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THROUGH FINLAND. 299
| ful than the extremities which man is capable of enduring through
the power of habit.
The Finnifh peafants pafs thus inftantaneoufly from an atmo-
{phere of 70 degrees of heat, to one of 30 degrees of cold, a tran-
fition of a hundred degrees, which is the fame thing as going out
of boiling into freezing water! and what is more aftonifhing, with-
out the leaft inconvenience ; while other people are very fenfibly
affected by a variation of but five degrees, and in danger of being
afflicted with rheumatifm by the moft trifling wind that blows.
Thofe peafants affure you, that without the hot vapour baths they
could not fuftain as they do, during the whole day, their various
_ labours. By the bath, they tell you, their ftrength is recruited as
much as by reft and fleep. The heat of the vapour mollifies to
fuch a degree their fkin, that the men eafily fhave themfelves with
wretched razors, and without foap. Had Shak{fpeare known of a
people who could thus have pleafure in fuch quick tranfition from
exceflive heat to the fevereft cold, his knowledge might have been
encreafed, but his creative fancy could not have been affifted :-—
Oh! whe can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking of the frofty Caucafus?
Or wallow naked in December fnow, |
By thinking on fantaftic fummer’s heat !
Qq2 CHAPTER
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