Others imagine, force into scenes of merriment. that fuch a tranfition is too violent, and recommend rather to footh it into tranquillity, by making it acquainted with miferies more dreadful and afflictive, and diverting to the calamities of others the regard which we are inclined to fix too closely upon our own misfortunes. It may be doubted whether either of those remedies will be fufficiently powerful. The efficacy of mirth it is not always eafy to try, and the indulgence of melancholy may be suspected to be one of thofe medicines, which will deftroy, if it happens not to cure. The fafe and general antidote against sorrow, is employment. It is commonly obferved, that among foldiers and feamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they fee their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in fecurity and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themfelves; and whoever fhall keep his thoughts equally bufy, will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable loffes. Time is obferved generally to wear out forrow, and its effects might doubtlefs be accelerated by quickening the fucceffion, and enlarging the variety of objects. Si tempore longo Leniri poterit luctus, tu fperne morari, 'Tis long ere time can mitigate your grief; GROTIUS. F. LEWIS. Sorrow Sorrow is a kind of ruft of the foul, which every new idea contributes in its paffage to fcour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion. A NUMB. 48. SATURDAY, Sept. 1, 1750. Non eft vivere, fed valere, vita. For life is not to live, but to be well. MART. ELPHINSTON. MONG the innumerable follies, by which we lay up in our youth repentance and remorfe for the fucceeding part of our lives, there is fcarce any against which warnings are of lefs efficacy, than the neglect of health. When the fprings of motion are yet elastick, when the heart bounds with vigour, and the eye sparkles with spirit, it is with difficulty that we are taught to conceive the imbecility that every hour is bringing upon us, or to imagine that the nerves which are now braced with fo much ftrength, and the limbs which play with fo much activity, will lofe all their power under the gripe of time, relax with numbness, and totter with debility. To the arguments which have been used against complaints under the miferies of life, the philofophers have, I think, forgot to add the incredulity of those to whom we recount our fufferings. But if the purpose of lamentation be to excite pity, it is furely fuperfluous for age and weakness to tell their plaintive ftories; for pity prefuppofes fympathy, and a little attention will fhew them, that those who do not feel pain, feldom think that it is felt; and a short recollection will inform almost every man, that he is only repaid the infult which he has given, fince he may remember how often he has mocked infirmity, laughed at its cautions, and cenfured its impatience. The valetudinarian race have made the care of health ridiculous by fuffering it to prevail over all other confiderations, as the mifer has brought frugality into contempt, by permitting the love of money not to share, but to engrofs his mind: they both err alike, by confounding the means with the end; they grafp at health only to be well, as at money only to be rich; and forget that every terrestrial advantage is chiefly valuable, as it furnishes abilities for the exercise of virtue. Health is indeed fo neceffary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of fquandering it is equal to the folly; and he that for a fhort gratification brings weakness and diseases upon himself, and for the pleasure of a few years paffed in the tumults of diverfion, and clamours of merriment, condemns the maturer and more experienced part of his life to the chamber and the couch, may be justly reproached, not only as a spendthrift of his own happiness, but as a robber of the publick; as a wretch that has voluntarily difqualified himself for the bufinefs of his ftation, and refufed that part which providence affigns him in the general task of human nature. There are perhaps very few conditions more to be pitied than that of an active and elevated mind, labouring under the weight of a diftempered body; the time of fuch a man is always fpent in forming fchemes, which a change of wind hinders him from executing, his powers fume away in projects and in hope, and the day of action never arrives. He lies down delighted with the thoughts of to-morrow, pleases his ambition with the fame he fhall acquire, or his benevolence with the good he fhall confer. But in the night the skies are overcaft, the temper of the air is changed, he wakes in languor, impatience, and distraction, and has no longer any wifh but for eafe, nor any attention but to misery. It may be faid that difeafe generally begins that equality which death completes; the diftinctions which fet one man so much above another are very little perceived in the gloom of a fick chamber, where it will be vain to expect entertainment from the gay, or inftruction from the wife; where all hyman glory is obliterated, the wit is clouded, the reafoner perplexed, and the hero fubdued; where the highest and brightest of mortal beings finds nothing left him but the consciousnefs of innocence. There is among the fragments of the Greek poets a fhort hymn to Health, in which her power of exalting the happiness of life, of heightening the gifts of fortune, and adding enjoyment to poffeffion, is inculcated with fo much force and beauty, that no one, who has ever languished under the difcomforts and infirmities of a lingering difeafe, can read it without feeling the images dance in his heart, and adding from his own experience new vigour to the wifh, and from his own imagination new colours to the picture. The particular occafion of this little compofition is not known, but it is probable that X 3 the i the author had been fick, and in the firft raptures of returning vigour addreffed Health in the following manner: Υγίεια πρεσβίσα Μακάρων, Μετὰ σὲ ναίοιμι Σὺ δέ μοι πρόφρων (ύνοικος εἴης Οὺς κρυφίοις Αφροδίτης ἄρκυσιν θηρεύομεν, Μετὰ ζεῖο μακαρία Υγίεια, Τέθηλε πάντα, καὶ λάμπει χαρίτων ἔαρ Σέθεν δὲ χωρὶς, ἐδεὶς ἐυδαίμων πέλει. Health, moft venerable of the powers of heaven! with thee may the remaining part of my life be passed, nor do thou refuse to bless me with thy refidence. For whatever there is of beauty or of pleasure in wealth, in defcendants, or in fovereign_command, the higheft fummit of human enjoyment, or in thefe cbjects of defire which we endeavour to chafe into the toils of love; whatever delight, or whatever folace is granted by the celestials, to foften our fatigues, in thy prefence, thou parent of happiness, all thofe joys Spread out and flourish; in thy prefence blooms the Spring of pleasure, and without thee no man is happy. Such is the power of health, that without its cooperation every other comfort is torpid and lifeless, as the powers of vegetation without the fun. And yet this blifs is commonly thrown away in thoughtlefs negligence, or in foolish experiments on our own ftrength; we let it perifh without remembering its |