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After exercise to use a cold bath is boyish, and has
more ostentation in it than health; for though it may seem
to harden our bodies and make them not so subject to outward accidents, yet it does more prejudice to the inward
parts, by hindering transpiration, fixing the rumors, and
condensing those vapors which love freedom and transpiration. Besides, necessity will force those who use cold
[p. 268]
baths into that exact and accurate way of diet they would
so much avoid, and make them take care they be not in the
least extravagant, for every such error is sure to receive
a bitter reproof. But a warm bath is much more pardonable, for it does not so much destroy our natural vigor and
strength as it does conduce to our health, laying a soft and
easy foundation for concoction, preparing those things for
digestion which are not easily digested without any pain
(if they be not very crude and deep lodged), and fleeing
us from all inward weariness. But when we do sensibly
perceive our bodies to be indifferent well, or as they ought
to be, we should omit bathing, and anoint ourselves by the
fire; which is better if the body stand in need of heat, for
it dispenses a warmth throughout. But we should make
use of the sun more or less, as the temper of the air permits. So much may suffice to have been said concerning
exercises.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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