But of this I shall speak again presently.  I return, in the mean time, to the article of infecting one another at first.  Before people came to right notions of the infection and of infecting one another, people were only shy of those that were really sick.  A man with a cap upon his head, or with cloths round his neck (which was the case of those that had swellings there),—­such was indeed frightful; but when we saw a gentleman dressed, with his band[286] on, and his gloves in his hand, his hat upon his head, and his hair combed,—­of such we had not the least apprehensions; and people conversed a great while freely, especially with their neighbors and such as they knew.  But when the physicians assured us that the danger was as well from the sound (that is, the seemingly sound) as the sick, and that those people that thought themselves entirely free were oftentimes the most fatal; and that it came to be generally understood that people were sensible of it, and of the reason of it,—­then, I say, they began to be jealous of everybody; and a vast number of people locked themselves up, so as not to come abroad into any company at all, nor suffer any that had been abroad in promiscuous company to come into their houses, or near them (at least not so near them as to be within the reach of their breath, or of any smell from them); and when they were obliged to converse at a distance with strangers, they would always have preservatives in their mouths and about their clothes, to repel and keep off the infection.

It must be acknowledged that when people began to use these cautions they were less exposed to danger, and the infection did not break into such houses so furiously as it did into others before; and thousands of families were preserved, speaking with due reserve to the direction of Divine Providence, by that means.

But it was impossible to beat anything into the heads of the poor.  They went on with the usual impetuosity of their tempers, full of outcries and lamentations when taken, but madly careless of themselves, foolhardy, and obstinate, while they were well.  Where they could get employment, they pushed into any kind of business, the most dangerous and the most liable to infection; and if they were spoken to, their answer would be, “I must trust to God for that.  If I am taken, then I am provided for, and there is an end of me;” and the like.  Or thus, “Why, what must I do?  I cannot starve.  I had as good have the plague as perish for want.  I have no work:  what could I do?  I must do this, or beg.”  Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the sick, or watching infected houses, which were all terrible hazards; but their tale was generally the same.  It is true, necessity was a justifiable, warrantable plea, and nothing could be better; but their way of talk was much the same where the necessities were not the same.  This adventurous conduct of the poor was that which brought the plague among them in a most furious manner; and