portant function of the system, namely, that of respiration. 2. As, by the greater pressure and humidity of the atmosphere, the pores of the skin are so affected that they become unable to perform their office of exhalation, with the same facility as in winter and summer, it follows that perspirable matter, or at least, its grosser particles, will in autumn be liable to remain on the surface, in a state inclining to putrefaction, and to be re-absorbed, to the great detriment of the human or animal body. Hence arise bilious and putrid fevers, with a long train of other complaints, according to the constitution and particular circumstances of the individual.
Parental Nature, however, has amply provided the means of obviating such disastrous effects. With this intention, she has given us a great variety of sub-acid fruit, and acescent vegetables, which, at that season, attain to their perfection, and are eminently qualified to counteract the putrid disposition of the fluids. To assist her in this benevolent intention, we ought to choose an appropriate diet; and, at the same time, defend the surface of the body with a proper dress, which is warm, light, and sufficiently porous, in order to admit the evaporation of perspirable volatile humours.
Notwithstanding all the objections made by theorists, against the use of Flannel, worn next the skin, we venture to pronounce it the most beneficial covering; provided the conditions and exceptions we shall state under that article, be duly attended to. But to see the fashionable females of the metropolis, as well as in the country, at all seasons of the year, dressed in muslin, cotton, and other light stuffs, scarcely sufficient to protect them against a sudden blast of wind—such deviations from the rules of prudence, and real economy, may, indeed, deserve the lash of the Roman satyrist, who speaks of the bitter complaints of Proserpine, in chilly autumn, but they cannot be corrected by Reason, till the shrine of that whimsical idol 'Fashion,' be shaken, and its ground-work demolished, by a more dignified system of Education.—See that article.
AVARICE, is that restless and insatiable desire of accnmmulating riches, which is the surest indication of a contracted and, generally, depraved mind.
As the governing passions of the brute creation are lust and hunger, the predominant desires of the human species appear to be power and money: it has accordingly been asserted, that the origin from which all the misfortunes and calamities of mankind have arisen, are ambition and avarice.
When a person doats upon money, merely for the sake of possessing it, without any regard to the good purposes of life, which it might serve, or to the new enjoyments that may be procured by it; without any regard to the benefit of his neighbour, or to any advantage accruing from it to himself—such a being may justly be called a miser of the first class. His greatest happiness, apparently, consists in the contemplation of money; an idol whom he even condescends to worship, while he removes him in triumph from one part of his dwelling to another.
The next, and second class of misers, comprehends those singu-
