登陆注册
5362600000471

第471章

Do but consider how skilfully and gently she puts thee out of concern with life, and weans thee from the world; not forcing thee with a tyrannical subjection, like so many other infirmities which thou seest old men afflicted withal, that hold them in continual torment, and keep them in perpetual and unintermitted weakness and pains, but by warnings and instructions at intervals, intermixing long pauses of repose, as it were to give thee opportunity to meditate and ruminate upon thy lesson, at thy own ease and leisure. To give thee means to judge aright, and to assume the resolution of a man of courage, it presents to thee the state of thy entire condition, both in good and evil; and one while a very cheerful and another an insupportable life, in one and the same day. If thou embracest not death, at least thou shakest hands with it once a month; whence thou hast more cause to hope that it will one day surprise thee without menace; and that being so often conducted to the water-side, but still thinking thyself to be upon the accustomed terms, thou and thy confidence will at one time or another be unexpectedly wafted over. A man cannot reasonably complain of diseases that fairly divide the time with health."

I am obliged to Fortune for having so often assaulted me with the same sort of weapons: she forms and fashions me by use, hardens and habituates me, so that I can know within a little for how much I shall be quit. For want of natural memory, I make one of paper; and as any new symptom happens in my disease, I set it down, whence it falls out that, having now almost passed through all sorts of examples, if anything striking threatens me, turning over these little loose notes, as the Sybilline leaves, I never fail of finding matter of consolation from some favourable prognostic in my past experience. Custom also makes me hope better for the time to come; for, the conduct of this clearing out having so long continued, 'tis to be believed that nature will not alter her course, and that no other worse accident will happen than what I already feel. And besides, the condition of this disease is not unsuitable to my prompt and sudden complexion: when it assaults me gently, I am afraid, for 'tis then for a great while; but it has, naturally, brisk and vigorous excesses; it claws me to purpose for a day or two. My kidneys held out an age without alteration; and I have almost now lived another, since they changed their state; evils have their periods, as well as benefits: peradventure, the infirmity draws towards an end. Age weakens the heat of my stomach, and, its digestion being less perfect, sends this crude matter to my kidneys; why, at a certain revolution, may not the heat of my kidneys be also abated, so that they can no more petrify my phlegm, and nature find out some other way of purgation. Years have evidently helped me to drain certain rheums; and why not these excrements which furnish matter for gravel? But is there anything delightful in comparison of this sudden change, when from an excessive pain, I come, by the voiding of a stone, to recover, as by a flash of lightning, the beautiful light of health, so free and full, as it happens in our sudden and sharpest colics? Is there anything in the pain suffered, that one can counterpoise to the pleasure of so sudden an amendment? Oh, how much does health seem the more pleasant to me, after a sickness so near and so contiguous, that I can distinguish them in the presence of one another, in their greatest show; when they appear in emulation, as if to make head against and dispute it with one another! As the Stoics say that vices are profitably introduced to give value to and to set off virtue, we can, with better reason and less temerity of conjecture, say that nature has given us pain for the honour and service of pleasure and indolence. When Socrates, after his fetters were knocked off, felt the pleasure of that itching which the weight of them had caused in his legs, he rejoiced to consider the strict alliance betwixt pain and pleasure; how they are linked together by a necessary connection, so that by turns they follow and mutually beget one another; and cried out to good AEsop, that he ought out of this consideration to have taken matter for a fine fable.

The worst that I see in other diseases is, that they are not so grievous in their effect as they are in their issue: a man is a whole year in recovering, and all the while full of weakness and fear. There is so much hazard, and so many steps to arrive at safety, that there is no end on't before they have unmuffled you of a kerchief, and then of a cap, before they allow you to walk abroad and take the air, to drink wine, to lie with your wife, to eat melons, 'tis odds you relapse into some new distemper. The stone has this privilege, that it carries itself clean off: whereas the other maladies always leave behind them some impression and alteration that render the body subject to a new disease, and lend a hand to one another. Those are excusable that content themselves with possessing us, without extending farther and introducing their followers; but courteous and kind are those whose passage brings us any profitable issue. Since I have been troubled with the stone, I find myself freed from all other accidents, much more, methinks, than I was before, and have never had any fever since; I argue that the extreme and frequent vomitings that I am subject to purge me: and, on the other hand, my distastes for this and that, and the strange fasts I am forced to keep, digest my peccant humours, and nature, with those stones, voids whatever there is in me superfluous and hurtful. Let them never tell me that it is a medicine too dear bought: for what avail so many stinking draughts, so many caustics, incisions, sweats, setons, diets, and so many other methods of cure, which often, by reason we are not able to undergo their violence and importunity, bring us to our graves? So that when I have the stone, I look upon it as physic; when free from it, as an absolute deliverance.

同类推荐
  • 晋江县志道光本

    晋江县志道光本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 心赋注

    心赋注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 临济宗旨

    临济宗旨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 法门名义集

    法门名义集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 定慧相资歌

    定慧相资歌

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 九星杀神

    九星杀神

    变异体质,能吞食一切,逆天功法,弑天武技,伴随着他走上掠夺之路,以杀神之名,登峰绝顶,一路伏尸百万!诸国林立,万宗驰骋,看主角笑傲群雄,荣登大道之巅,这里残酷而令人战栗!
  • 钤山堂集

    钤山堂集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 嚣张龙宝:萌萌娘亲吃货爹

    嚣张龙宝:萌萌娘亲吃货爹

    一朝穿越成武林世家的废材,爹嫌妹弃遭谋杀,大难不死捡到只龙蛋孵出气吞山河的超级吃货食肉兽。食肉兽吐钱吐武功秘籍吐金银财宝,辱渣男斗遮妹羞亲爹,废材变天才一鸣惊人翱翔九天打怪升级。人心不足蛇吞象,某日她羞答答对某兽道:“给我吐个男人吧,高大上那款。”高大上现身,迷得某人七荤八素,直到生出只同款食肉兽崽,方才大呼上当,“尼玛,我要退货!”某兽笑得见牙不见牙,“一经售出,终生有效,概不退货。”两只吃货,她就是卖身也养不活啊,真是坑爹!
  • “城中村”的爱情

    “城中村”的爱情

    雯雯呀,你死哪儿去啦,快回来吧,你娘可不禁吓啊——一大清早,便听雯雯娘在丽景苑小区里到处喊到处叫的,犹如早年间村里人给受了惊吓的小孩子叫魂儿似的,声声凄厉,撕心裂肺;句句锥心,摇天动地,不啻搅扰了人们千金一刻的回笼觉,又把一桩本想藏着掖着都还来不及的家丑昭告了天下。因为啥,又是房子吗?不消说,这是秃头上的虱子——明摆着的事情。早些年“攀高枝”嫁到城里去的秦雯雯,如今突然现身丽景苑,你说能是回娘家门上来走亲戚串门子的吗?旧村改造,她爹秦老根凭借一套趴趴屋的四合院,换回了三套洋气的新楼房。
  • 猫分之三

    猫分之三

    我觉得我可能是只猫。但如果不是呢?或许,成为统御猫界的王也不错。在夜幕下,与群猫一起,端坐于云端,细细眺望大猫星上正在发生着的有趣的事。
  • 巴斯克维尔的猎犬

    巴斯克维尔的猎犬

    一个百年贵族之家,却陷入到一个恐怖的诅咒之中。继查尔斯·巴斯克维尔爵士惨死在达特沼地后,猎犬的诅咒又缠上了他的继承人亨利·巴斯克维尔。造成这些悲剧的到底是超自然的力量,还是险恶的人心?福尔摩斯和华生开始了他们侦探生涯中最惊心动魄的一案……
  • 岩下放言

    岩下放言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 神偷狂妃:摄政王,约么

    神偷狂妃:摄政王,约么

    21世纪小有名气的神偷沉碧,被卷入一场枪战,不幸中弹掉入海中。沉碧醒来后却发现自己不但没死,还到了一个架空时代,她被魏府的大少爷君撷救下,竟然被魏府大夫人挟恩求报,逼她嫁给君撷,强扭的瓜不甜,大婚之日,她火速开溜!逃婚路上还捡了个“儿子”养~~乱世之中豪强纷争,沉碧决定组建一支实力超强的大军一统乱世,迎娶古代高富帅,踏上人生巅峰~~但沉碧万万没想到,被她逃婚的那位大少爷,居然是位高权重的一国摄政王!前有来势汹汹的摄政王,后有腹黑儿子小狼崽,沉碧仰天长叹:……人与人之间,能不能少点套路多点真诚!
  • 你被我扁的样子真可爱

    你被我扁的样子真可爱

    傅凉痕身为大天朝的一位战神,结果无缘无故穿越到异世界,成为了勇者。在这个世界中,勇者并不是斩杀魔王的希望,而是魔王的食物,由天神提供给魔王的食物。为了活下去,傅凉痕表示只能重抄旧业,刀尖上舔血过日子了……
  • 摸金传人1:明陵疑冢

    摸金传人1:明陵疑冢

    陶城朱家是延续了三百年的摸金世家,却因父母早亡在朱笑东这里断了传承,直到朱笑东被骗进明陵疑冢,被推下白骨累累的万人坑。 暗无天日的万人尸坑鬼影幢幢,大战人面蜘蛛九死一生,机关重重的百年皇陵、惊险刺激的古墓穴探险有效激活了流淌在朱笑东骨子里摸金传人的血脉传承,开启了他传奇的一生。大漠探险九死一生,揭开尘封千年谜团,寻得楼兰古城,揭晓香妃谜案。千里奔赴大清祖穴长白山,苦战守墓部族历尽艰辛获取龙珠,破解流传了三百年的秘辛。