusted to his own conduct, fince there cannot always be a guard upon him; except what you put. Habits. Cloaths. put into his own mind, by good principles and established habits, which is the best and fureft, and therefore most to be taken care of. For, from repeated cautions and rules, ever fo often inculcated, you are not to expect any thing, either in this, or any other case, farther than practice has established them into habit. §. II. ONE thing the mention of the girls brings into my mind, which must not be forgot; and that is, that your fon's cloaths be never made ftrait, especially 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 themselves to frame the bodies of their children in their wombs, as they often endeavour to mend their fhapes, when they are out, we should as certainly have no perfect children born, as we have few well-fhaped, that are strait-laced, or much tampered with. This confideration should methinks keep bufy people (I will not fay ignorant nurses and boddice-makers) from meddling in a matter they understand not; and they fhould be afraid to put nature out of her way, in fashioning the parts, when they know not how the least and meaneft is made. And yet I have seen so And yet I 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 monkies, who, little wiser than they, destroy their young ones, by fenfelefs fondness, and too much embracing. § 12. NARROw breafts, fhort and ftinking breath, ill lungs, and crookedness, are the natural and almost constant effects of hard boddice, and cloaths that pinch. That way of making flender waifts, and fine fhapes, ferves but the more effectually to spoil 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, or fome part not fo braced, it often makes a fhoulder, or a hip, higher or bigger than its juft proportion? It is generally known, that the women 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 so exceedingly difproportioned to the feet of one of the fame age, amongst us, that they would fcarce have been big enough for one of our little girls. Befides this, it is obferved, that their women are alfo very little, and short-lived; whereas the men are of the ordinary stature 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 fuffers. And how often do we fee, that fome small part of the foot being injured, by a wrench or a blow, the whole leg or thigh thereby lofes its ftrength and nourishment, and dwindles away? How much greater inconveniencies may we expect, when the thorax, wherein is placed the heart and feat of of life, is unnaturally compreffed, and hindered from its due expanfion? § 13. As for his diet, it ought to be very plain and fimple; and, if I Diet. might advise, flesh should be forborn, as long as he is in coats, or at least, till he is two or three years old. But whatever advantage this may be, to his present and future health and strength, I fear it will hardly be confented to, by parents, mifled by the cuftom of eating too much flesh themselves; who will be apt to think their children, as they do themfelves, 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, whilst 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 servants, 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 follows indigeftion, and other great inconveniencies. § 14. FOR breakfast and fupper, milk, milk-pottage, 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 seasoned with fugar, or rather none at all: especially all-fpice, and other things, that may heat the blood, are carefully to be avoided. Be fparing alfo of falt, in the seasoning of all his victuals, and use him not to high-seasoned meats. Our palates grow into a relish and liking of the feasoning and cookery, which by cuftom they are fet to; and an over-much use of falt, befides that it occafions thirst, and over-much drinking, has other ill effects upon the body. I should 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 best breakfast for my young master. I am fure it is as wholesome, 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, use him to nothing but dry bread. If he be hungry, more than wanton, bread alone will down; and if he be not hungry, it is not fit he should eat. By this By this you will obtain two good effects: 1. That by custom he will come to be in love with bread; for, as I faid, our palates and ftomachs too are pleased with the things we are used to. Another good you will gain hereby is, that you will not teach him to eat more nor oftener than nature requires. I do not think that all people's appetites are alike: fome have naturally stronger, and fome weaker ftomachs. But this I think, that many are made gor3 mands |