The clothing ought likewise to be suited to the season of the year. Clothing may be warm enough for summer, which is by no means sufficient for winter. The greatest caution, however, is necessary in making these changes. We ought neither to put off our winter clothes too soon, nor to wear our summer ones too long. In this country, the winter often sets in very early with great rigour, and we have frequently cold weather even after the commencement of the summer months. It would likewise be prudent not to make the change all at once, but to do it gradually; and indeed the changes of apparel in this climate ought to be very inconsiderable, especially among those who have passed the meridian of life[37]. Clothes often become hurtful by their being made subservient to the purposes of pride or vanity. Mankind in all ages seem to have considered clothes in this view; accordingly their fashion and figure have been continually varying, with very little regard either to health, the climate, or conveniency: a farthingale, for example, may be very necessary in hot southern climates, but surely nothing can be more ridiculous in the cold regions of the north. Even the human shape is often attempted to be mended by dress, and those who know no better believe that mankind would be monsters without its assistance. All attempts of this nature are highly pernicious. The most destructive of them in this country is that of squeezing the stomach and bowels into as narrow a compass as possible, to procure, what is falsely called, a fine shape[38]. By this practice the action of the stomach and bowels, the motion of the heart and lungs, and almost all the vital functions, are obstructed. Hence proceed indigestions, syncopes, or fainting fits, coughs, consumptions of the lungs, and other complaints so common among females. The feet likewise often suffer by pressure. How a small foot came to be reckoned genteel, I will not pretend to say; but certain it is, that this notion has made many persons lame. Almost nine-tenths of mankind are troubled with corns: a disease that is seldom or never occasioned but by strait shoes. Corns are not only very troublesome, but by rendering people unable to walk, they may likewise be considered as the remote cause of other diseases[39].