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Show 694 1} MUG WORT. MUGWORT. as evident to men that observe; and maybe equally confirmed by reasons and examples. It is that the vigour of the mind de. many years, and still continues much afflicted with it*. 695 The but even judgment and resolution, change andlanguish withill constitution of bodyand of health; and by this means public first apprehension has been, I confess with me, ever the strongest, and the other hardly in my thoughts, having never deserved it by the usual forms; nor had I ever, 1 thank God, the least threat from either of them, till the last year at the business comes to suffer by private infirmities, and kingdoms or Hague, being then cays with that of the body, and not only humour and invention, states fall into weaknesses and distempers by thediseases or de. cays of those persons that manage them. Within these fifteen years past, I have knowna great fleet disabled for two months, and thereby lose great occasions, by an indisposition of the admiral, while he was neitherwell enough to exercise, norill enough to leave thecommand. I have known two towns of the greatest consequence lost contrary to all forms, by the governor’s falling ill in the time of the sieges. AndI remember one great minister that confessed to1 when hefell into one of his usual fits of the gout, he was no lor r able to bend his mind or thoughts to aby public business, nor give au. diences beyond two orthree of his own d ymestics, though it bs to save a kingdom; and that this proceeded , not from any violence of pain, but from a general lan guishing and faintness of spirits, i which made him in those fitsS think Ga (hin hing or worth the i‘ trouble of one carefttl or solicitous thought. And if intempe. rance be allowed to be the common mother of gout, or dropsy, and of scury}y; and most other lingering diseases, which are thom that infest the state, I think te empera serves the first rank among public virtues, as well as those of private men; and doubt si hether anycan pretend to the cons ant steady exercise of prue dence, justice, or fortitude, without j | Ae Diese ds grounsi ds “saver l ie? Can propo : se a wayoff g ich entered chiefly into those ex amples I have moutioncl of public affairs Sutier ing by private indispo tions) w ould |perhaps do a service to princes andst attes, as well as to particular men; which makes me the morew illingtotell my story, and talk out of mytr ade, bei tron ly pe SSESS ed with a belief, that what I have ried oreit cam or heard upon this subj 1 tans way .I preventing ae the growth ; 3 of nt re ject, may goAltaa great us disease is but hi ou 1 ease where whereitit Is new, though perhi ps longer methods are necessary to deal with it when it is old From my dos : ysgrandfather's fatner’s death I had reason to apprehend the stone, » and and Irom from myy father’s father’s life life the gout, } } : whohas been for this in the seven-and-fortieth of my ae when, about the end of February, one night at supper, I felt a sudden pain in my right foot, which from the first moment it began, 9 increased sensibly, 9 and in an hour’s time to that degree 9 that though I said nothing, yet others took notice of it in my face, ? and said they were sure I was not well, 3 and would have had me go to bed. I confessed I was in pain, and thoughtit was with some sprain at tennis: I pulled o exih yshoe, and with some ease that this gave me, stirred not we the com mpany broke up, which was about three hours after my I I went away to bed, but it raged so much all nig! it, that eer not sleep a wink. I enduredit till about eight next ng, in hopesstill of stealing some. rest; but then making my complaints, and showing my foot, they found it very red and angry; and relieve my extremity of pain, began to apply commonpoultices toit; and by the frequent change of them I found some ease, and continuedthis exercise all that day, and agreat partof the following night, which I passed with verylittle rest. The morndb ing after my foot began to swell, and the violence of mypain to assuage, thoughit left such a soreness that 1 could hardlysuffer the clothes of my bed, nor stir my foot but asit waslifted. By this time myillness being inquired after about the town, was concluded to be the gout ; and being nolongerfeverish, or in any extremity of pain, I was content to see‘company. Every body that came to visit me, found something to say upon the Occasion ; some made a jest of it, or a little reproach; others Were serious in their mirth, and made me compliments as upon a happyaccident and sign of long life: in short, none of the company was in ill humour but I, who hadrather byhalf have had a fever, or a worse disease at that time, where the danger might have been greater, but the trouble and the melancholy would, I amssure, have beenless. Though I hadneverfeared the gout, yet I had always scorned * The late Dr. Darwin says that intemperance in eating or drinking brings on gout, and this passes from father to son, and can only beeradita ated out of the family by temperance. |