my

quence. I have been telling of a great, and to me, a moft happy change in way of living. Now all changes, tho' from the worst to the best habits, are, at firft, difagreeable, I found it fo; for having long accustomed myself to high feeding, I had contracted fuch a fondnefs for it, that though I was daily deftroying myself, yet did it, at first, coft me fome struggle to relinquish it. Nature, long used to hearty meals, expected them, and was quite diffatisfied with my moderate repasts. To divert my mind from these little diffatisfactions, I used immediately after dinner, to betake myfelf to fome innocent amufement or ufeful purfuit, fuch as, my devotions, my book, mufic, &c.

BUT to return.-Befides the two foregoing important rules about eating and drinking, that is, not to take of any thing, but as much as my ftomach could eafily digeft, and to use those things only

which agreed with me.

I have very

carefully avoided all extremes of heat and cold, exceffive fatigue, interruption of my ufual time of reft, late hours, and too clofe and intenfe thinking. I am likewise greatly indebted for the excellent health I enjoy, to that calm and temperate state in which I have been careful to keep my paffions.

THE influence of the paffions on the nerves, and health of our bodies, is fo great, that none can poffibly be ignorant of it. He therefore who seriously wishes to enjoy good health, muft, above all things, learn to conquer his paffions, and keep them in fubjection to reason. For let a man be never fo temperate in diet, or regular in exercife, yet still some unhappy paffion, if indulged to excefs, will prevail over all his regularity, and prevent the good effects of his temperance; no words, therefore, can adequately exprefs the wisdom of guarding

against

against an influence fo deftructive. Fear, anger, grief, envy, hatred, malice, revenge and despair, are known by eternal experience, to weaken the nerves, diforder the circulation, impair digef tion, and often to bring on a long train of hysterical and hypochondriacal diforders; and extreme fudden fright, has often occafioned immediate death.

On the other hand, moderate joy, and all thofe affections of the mind which partake of its nature, as chearfulness, contentment, hope, virtuous and mutual love, and courage in doing good, invigorate the nerves, give a healthy motion to the fluids, promote perspiration, and affift digestion; but violent anger (which differs from madness only in duration) throws the whole frame into tempeft and convulfion, the countenance blackens, the eyes glare, the mouth foams, and in place of the moft gentle and amiable, it makes a man the most frightful and ter

rible of all animals. The effects of this dreadful paffion do not ftop here; it never fails to create bilious, inflammatory, convulfive, and fometimes apoplectic diforders, and fudden death.

66

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SOLOMON was thoroughly fenfible of the destructive tendencies of ed paffions, and has, in many places, cautioned us against them. against them. He emphatically styles " envy a rottenness of the "bones;" and fays, that "wrath flay"eth the angry man, and envy killeth "the filly one*;" and, "that the wick"ed fhall not live out half their days."

For

*THE reader will I hope excufe me for relating the following tragical anecdote, to confirm what the benevolent Cornaro has' faid on the baneful effects of envy, &c.

-n.

In the city of York in England, there diedf ome time ago, a young lady by the name of DFor five years before her death, the appeared to be lingering and melancholy. Her flefh withered away, her appetite decayed, her ftrength failed, her feet could no longer fuftain her tottering emaciated body, and her diffolution feemed at hand. One day fhe called her intimate friends to her bed-fide, and as well as fhe could, fpoke to the following effect:

For as violent gales of wind will foon wreck the strongest ships, so violent pasfions of hatred, anger, and forrow, will foon destroy the beft conftitutions.

HOWEVER, I must confefs to my fhame, that I have not been at all times

fo

"I KNOW you all pity me, but alas! I am not worthy of your pity; for all my mifery is entirely owingto the wickedness of my own heart. I have two fifters; and I have all my life been unhappy, for no other reafon but because of their profperity. When we were young, I could neither eat nor fleep in comfort, if they had either praise or pleasure. As foon as they were grown to be women, they married greatly to their advantage and fatisfaction: this galled me to the heart; and though I had feveral good offers, yet thinking them rather unequal to my fifters, I refufed them, and then was inwardly vexed and diftreffed, for fear I fhould get no better. I never wanted for any thing, and might have been very happy, but for this wretched temper. My fifters loved me tenderly, for I concealed from them as much as poffible this odious paffion, and yet never did any poor wretch lead fo miferable a life as I have done, for every blefling they enjoyed was a dagger to my heart. 'Tis this Envy, which, preying on my very vitals, has ruined my health, and is now carrying me down to the grave. Pray for me, that GOD of his infinite mercy may forgive me this horrid fin; and with my dying breath I conjure you all, to check the first risings of a passion that has proved fo fatal to me."