spend their time in highly-heated rooms, which would, of course, be much worse than additional clothing. And yet these are the very first persons to be injured by any more clothing than is just necessary, either in summer or winter, and by night or by day. So that the greatest care is necessary here, as well as elsewhere, lest, in avoiding one rock of practical error, we run on another.

It is ever worthy of our inquiry whether the languor which such persons feel on the arrival of the first warm days of spring is not owing to a fact which has not hitherto been noticed, but which properly belongs to this part of our subject. Having been obliged all winter long to wear a great deal of clothing, in order to imprison the caloric, we come to the warm days of spring with an amount of it which is burdensome. The atmosphere being warmer, there is less of heat radiated from our bodies, and we feel oppressed by the internal heat.

Under these circumstances, most persons are afraid to remove any part of their winter clothing, lest they should be chilly at evening. I admit there is a difficulty, but it is a difficulty which with most persons may be overcome, especially if their sense of the value of health is high enough to induce them to pay the tax of securing it.

I knew one man who made it his practice, in our variable climate, to change his clothes, at every season, particularly in the spring, several times a day. Yet he was unusually free from colds, and considering the fact that he was addicted to many habits positively bad, his health was remarkable.

Now, a large proportion of our busy community — busy as they are might do the very same thing. They must, indeed, lay their plans for it at rising in the morning. They must have their changes of clothing at the field or shop where their labor is to be performed. That simplicity of form in

dress which has been recommended in the preceding pages will be much in their favor.

There are a few

Many are in the habit of covering the face and throat, whenever they go out in the open air. individuals who, after speaking much, are

liable to cold, un

less they protect themselves in this way, especially if they ride when they go out. I am as much exposed in this way as any person, and yet seldom do more than barely to turn up the collar of my overcom. But, then, I never ride after speaking. I always walk or run home. Habit, in this respect, is almost omnipotent. Some nations go with the neck bare, even in high northern latitudes, and yet have fewer colds than we - the Prussians, for example. In general, the more we expose ourselves to cold, the better.

One principle must never be lost sight of. All the work which the calorific powers of the system can perform without being overtasked that is, tasked in such a way as to prove injurious, in the end, to the individual or to the race

- should

SO

be performed. All our organs and parts are made to be to speak working men.

--

and on

Those who are fed with high-seasoned food, food, in particular, which contains much shortening or grease, the contrary, those whose food is too meagre and innutritious, will, for the time, at least, require more clothing than would be required in other circumstances.

Then, again, sudden changes in our diet do, for a short time, impose upon us the very same necessity. The steady burning of the fire within us is very much affected by habit. The man of simple diet - the mere consumer of bread and fruits finds nearly the same difficulty in passing suddenly from his accustomed diet to a more luxurious one, that the high liver does in passing to simplicity.

The man of sluggish temperament, especially if, with that temperament, there is — and we almost always find it so a tinge of the bilious habit, will require more clothing, other things being equal, than the individual who possesses a more active and more energetic temperament.

Some persons inherit such diseased tendencies as render it necessary they should wear more clothing in the morning than towards evening. The same class of persons frequently require but little clothing hen they retire to rest, but need additional covering towards morning.

They who exercise but little require more clothing than the active. Those who exercise too much, on the other hand, and especially those who have, at times, profuse perspirations, have weakened calorific powers, and consequently require a larger amount of clothing in proportion.

Living or sleeping in a bad atmosphere puts out the internal fire. Hence it is that factory people, and students, and clerks often find themselves chilly, and often take cold; while those who are employed chiefly in the open air are comfortable with a much smaller amount of clothing.

I know a stage driver on Cape Cod, who assured me, when I last saw him, that for twelve years, during which time he had driven his coach every day from Chatham to Harwich, he had worn no stockings with his boots, and yet had been as comfortable as he was formerly when he wore them. I have known several similar instances.

Many wonder how it is that the laborer can endure the cold so well. They forget that, like the stage driver, he always has an abundance of pure air. There are, indeed, other reasons for the fact; but this is one, and is a highly important one.

Mr. Rich

says, "Let as little headdress be worn as will

comport with the common ideas of decency; and of whatever shape it may be, let it be light and porous." The latter part of the remark might be applied to dress in general. Every thing should sit loosely.

III. MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING.

I wish it were practicable to return to the custom of raising flax and manufacturing linen, ás they did in Solomon's time.* Not for the sake of a few kings and princes, merely; but that every body might be kings and princes in the summer season—such kings and princes, I mean, as Christianity was designed to render us.

For nothing could be more healthy in hot weather, except for those who, by reason of feebleness or violent exertion, perspire too freely, than linen clothing. It is a good conductor both of heat and electricity. Hence we call it cooler.

But for those who are, from any cause whatever, enfeebled in their constitutions, and especially so enfeebled as to be liable to profuse perspiration, light, soft flannel, or at least cotton, will be preferable, even in midsummer, and in the hottest climate. The linen such persons wear should be worn externally.

Cotton is a worse conductor of heat and electricity; and is, therefore, in general, a better material of dress, except for hot weather, than linen. Besides, its cheapness is a temptation which even some of the friends of free labor know not how to overcome. Some individuals find cotton, next to the skin, to be irritating, though less so than woollen. Such per

* There are at the present moment indications of such a return. Success to those who have set the ball in motion.

sons are obliged to use linen underclothes.

But I have usu

ally found this class of persons much more able to bear cotton and woollen after abandoning a high-seasoned and overstimulating diet.

I am strongly inclined to believe that, when mankind have lived in strict accordance with all the laws of health for a few generations, linen may and will be made a staple article, and will constitute one fourth or one third of all the clothing worn among us.

The time, however, is not far distant when cotton cloth will be the product, for the most part, of free labor, so that, as far as health requires it, the most scrupulous can use it in preference to linen, and, if they choose, as a substitute for nearly every other material.

Woollen clothing, trained as we are, and in our very changeable and cold climate, will be for some time in very large demand, notwithstanding the cheapness and availableness of cotton.

Some individuals among us have supposed the use of woollen clothing not only unnecessary, but wrong. They reason in this way: "A state of society," they tell us," is fast approaching, when wool cannot be had in any considerable quantity ; and does not this indicate," they ask, "that the Author of nature did not intend its use?"

They refer to a future condition of the world, when, its population being increased fifty or a hundred fold, there will be, as it now is in Japan, no room for domestic animals; or, if any, for very few. So that precisely at the time when fifty or a hundred times the present amount of woollen clothing would seem to be needed, not a fiftieth or a hundreth part of what we now have can be obtained.

It would be difficult to show the fallacy of such reasoning,