Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Singularities Of Mr. Howard, The Philanthropist.
hour , and exactly as the clock , in my room , struck it , lie enteredthe wet , for it rained torrents , dripping from every part of his dress ' like water from a sheep , just landed from its washing . He would not even have attended to his situation , having sat himself down with the utmost composure , and begun conversation , had 1 not made an offer of dry cloaths , & c .
" Yes ( said he ) , smiling , I had my fears , as I knocked at your door , that we should go over the old business of apprehensions about a little rain water , which , though it does not run from off my back , as it does from that of a duck , goose , or any other aquatic bird , does me as little injury ; and after a long drought is scarcely less refreshing . The coat I have now on lias been as often wetted h
throug , as any duck ' s in the world , and , indeed , gets no other sort of cleaning . I do assure you , a good soaking shower is the best brush for broad cloath in the universe . You , like the rest of my friends , throw away your pity upon my supposed hardships with just as much reason as you commiserate the common beggars , who being familiar with storms and hurricanesnecessity and nakedness '
, are a thousand times , so forcible is habit , less to be compassionated than the sons and daughters of Ease and Luxury , who , accustoijied to all the enfeebled refinements of feathers by night , and fires b y day , are taught to feel like the puny creature stigmatized by Pope , who shivered at a breeze . All this is the work of art , my good friend ; nature is more independent of external circumstances .
Nature is intrepid , hardy , and adventurous ; but it is a practice to spoil her , with indul gences , from the moment we come into the worlda soft dress , and soft cradle , begin our education in luxuries , and we do not grow more manl y the more we are gratified : on the contrary , our feet must be wrapt in woo ! or silk , we must tread upon carpets , breathe , as it were , in fire , avoid a tempest , which sweetens the air "
, as we would a blast that putrifies it , and guarding every crevice from an unwholesome breeze , when it is the most elastic and bracing , lie down upon a bed of feathers ; that relax the system more than a ni ght ' s lod ging upon flint stones . _ " You smile ( added Mr . Howard , after a pause ) , but I am a Jiving instance of the truths I insist on . A more ' whipster '
puny than myself , in the days of my youth , was never seen . I could not walk out an evening without wrapping up : if I got wet in the feet , a cold succeeded ; I could not put on my shirt without its beingaired ; 1 was , politely , enfeebled enough to have delicate nerves ' , and was , occasionally , troubled with a very genteel hectic . To be serious 1 ani-convinced what emasculates " the boddebilitates the
, y mind , and renders both unfit for those exertions , which are of such use to us as social beings . I , therefore , entered upon a reform of my constitution , and have succeeded in such a degree , that I have neither had a cough , cold , the vapours , nor any more alarming disorder , since I surmounted the seasoning . Prior to this , I used to be a miserable dependent on wind and weather : alittle too much of either would post-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Singularities Of Mr. Howard, The Philanthropist.
hour , and exactly as the clock , in my room , struck it , lie enteredthe wet , for it rained torrents , dripping from every part of his dress ' like water from a sheep , just landed from its washing . He would not even have attended to his situation , having sat himself down with the utmost composure , and begun conversation , had 1 not made an offer of dry cloaths , & c .
" Yes ( said he ) , smiling , I had my fears , as I knocked at your door , that we should go over the old business of apprehensions about a little rain water , which , though it does not run from off my back , as it does from that of a duck , goose , or any other aquatic bird , does me as little injury ; and after a long drought is scarcely less refreshing . The coat I have now on lias been as often wetted h
throug , as any duck ' s in the world , and , indeed , gets no other sort of cleaning . I do assure you , a good soaking shower is the best brush for broad cloath in the universe . You , like the rest of my friends , throw away your pity upon my supposed hardships with just as much reason as you commiserate the common beggars , who being familiar with storms and hurricanesnecessity and nakedness '
, are a thousand times , so forcible is habit , less to be compassionated than the sons and daughters of Ease and Luxury , who , accustoijied to all the enfeebled refinements of feathers by night , and fires b y day , are taught to feel like the puny creature stigmatized by Pope , who shivered at a breeze . All this is the work of art , my good friend ; nature is more independent of external circumstances .
Nature is intrepid , hardy , and adventurous ; but it is a practice to spoil her , with indul gences , from the moment we come into the worlda soft dress , and soft cradle , begin our education in luxuries , and we do not grow more manl y the more we are gratified : on the contrary , our feet must be wrapt in woo ! or silk , we must tread upon carpets , breathe , as it were , in fire , avoid a tempest , which sweetens the air "
, as we would a blast that putrifies it , and guarding every crevice from an unwholesome breeze , when it is the most elastic and bracing , lie down upon a bed of feathers ; that relax the system more than a ni ght ' s lod ging upon flint stones . _ " You smile ( added Mr . Howard , after a pause ) , but I am a Jiving instance of the truths I insist on . A more ' whipster '
puny than myself , in the days of my youth , was never seen . I could not walk out an evening without wrapping up : if I got wet in the feet , a cold succeeded ; I could not put on my shirt without its beingaired ; 1 was , politely , enfeebled enough to have delicate nerves ' , and was , occasionally , troubled with a very genteel hectic . To be serious 1 ani-convinced what emasculates " the boddebilitates the
, y mind , and renders both unfit for those exertions , which are of such use to us as social beings . I , therefore , entered upon a reform of my constitution , and have succeeded in such a degree , that I have neither had a cough , cold , the vapours , nor any more alarming disorder , since I surmounted the seasoning . Prior to this , I used to be a miserable dependent on wind and weather : alittle too much of either would post-