This I take to be a more effectual Method to keep the _Infection_ from spreading, than the absolute refusing a Passage to People upon any Terms. For when Men are in such imminent Danger of their Lives, where they are; many, no doubt, if not otherwise allowed to escape, will use Endeavours to do it secretly, let the Hazard be ever so great. And it can hardly be, but some will succeed in their Attempts; as we see fell out in _France_ notwithstanding all their Care. But one that gets off thus clandestinely, will be more like to carry the Distemper with him, than twenty, nay a hundred, that go away under the preceding Restrictions: Especially because the _Infection_ of the Place, he flies from, will by this Management be rendered much more intense. For confining People, and shutting them up together in great Numbers, will make the Distemper rage with augmented Force, even to the increasing it beyond what can be easily imagined; As appears from the _Account_, which the learned _Gassendus_[21] has given us of a memorable _Plague_, which happened at _Digne_ in _Provence_, where he lived, in the Year 1619. This was so terrible, that in one _Summer_ out of _ten thousand_ Inhabitants, it left but _fifteen hundred_, and of them all but _five_ or _six_ had gone through the _Disease_. And he assigns _this_, as the principal Cause of the great Destruction, That the Citizens were too closely confined, and not suffered so much as to go to their Country Houses. Whereas in another _Pestilence_, which broke out in the same Place a year and half after, more Liberty being allowed, there did not dye above _one hundred_ Persons. For these Reasons, I think, to allow People with proper _Cautions_ to remove from an infected Place, is the best Means to suppress the _Contagion_, as well as the most humane Treatment of the present Sufferers: But though Liberty ought to be given to the _People_, yet no sort of _Goods_ must by any means be suffered to be carried over the _Line_, which are made of _Materials_ retentive of _Infection_. For in the present Case, when _Infection_ has seized any Part of a Country, much greater Care ought to be taken, that no _Seeds_ of the _Contagion_ be conveyed about, than when the Distemper is at a great Distance; because a _Bale of Goods_, which shall have imbibed the _Contagious Aura_ when packt up in _Turkey_, or any remote Parts; yet, when unpackt here, may chance to meet with so healthful a Temperament of our Air, that it shall not do much hurt. But when the Air of any one of our Towns shall be so corrupted, as to spread and maintain the _Pestilence_ in it, there will be little reason to believe, that the Air of the rest of the Country is in a much better State. For the same Reason _Quarentines_ should more strictly be enjoined, when the _Plague_ is in a bordering Kingdom, than when it is more remote.