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others, rather than for ourselves, that will most avail us.

Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.

Behold a pen always writing over your head, and making up that great record of your thoughts, words, and actions, from which, at last, you are to be judged.1

Ever present is the Almighty.

1 Blair.

CHAP. XIII.

HEALTH.

DISCERN of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.'

Strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses, which are owing a man till his age."

Examine thy customs of diet, sleep, exercise, apparel, and the like; and try, in any thing thou shalt judge hurtful, to discontinue it by little and little."

Health and liberty are, without dispute, the greatest natural blessings mankind is capable of enjoying; but seldom sufficiently valued whilst enjoyed, like the daily advantages of the sun and air.4

It is a great, yet rare, advantage to learn rightly how to prize health, without the expense of being sick.5

It is unaccountable how careless men are about exposing themselves to loss of health, even when they dread loss of life.

Some people are fond of quacking-a most. dangerous disposition with regard to health. Let light things pass away of themselves; in a case

1 Bacon (Essay).

2 Id. ibid.

4 Lord Molynorth.

5 Id. ibid.

3 Id. ibid.

that really requires assistance, do nothing without advice.1

Follow your rules of rising early, eating little, drinking less, and riding daily."

Use thyself to rise and to go to bed early: this will contribute very much towards rendering thy life long, useful, and happy.

All the long-lived have been in the habit of rising early.

To rise early is to double life.

Good hours of fair cheeks are the fairest tinters,
And lower the price of rouge, at least, some winters.3

Il n'étoit pas comme la bonne compagnie, qui languit dans son lit oiseux jusqu'à ce que le soleil ait fait la moitié de son tour: qui ne peut ni dormir ni se lever; qui perd tant d'heures précieuses dans cet état mitoyen entre la vie et la mort, et qui se plaint encore que la vie est trop courte.4

Though I look old, yet am I strong and lusty,
For in my youth I never did apply

Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood;

Nor did I with unbashful forehead woo

The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty, but kindly.5

Nothing is so bad for digestion as large quan

1 Sheridan. (Life by Moore.)

2 Pulteney to Swift (Swift's Works). 4 Voltaire (l'Ingénu).

3 Byron.

5 As You Like It.

tities of fluids: nothing is so little thought of by us, in this respect, as our stomach; whereas it influences all our actions, and, when disturbed, destroys their vigour. Never was there a truer saying than that the stomach is the body's conscience! Many a battle has been lost or won through the influence of an indigestion. Buonaparte's discase of stomach had, no doubt, been coeval with his Russian campaign.'

What was thy reason

Thou makest madness, for thou dost maintain
A fever in thy blood while health remains,
That undoes health; but, when the fever comes,
That ends the cheat-thou'lt tremble to behold
Thou wert so long a dreamer.2

If wine be taken immoderately, the powers of the nervous system are weakened, the mind is deranged, and, in the end, both motion and sensation are lost, and delirium tremens, dropsy, or consumption closes the scene.

Wine is a dangerous thing to handle alone or at late hours: cut off from human society, the juice of the grape becomes a perilous companion of solitude, and therefore I shun it.3

The violence of the craving in the advanced stages of the habit, and the fatal termination to which the gratification of it leads, will, the moment he perceives in himself the first symptoms of a

I Knighton.

3 Scott (The Monastery).

2 Chenevix (Mantuan Revels).

growing inclination to intemperance, collect his resolution to this point, or (what, perhaps, he will find his best security) arm himself with some peremptory rule as to the times and quantities of his indulgences.

Indefinite resolutions of abstemiousness are apt to yield to extraordinary occasions, and extraordinary occasions to occur perpetually.'

Refrain to-night;

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence: the next more easy:
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either curb the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency.2

Whoever stands to parley with temptation,
Parleys to be o'ercome.3

Les désirs toujours réprimés s'accoutument à ne plus renaître, et les tentations ne se multiplient que par l'habitude d'y succomber.*

Cette habitude de vaincre qui en facilite le pouvoir.5

He is a miserable man indeed, that does those things, for the doing of which he continually stands condemned by his own mind."

Can you perceive the manifest destruction,
The gaping gulf that opens just before you,

And yet rush on, though conscious of your danger??

1 Paley (Mor. Phil.).
3 Fatal Curiosity.
6 Tillotson.

2 Hamlet, Act iii. sc. 4.
4 Nouvelle Héloise.
7 Rowe (Fair Penitent).

5 Ibid.

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