There are habits of body suited for an active life and others for
a sedentary life. The latter leaves the humours an equable and
uniform course, and the body should be protected from changes in
temperature; the former is constantly passing from action to rest,
from heat to cold, and the body should be inured to these changes.
Hence people, engaged in sedentary pursuits indoors, should always
be warmly dressed, to keep their bodies as nearly as possible at
the same temperature at all times and seasons. Those, however, who
come and go in sun, wind, and rain, who take much exercise, and
spend most of their time out of doors, should always be lightly clad,
so as to get used to the changes in the air and to every degree of
temperature without suffering inconvenience. I would advise both
never to change their clothes with the changing seasons, and that
would be the invariable habit of my pupil Emile. By this I do not
mean that he should wear his winter clothes in summer like many
people of sedentary habits, but that he should wear his summer
clothes in winter like hard-working folk. Sir Isaac Newton always
did this, and he lived to be eighty.
Emile should wear little or nothing on his head all the year round.
The ancient Egyptians always went bareheaded; the Persians used to
wear heavy tiaras and still wear large turbans, which according to
Chardin are required by their climate. I have remarked elsewhere
on the difference observed by Herodotus on a battle-field between
the skulls of the Persians and those of the Egyptians. Since it is
desirable that the bones of the skull should grow harder and more
substantial, less fragile and porous, not only to protect the brain
against injuries but against colds, fever, and every influence of
the air, you should therefore accustom your children to go bare-headed
winter and summer, day and night. If you make them wear a night-cap
to keep their hair clean and tidy, let it be thin and transparent
like the nets with which the Basques cover their hair. I am aware
that most mothers will be more impressed by Chardin's observations
than my arguments, and will think that all climates are the climate
of Persia, but I did not choose a European pupil to turn him into
an Asiatic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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