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Article DETACHED THOUGHTS. Page 1 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Detached Thoughts.
DETACHED THOUGHTS .
ON PAIN .
IT appears , that pleasure applies less to our nature than pain . We are too weak to bear it any length of time . If we prolong an act of voluptuousness , it will become tedious , toilsome , even grievous . — Pain has no other bounds but our own sensibility ; lengthen out anguish , our existence will rouse itself entirely to combat it , and long will be the contest . Observe a miserableasthmatic manwho has thirty
strug-, , years gled with the privation of breath , and only , respires in misery . Cast your eyes on a prisoner , who musters up strength enough to live forty years in a kind of tomb , where he daily struggles against sorrow , despair , and death ! _ The ingenious cruelty of tyrants has tormented their unhappy victims for a long timeand nature has so far countenanced their
barba-, rity ; but still she withstands , and seems to rally all her strength for suffering ; but she labours under the luxuries of the table , and the most exquisite sensations , patience , that divine virtue , comes to man ' s relief , and supports the unhappy sufferer , till , by her aid , the weak and delicate being becomes a hero . Let us learn , says St . Paul , to possess our minds iu patience : —A most sublime expression .
It is not the torture of the burning steel that we have only to dread . Sickness will produce a similar effect ; a man may suffer twenty-five years with the stone or the gout . The disorders to which our bodies are subject are almost numberless . The mere recital of them is enough to make one tremble ; and should I endeavour to give the list , yet more would remain to be added . Can we conceive the sufferings ' of that unfortunate beingwhose
, nerves , too tense , or too relaxed , have lost their equilibrium ! His sickly imagination extends and multiplies the effects of his natural disorder ; he experiences every possible kind of pain , a thousand phantoms surround , him , and he no longer feels strength sufficient to resist those violent diseases ; he throws himself at the feet of every e ' mpyric , and wishes every man he meets to be his physician ; a his mindthen
gloomy melancholy possesses ; farewell tears and laughter , in short , farewell to all sensibility ! The hours of his life are slow and grievous ; literally , he can scarcely , either live or die ; yet he survives this state whose miseries 1 only sketch , shuddering myself at the reflection on what such a being must suffer . It has been asserted , that some gloomy and melancholy -temperaments do not feel pain beyond a certain degree , that stupor succeeds
to convulsion . Several naturalists hold that the pressure of the air makes us suffer necessary pains which habitude alone disguises from us . Dentists will have it , we are always troubled with the tooth-ach .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Detached Thoughts.
DETACHED THOUGHTS .
ON PAIN .
IT appears , that pleasure applies less to our nature than pain . We are too weak to bear it any length of time . If we prolong an act of voluptuousness , it will become tedious , toilsome , even grievous . — Pain has no other bounds but our own sensibility ; lengthen out anguish , our existence will rouse itself entirely to combat it , and long will be the contest . Observe a miserableasthmatic manwho has thirty
strug-, , years gled with the privation of breath , and only , respires in misery . Cast your eyes on a prisoner , who musters up strength enough to live forty years in a kind of tomb , where he daily struggles against sorrow , despair , and death ! _ The ingenious cruelty of tyrants has tormented their unhappy victims for a long timeand nature has so far countenanced their
barba-, rity ; but still she withstands , and seems to rally all her strength for suffering ; but she labours under the luxuries of the table , and the most exquisite sensations , patience , that divine virtue , comes to man ' s relief , and supports the unhappy sufferer , till , by her aid , the weak and delicate being becomes a hero . Let us learn , says St . Paul , to possess our minds iu patience : —A most sublime expression .
It is not the torture of the burning steel that we have only to dread . Sickness will produce a similar effect ; a man may suffer twenty-five years with the stone or the gout . The disorders to which our bodies are subject are almost numberless . The mere recital of them is enough to make one tremble ; and should I endeavour to give the list , yet more would remain to be added . Can we conceive the sufferings ' of that unfortunate beingwhose
, nerves , too tense , or too relaxed , have lost their equilibrium ! His sickly imagination extends and multiplies the effects of his natural disorder ; he experiences every possible kind of pain , a thousand phantoms surround , him , and he no longer feels strength sufficient to resist those violent diseases ; he throws himself at the feet of every e ' mpyric , and wishes every man he meets to be his physician ; a his mindthen
gloomy melancholy possesses ; farewell tears and laughter , in short , farewell to all sensibility ! The hours of his life are slow and grievous ; literally , he can scarcely , either live or die ; yet he survives this state whose miseries 1 only sketch , shuddering myself at the reflection on what such a being must suffer . It has been asserted , that some gloomy and melancholy -temperaments do not feel pain beyond a certain degree , that stupor succeeds
to convulsion . Several naturalists hold that the pressure of the air makes us suffer necessary pains which habitude alone disguises from us . Dentists will have it , we are always troubled with the tooth-ach .