If you are looking for Part 9 you are coming to the right place. is a Webnovel created by . This lightnovel is currently .

"Oh! So this is _your_ party, is it, Miss Beth?" he said. "You ask your friends in, and then you insult them, I see."

Beth was still effervescing. She put her hands behind her back and answered boldly--

"'Deed, thin, he insulted me, papa. It was Bap-faced Flanagan. He said we were durrty heretics, and--and--I'll not stand that! It's a free country!"

Captain Caldwell looked round, and the people melted from the room under his eye. Then Anne appeared from somewhere.

"Anne, do you teach the children party-songs?" he demanded.

"Shure, they don't need taching, yer honour," said Anne, disconcerted.

"Miss Beth knows 'em all, and she shouts 'em at the top of her voice down the street till the men shake their fists at her."

"Why do you do that, Beth?" her father demanded.

"I like to feel," Beth began, gasping out each word with a mighty effort to express herself--"I like to feel--that I can _make_ them shake their fists."

Her father looked at her again very queerly.

"Will I take her to the nursery, sir?" Anne asked.

Beth turned on her impatiently, and said something in Irish which made Anne grin. Beth did not understand her father in this mood, and she wanted to see more of him.

"What's that she's saying to you, Anne?" he asked.

"Oh--sure, she's just blessin' me, yer honour," Anne answered unabashed.

"I believe you!" Captain Caldwell said dryly, as he stretched himself on the sofa. "Go and fetch a hair-brush."

While Anne was out of the room he turned to Beth. "I'll give you a penny," he said, "if you'll tell me what you said to Anne."

"I'll tell you for nothing," Beth answered. "I said, 'Yer soul to the devil for an interfering hussy.'"

Captain Caldwell burst out laughing, and laughed till Anne returned with the brush. "Now, brush my hair," he said to Beth; and Beth went and stood beside the sofa, and brushed, and brushed, now with one hand, and now with the other, till she ached all over with the effort.

Her father suffered from atrocious headaches, and this was the one thing that relieved him.

"There, that's punishment enough for to-day," he said at last.

Beth retired to the foot of the couch, and leant there, looking at him solemnly, with the hair-brush still in her hand. "That's no punishment," she observed.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean I like it," she said. "I'd brush till I dropped if it did you any good."

Captain Caldwell looked up at her, and it was as if he had seen the child for the first time.

"Beth," he said, after a while, "would you like to come out with me on the car to-morrow?"

"'Deed, then, I would, papa," Beth answered eagerly.

Then there was a pause, during which Beth rubbed her back against the end of the couch thoughtfully, and looked at the wall opposite as if she could see through it. Her father watched her for a little time with a frown upon his forehead from the pain in his head.

"What are you thinking of, Beth?" he said at last.

"I've got to be whipped to-night," she answered drearily; "and I wish I hadn't. I do get so tired of being whipped and shaken."

Her little face looked pinched and pathetic as she spoke, and for the first time her father had a suspicion of what punishment was to this child--a thing as inevitable as disease, a continually recurring torture, but quite without effect upon her conduct--and his heart contracted with a qualm of pity.

"What are you going to be whipped for now?" he asked.

"We went to tea at the vicarage, and I ran away home."

"Why?"

"Because of the great green waves. They rush up the rocks--wish--st--st!"

(she took a step forward, and threw up her little arms in ill.u.s.tration)--"then fall, and roll back, and gather, and come rushing on again; and I feel every time--every time--that they are coming right at me!"--she clutched her throat as if she were suffocating; "and if I had stayed I should have shrieked, and then I should have been whipped.

So I came away."

"But you expect to be whipped for coming away?"

"Yes. But you see I don't have the waves as well. And mamma won't say I was afraid."

"Were you afraid, Beth?" her father asked.

"No!" Beth retorted, stamping her foot indignantly. "If the waves did come at me, I could stand it. It's the coming--coming--coming--I can't bear. It makes me ache here." She clutched at her throat and chest again.

Captain Caldwell closed his eyes. He felt that he was beginning to make this child's acquaintance, and wished he had tried to cultivate it sooner.

"You shall not be whipped to-night, Beth," he said presently, looking at her with a kindly smile.

Instantly an answering smile gleamed on the child's face, transfiguring her; and, by the light of it, her father realised how seldom he had seen her smile.

Unfortunately for Beth, however, while her countenance was still irradiated, her mother swooped down upon her. Mrs. Caldwell had come hurrying home in a rage in search of Beth; and now, mistaking that smile for a sign of defiance, she seized upon her, and had beaten her severely before it was possible to interfere. Beth, dazed by this sudden onslaught, staggered when she let her go, and stretched out her little hands as if groping for some support.

"It wasn't your fault!--it wasn't your fault!" she gasped, her first instinct being to exonerate her father.

Captain Caldwell had started up and caught his wife by the arm.

"That's enough," he said harshly. "You are going altogether the wrong way to work with the child. Let this be the last time, do you understand? Beth, go to the nursery, and ask Anne to get you some tea."

A sharp pain shot through his head. He had jumped up too quickly, and now fell back on the sofa with a groan.

"Oh, let me brush it again," Beth cried, in an agony of sympathy.

Her father opened his haggard eyes and smiled.

"Go to the nursery, like a good child," he said, "and get some tea."

Beth went without another word. But all that evening her mind was with her parents in the sitting-room, wondering--wondering what they were saying to each other.

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"Not the slightest," said Glenarvan.

"I leave you, then, my friends, to decide whether all these probabilities, not to say certainties, are not in favor of the Australian continent."

"Evidently," replied the captain and all the others.

"Well, then, John," said Glenarvan, "the next question is, have you provisions and coal enough?"

"Yes, your honor, I took in an ample store at Talcahuano, and, besides, we can easily replenish our stock of coal at Cape Town."

"Well, then, give orders."

"Let me make one more observation," interrupted McNabbs.

"Go on then."

"Whatever likelihood of success Australia may offer us, wouldn't it be advisable to stop a day or two at the Tristan d'Acunha Isles and the Amsterdam? They lie in our route, and would not take us the least out of the way. Then we should be able to ascertain if the BRITANNIA had left any traces of her shipwreck there?"

"Incredulous Major!" exclaimed Paganel, "he still sticks to his idea."

"I stick to this any way, that I don't want to have to retrace our steps, supposing that Australia should disappoint our sanguine hopes."

"It seems to me a good precaution," replied Glenarvan.

"And I'm not the one to dissuade you from it," returned Paganel; "quite the contrary."

"Steer straight for Tristan d'Acunha."

"Immediately, your Honor," replied the captain, going on deck, while Robert and Mary Grant overwhelmed Lord Glenarvan with their grateful thanks.

Shortly after, the DUNCAN had left the American coast, and was running eastward, her sharp keel rapidly cutting her way through the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

CHAPTER II TRISTAN D'ACUNHA AND THE ISLE OF AMSTERDAM

IF the yacht had followed the line of the equator, the 196 degrees which separate Australia from America, or, more correctly, Cape Bernouilli from Cape Corrientes, would have been equal to 11,760 geographical miles; but along the 37th parallel these same degrees, owing to the form of the earth, only represent 9,480 miles. From the American coast to Tristan d'Acunha is reckoned 2,100 miles--a distance which John Mangles hoped to clear in ten days, if east winds did not r.e.t.a.r.d the motion of the yacht. But he was not long uneasy on that score, for toward evening the breeze sensibly lulled and then changed altogether, giving the DUNCAN a fair field on a calm sea for displaying her incomparable qualities as a sailor.

The pa.s.sengers had fallen back into their ordinary ship life, and it hardly seemed as if they really could have been absent a whole month.

Instead of the Pacific, the Atlantic stretched itself out before them, and there was scarcely a shade of difference in the waves of the two oceans. The elements, after having handled them so roughly, seemed now disposed to favor them to the utmost. The sea was tranquil, and the wind kept in the right quarter, so that the yacht could spread all her canvas, and lend its aid, if needed to the indefatigable steam stored up in the boiler.

Under such conditions, the voyage was safely and rapidly accomplished.

Their confidence increased as they found themselves nearer the Australian coast. They began to talk of Captain Grant as if the yacht were going to take him on board at a given port. His cabin was got ready, and berths for the men. This cabin was next to the famous _number six_, which Paganel had taken possession of instead of the one he had booked on the SCOTIA. It had been till now occupied by M. Olbinett, who vacated it for the expected guest. Mary took great delight in arranging it with her own hands, and adorning it for the reception of the loved inmate.

The learned geographer kept himself closely shut up. He was working away from morning till night at a work ent.i.tled "Sublime Impressions of a Geographer in the Argentine Pampas," and they could hear him repeating elegant periods aloud before committing them to the white pages of his day-book; and more than once, unfaithful to Clio, the muse of history, he invoked in his transports the divine Calliope, the muse of epic poetry.

Paganel made no secret of it either. The chaste daughters of Apollo willingly left the slopes of Helicon and Parna.s.sus at his call. Lady Helena paid him sincere compliments on his mythological visitants, and so did the Major, though he could not forbear adding:

"But mind no fits of absence of mind, my dear Paganel; and if you take a fancy to learn Australian, don't go and study it in a Chinese grammar."

Things went on perfectly smoothly on board. Lady Helena and Lord Glenarvan found leisure to watch John Mangles' growing attachment to Mary Grant. There was nothing to be said against it, and, indeed, since John remained silent, it was best to take no notice of it.

"What will Captain Grant think?" Lord Glenarvan asked his wife one day.

"He'll think John is worthy of Mary, my dear Edward, and he'll think right."

Meanwhile, the yacht was making rapid progress. Five days after losing sight of Cape Corrientes, on the 16th of November, they fell in with fine westerly breezes, and the DUNCAN might almost have dispensed with her screw altogether, for she flew over the water like a bird, spreading all her sails to catch the breeze, as if she were running a race with the Royal Thames Club yachts.

Next day, the ocean appeared covered with immense seaweeds, looking like a great pond choked up with the DEBRIS of trees and plants torn off the neighboring continents. Commander Murray had specially pointed them out to the attention of navigators. The DUNCAN appeared to glide over a long prairie, which Paganel justly compared to the Pampas, and her speed slackened a little.

Twenty-four hours after, at break of day, the man on the look-out was heard calling out, "Land ahead!"

"In what direction?" asked Tom Austin, who was on watch.

"Leeward!" was the reply.

This exciting cry brought everyone speedily on deck. Soon a telescope made its appearance, followed by Jacques Paganel. The learned geographer pointed the instrument in the direction indicated, but could see nothing that resembled land.

"Look in the clouds," said John Mangles.

"Ah, now I do see a sort of peak, but very indistinctly."

"It is Tristan d'Acunha," replied John Mangles.

"Then, if my memory serves me right, we must be eighty miles from it, for the peak of Tristan, seven thousand feet high, is visible at that distance."

"That's it, precisely."

Some hours later, the sharp, lofty crags of the group of islands stood out clearly on the horizon. The conical peak of Tristan looked black against the bright sky, which seemed all ablaze with the splendor of the rising sun. Soon the princ.i.p.al island stood out from the rocky ma.s.s, at the summit of a triangle inclining toward the northeast.

Tristan d'Acunha is situated in 37 degrees 8' of southern lat.i.tude, and 10 degrees 44' of longitude west of the meridian at Greenwich.

Inaccessible Island is eighteen miles to the southwest and Nightingale Island is ten miles to the southeast, and this completes the little solitary group of islets in the Atlantic Ocean. Toward noon, the two princ.i.p.al landmarks, by which the group is recognized were sighted, and at 3 P. M. the DUNCAN entered Falmouth Bay in Tristan d'Acunha.

Several whaling vessels were lying quietly at anchor there, for the coast abounds in seals and other marine animals.

John Mangle's first care was to find good anchorage, and then all the pa.s.sengers, both ladies and gentlemen, got into the long boat and were rowed ash.o.r.e. They stepped out on a beach covered with fine black sand, the impalpable DEBRIS of the calcined rocks of the island.

Tristan d'Acunha is the capital of the group, and consists of a little village, lying in the heart of the bay, and watered by a noisy, rapid stream. It contained about fifty houses, tolerably clean, and disposed with geometrical regularity. Behind this miniature town there lay 1,500 hectares of meadow land, bounded by an embankment of lava. Above this embankment, the conical peak rose 7,000 feet high.

Lord Glenarvan was received by a governor supplied from the English colony at the Cape. He inquired at once respecting Harry Grant and the BRITANNIA, and found the names entirely unknown. The Tristan d'Acunha Isles are out of the route of ships, and consequently little frequented.

Since the wreck of the _Blendon Hall_ in 1821, on the rocks of Inaccessible Island, two vessels have stranded on the chief island--the PRIMANGUET in 1845, and the three-mast American, PHILADELPHIA, in 1857.

These three events comprise the whole catalogue of maritime disasters in the annals of the Acunhas.

Lord Glenarvan did not expect to glean any information, and only asked by the way of duty. He even sent the boats to make the circuit of the island, the entire extent of which was not more than seventeen miles at most.

In the interim the pa.s.sengers walked about the village. The population does not exceed 150 inhabitants, and consists of English and Americans, married to negroes and Cape Hottentots, who might bear away the palm for ugliness. The children of these heterogeneous households are very disagreeable compounds of Saxon stiffness and African blackness.

It was nearly nightfall before the party returned to the yacht, chattering and admiring the natural riches displayed on all sides, for even close to the streets of the capital, fields of wheat and maize were waving, and crops of vegetables, imported forty years before; and in the environs of the village, herds of cattle and sheep were feeding.

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Translator: Re

Editor: Mims

 

    "What would you like to drink? Is coffee ok?"

 

    "Oh, anything is fine!"

    Can't Coca Cola do? Coffee smells aromatic but tastes bitter.

 

    Reece's legs were slightly folded. He stood up and walked into the kitchen. 

    Nie Chuan finally let out the breath he was holding. 

 

    A few minutes later, Reece returned and placed a mug in front of Nie Chuan. Nie Chuan smelled it, then looked at Reece in surprise because it wasn't coffee or Coca Cola, but chocolate milk. 

    Reece did not put Nie Chuan's surprise in his eyes. From start to finish, his voice was light. "If you want to grow taller, you should drink more milk." 

 

    "Can I still grow any taller?"

    "Perhaps?" Reece's raised a brow again, making Nie Chuan unable to tell whether he was being serious or just teasing him. 

 

    "Back to the subject, Ewing wanted me to teach you some offensive and defensive tactics. But things like tactics do not have a truly established template, nor are they unchanging.  Tonight, we'll a.n.a.lyze last year's finals. These two teams are the best in the league. In terms of tactical arrangements, their coaches have their own but the most important thing is the ability of the players to execute those tactics."

    Reece's voice reminded Nie Chuan of one of those male anchors on TV – without any emotional fluctuations but with his own professional filter. 

 

    At the beginning of the game, Reece sat down beside Nie Chuan and said to him, "When you see the team in the blue jersey, think of No.4 as Montenegro, No.5 as Carlo, No.8 as me, No.14 as Ewing, and No.6 as you." 

    "Oh," Nie Chuan nodded. 

 

    Reece began to play the game footage. Whenever an attack or an excellent cooperation ended, Reece would stop the video, replay it, and explain it to Nie Chuan in both Chinese and English interspersedly. 

    "For example, the application of this 'blockout' tactic is very good but if the defender doesn't move towards their teammate quick enough or doesn't keep up with their opponent's attack rhythm, they will leave a gap for a breakthrough."

 

    "En!"

    After seeing an actual match and listening to Reece's summary, Nie Chuan felt as if his mind was extraordinarily clear. 

 

    Reece's explanation is very direct. In terms of launching and responding to fast breaks, he will focus on what Nie Chuan should do as a point guard and how to respond — destroying and disrupting the opponents' pa.s.ses and breakthroughs.

    When they finished watching a normal game, it was already half past ten at night. 

 

    Due to focusing attentively on the video, Nie Chuan's eyes were rather tired. He raised his hand and rubbed them.

    Reece turned off the TV. "That's it for today."

 

    "Oh, thank you!"

    "Did you have any problems with your legs these last two days?" Reece suddenly asked while leaning against the sofa.

 

    "No problems! I'm fine!"

    As soon as Nie Chuan finished replying, Reece leaned over and cupped Nie Chuan's calf with his left hand.

 

    The moment they touched, Nie Chuan's stiff muscles tensed.

    Reece's fingers are very long, Nie Chuan even thought that he could completely circle his ankles. His palms were very warm, just like that time in the restaurant when he almost hit his forehead and was held by Reece.

 

    "You can't stop doing the lifting exercises."

    "Oh, I know."

 

    "Alright, I'll send you back to the dormitory."

    Reece got up, conveniently grabbing the coat on the hanger in pa.s.sing.

 

    "No need! I can go back on my own! I can go back!"

    "It's very late."

 

    "Ah? I'm a man though so it shouldn't matter."

    Reece, who had already arrived at the door, looked back at Nie Chuan and raised the corner of his lips, "There's no distinction between male and female."

 

    "Ah? What 'there's no distinction between male and female' ?"

    Nie Chuan followed after him. He watched Reece lock the door as he pondered that sentence.

 

    But Reece just smiled and did not answer him.

    Although Reece looked cold, he isn't unsmiling. In fact, Nie Chuan has seen him smile several times. As Reece shoves the key into his pocket and walked, Nie Chuan followed after him from behind.

 

    "That 'there's no distinction between male and female,' are you worried about me being robbed? Don't worry! There's only students here, we won't meet any robbers!"

    Reece bowed his head, the smile on his lips seemed even wider.

 

    He took his hand out of his pocket and gently nudged Nie Chuan on the forehead. Looking at his lips, he seemed to be saying "Kid."

    As Nie Chuan walked downstairs to his student dorm, Reece just raised his hand then left. 

 

    Nie Chuan returned to his own room. The moment he opened the door he saw Zhou Bin lying on his bed with his phone while talking to someone. Nie Chuan looked at his face full of táo huā chūn shuǐ and wanted to roll his eyes.

[T/N: 桃花春水, literally "peach blossom spring water," given the context it should be a lovestruck expression]

    By the time Nie Chuan came back from taking a bath, Zhou Bin had finished the call but was still looking at his phone with a smile. 

    "Hey— Stupid Bin! Come back!"

    Zhou Bin said in a calm voice, "Anyone in this world can call me stupid but you, Nie Chuan, really are not qualified."

    His meaning was that even in his most brainless state, his intelligence can still crush Nie Chuan's.

    "Come on! Say it! Which girl are you getting along with?"

    "She's in the same department as me, she's from Shanghai."

    "Oh, how long have you been interested in her?" Nie Chuan asked as he pulled a chocolate bar out from Zhou Bin's bedside table. He took off the wrapper and bit down.

    Zhou Bin hurriedly stretches his hand out under Nie Chuan's chin for fear that he would leave wafer crumbs on his bed.

    "Of course it was since the first cla.s.s when school just started."

    "I…… really don't know how I should praise your speed……"

    Nie Chuan really wanted to open Zhou Bin's head to see just how he can be so successful in front of girls.

    Zhou Bin saw what Nie Chuan was thinking at a glance and patted the top of his head with a smile. "You ah, if you don't always think about blonde, blue-eyed girls with big b.o.o.bs and big b.u.t.ts then you'll definitely find the right one!"

    "Why can't I fantasize?" Nie Chuan has an unhappy expression.

    "Do you think Jennifer Lawrence would be interested in you?"

    "Nonsense, did you think she would be interested in you?"

    "No." Zhou Bin answered Nie Chuan very seriously. "I just hope that your head didn't go bad from being around Mao Xian for so long. Of course, liking a person isn't about who is interested in who. Maybe one day there might be a G.o.ddess who favors you. But before that, you have to turn yourself into a diamond."

    When he finished, Zhou Bin pulled his quilt to go to sleep. 

    Nie Chuan used a pillow to forcefully smack Zhou Bin twice before returning to his own bed. "Zhou Bin, you wait! One day I will let the G.o.ddess hold me!"

    "It's fine as long as you don't bring someone in your arms to come meet me one day." 

    "Ha? What do you mean?" Nie Chuan tilted his head. Meanwhile, Zhou Bin only exposed a few strands of hair outside his quilt. 

    "Nothing. But Ah Chuan, did you really start to play basketball?"

    "…… probably ba. But is it too late?" 

    "I don't know if it's too late, but I have a hunch that as long as you persist, you will become my pride."

    Nie Chuan's heart warmed. Stifled in his quilt, he said in a low voice, "Thank you." 

    During the next few days, Nie Chuan would follow Carlo and them in practicing after cla.s.s, especially pa.s.sing and cooperation.

    "Nie Chuan! Your most important duty is to bring the ball through the half-court. You must keep your sight broad and pay attention not only to our positions but the positions of our enemies!"

    As they cooperated, Ewing would remind in a loud voice.

    Nie Chuan, who was afraid of him before, now thought that this guy is actually kind of cute.

    It's just that Reece usually never came to these kinds of practices. But if he thought about it, it might be better to fight alone with Reece's personality.

    After playing for an hour or two, Ewing took Nie Chuan's shoulder and asked, "Hey, be honest, other than a three-step layup, you can't do anything else?" 

    Ewing finally found out ah……

    "Although I'm teaching you now, it might be too late to practice but…… would you like to learn from me?" Ewing asked.

    "Of course!"

    Someone is willing to teach him how to shoot, 

he couldn't ask for more!

 

   "Boy, you're so lucky! Ewing is one of the top ten shooters in the league!" Carlo said happily.

    "Ha?" Ewing fiercely stares at Carlo. 

 

   Carlo suddenly realized he said the wrong thing again. "It's the top three."

    Ewing came up to Carlo with his hands behind his back. He stomped his foot, stared into his eyes and asked, "How come I feel that you were very unwilling when you said it?"

 

    "No no no, I'm willing……"

    He doesn't know how Carlo was nearly 10 centimeters taller than Ewing but is always weak in front of him. 

 

    Ewing pressed his hand on Carlo's face and forcefully pushed him away. Then he turned around and said to Nie Chuan, "Ignore this idiot, I will teach you close range shots within the center circle first. Allen, if you play normally during the practice, you should be able to take the ball behind the opponent. If all the top scorers on the team were under the opponent's defense, then as long as the timing is right, you need to shoot the ball in time to score."

    "En!" When Nie Chuan was in middle school, he had taught himself how to shoot. Even though he knew the most basic posture, it would be considered good if he can score one shot out of a dozen.

 

    He also really wanted to know. If Ewing is the top scorer in the league then Nie Chuan really wanted to learn the real secrets from him.

    "Look closely." Ewing dribbled the ball, came to Nie Chuan's side, and made a shooting posture. "Put the ball in front of your chest with your hands, this is very similar to a chest pa.s.s. Of course…… at your height, the ball can be held slightly higher than the chest."

 

    Earlier I thought you were cute, now I want to give you a bad review! What do you mean "at your height"? I'm still growing, alright? 

 

    "Your strength must extend from your feet to your waist, from your abdomen to your hands." 

Re: Happy Thanksgiving! I'm very thankful to all the readers. While I don't usually reply to comments, I do read and appreciate every single one of them

MadMadamMims: preparing for my food coma

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III. CATALOGUE OF INVERTENTIA.

I. Emetics, ipecacuanha, emetic tartar, antimonium tartarisatum, squill, scilla maritima, carduus benedictus, cnicus acarna, chamoemile, anthemis n.o.bilis, white vitriol, vitriolum zinci, foxglove, digitalis purpurea, clysters of tobacco.

II. Violent cathartics, emetic tartar, squill, buckthorn, rhamnus catharticus, scammonium, convolvulus scammonia, gamboge, elaterium, colocynth, cuc.u.mis colocynthis, veratrum.

III. Violent errhines and sialagogues, Turpeth mineral, hydrargyrus vitriolatus, asarum europaeum, euphorbium, capsic.u.m, veratrum, nauseous smells, nauseous ideas.

IV. Violent diuretics, nitre, squill, seneka, cantharides, alcohol, foxglove, tobacco, anxiety.

V. Cold sudorifics, poisons, fear, approaching death.

ART. VI.

REVERTENTIA.

I. Those things, which restore the natural order of the inverted irritative motions, are termed Revertentia.

1. As musk, castor, asafoetida, valerian, essential oils.

2. Externally the vapour of burnt feathers, of volatile salts, or oils, blisters, sinapisms.

These reclaim the inverted motions without increasing the heat of the body above its natural state, if given in their proper doses, as in the globus hystericus, and palpitation of the heart.

The incitantia revert these morbid motions more certainly, as opium and alcohol; and restore the natural heat more; but if they induce any degree of intoxication, they are succeeded by debility, when their stimulus ceases.

II. OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVERTENTIA.

I. The hysteric disease is attended with inverted motions feebly exerted of the oesophagus, intestinal ca.n.a.l and lymphatics of the bladder. Hence the borborigmi, or rumbling of the bowels, owing to their fluid contents descending as the air beneath ascends. The globus hystericus consists in the retrograde motion of the oesophagus, and the great flow of urine from that of the lymphatics spread on the neck of the bladder; and a copious salivation sometimes happens to these patients from the inversion of the lymphatics of the mouth; and palpitation of the heart owing to weak or incipient inversion of its motions; and syncope, when this occurs in its greatest degree.

These hysteric affections are not necessarily attended with pain; though it sometimes happens, that pains, which originate from quiescence, afflict these patients, as the hemicrania, which has erroneously been termed the clavus hystericus; but which is owing solely to the inaction of the membranes of that part, like the pains attending the cold fits of intermittents, and which frequently returns like them at very regular periods of time.

Many of the above symptoms are relieved by musk, castor, the foetid gums, valerian, oleum animale, oil of amber, which act in the usual dose without heating the body. The pains, which sometimes attend these const.i.tutions, are relieved by the secernentia, as essential oils in common tooth-ach, and balsam of Peru in the flatulent colic. But the incitantia, as opium, or vinous spirit, reclaim these morbid inverted motions with more certainty, than the foetids; and remove the pains, which attend these const.i.tutions, with more certainty than the secernentia; but if given in large doses, a debility and return of the hysteric symptoms occurs, when the effect of the opium or alcohol ceases. Opiates and foetids joined seem best to answer the purpose of alleviating the present symptoms; and the sorbentia, by stimulating the lymphatics and lacteals into continued action, prevent a relapse of their inversion, as Peruvian bark, and rust of iron. See Cla.s.s I. 3. 1. 10.

II. Vomiting consists in the inverted order of the motions of the stomach, and oesophagus; and is also attended with the inverted motions of a part of the duodenum, when bile is ejected; and of the lymphatics of the stomach and fauces, when nausea attends, and when much lymph is evacuated.

Permanent vomiting is for a time relieved by the incitantia, as opium or alcohol; but is liable to return, when their action ceases. A blister on the back, or on the stomach, is more efficacious for restraining vomiting by their stimulating into action the external skin, and by sympathy affecting the membranes of the stomach. In some fevers attended with incessant vomiting Sydenham advised the patient to put his head under the bed-clothes, till a sweat appeared on the skin, as explained in Cla.s.s IV.

1. 1. 2.

In chronical vomiting I have observed crude mercury of good effect in the dose of half an ounce twice a day. The vomitings, or vain efforts to vomit, which sometimes attend hysteric or epileptic patients, are frequently instantly relieved for a time by applying flour of mustard-seed and water to the small of the leg; and removing it, as soon as the pain becomes considerable. If sinapisms lie on too long, especially in paralytic cases, they are liable to produce troublesome ulcers. A plaster or cataplasm, with opium and camphor on the region of the stomach, will sometimes revert its retrograde motions.

III. Violent catharsis, as in diarrhoea or dysentery, is attended with inverted motions of the lymphatics of the intestines, and is generally owing to some stimulating material. This is counteracted by plenty of mucilaginous liquids, as solutions of gum arabic, or small chicken broth, to wash away or dilute the stimulating material, which causes the disease.

And then by the use of the intestinal sorbentia, Art. IV. 2. 5. as rhubarb, decoction of logwood, calcined hartshorn, Armenian bole; and lastly, by the incitantia, as opium.

IV. The diabaetes consists in the inverted motions of the urinary lymphatics, which is generally I suppose owing to the too great action of some other branch of the absorbent system. The urinary branch should be stimulated by cantharides, turpentine, resin (which when taken in larger doses may possibly excite it into inverted action), by the sorbentia and opium. The intestinal lymphatics should be rendered less active by torpentia, as calcareous earth, earth of alum; and those of the skin by oil externally applied over the whole body; and by the warm-bath, which should be of 96 or 98 degrees of heat, and the patient should sit in it every day for half an hour.

V. Inverted motions of the intestinal ca.n.a.l with all the lymphatics, which open into it, const.i.tute the ileus, or iliac pa.s.sion; in which disease it sometimes happens, that clysters are returned by the mouth. After venesection from ten grains to twenty of calomel made into very small pills; if this is rejected, a grain of aloe every hour; a blister; crude mercury; warm-bath; if a clyster of iced water?

Many other inverted motions of different parts of the system are described in Cla.s.s I. 3. and which are to be treated in a manner similar to those above described. It must be noted, that the medicines mentioned under number one in the catalogue of revertentia are the true articles belonging to this cla.s.s of medicines. Those enumerated in the other four divisions are chiefly such things as tend to remove the stimulating causes, which have induced the inversion of the motions of the part, as acrimonious contents, or inflammation, of the bowels in diarrhoea, diabetes, or in ileus. But it is probable after these remote causes are destroyed, that the fetid gums, musk, castor, and balsams, might be given with advantage in all these cases.

III. CATALOGUE OF REVERTENTIA.

I. Inverted motions, which attend the hysteric disease, are reclaimed, 1.

By musk, castor. 2. By asafoetida, galbanum, sagapaenum, ammoniac.u.m, valerian. 3. Essential oils of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, infusion of penny-royal, mentha, pulegium, peppermint, mentha piperita, ether, camphor.

4. Spirit of hartshorn, oleum animale, spunge burnt to charcoal, black-snuffs of candles, which consist princ.i.p.ally of animal charcoal, wood-soot, oil of amber. 5. The incitantia, as opium, alcohol, vinegar. 6.

Externally the smoke of burnt feathers, oil of amber, volatile salt applied to the nostrils, blisters, sinapisms.

II. Inverted motions of the stomach are reclaimed by opium, alcohol, blisters, crude mercury, sinapisms, camphor and opium externally, clysters with asafoetida.

III. Inverted motions of the intestinal lymphatics are reclaimed by mucilaginous diluents, and by intestinal sorbentia, as rhubarb, logwood, calcined hartshorn, Armenian bole; and lastly by incitantia, as opium.

IV. Inverted motions of the urinary lymphatics are reclaimed by cantharides, turpentine, rosin, the sorbentia, and opium, with calcareous earth, and earth of alum, by oil externally, warm-bath.

V. Inverted motions of the intestinal ca.n.a.l are reclaimed by calomel, aloe, crude mercury, blisters, warm-bath, clysters with asafoetida, clysters of iced water? or of spring water further cooled by salt dissolved in water contained in an exterior vessel? Where there exists an introsusception of the bowel in children, could the patient be held up for a time by the feet with his head downwards, or be laid with his body on an inclined plane with his head downwards, and crude mercury be injected as a clyster to the quant.i.ty of two or three pounds?

ART. VII.

TORPENTIA.

I. Those things, which diminish the exertion of the irritative motions, are termed torpentia.

1. As mucus, mucilage, water, bland oils, and whatever possesses less stimulus than our usual food. Diminution of heat, light, sound, oxygen, and of all other stimuli; venesection, nausea, and anxiety.

2. Those things which chemically destroy acrimony, as calcareous earth, soap, tin, alcalies, in cardialgia; or which prevent chemical acrimony, as acid of vitriol in cardialgia, which prevents the fermentation of the aliment in the stomach, and its consequent acidity. Secondly, which destroy worms, as calomel, iron filings or rust of iron, in the round worms; or amalgama of quicksilver and tin, or tin in very large doses, in the tape-worms. Will ether in clysters destroy ascarides? Thirdly, by chemically destroying extraneous bodies, as caustic alcali, lime, mild alcali in the stone. Fourthly, those things which lubricate the vessels, along which extraneous bodies slide, as oil in the stone in the urethra, and to expedite the expectoration of hardened mucus; or which lessen the friction of the contents in the intestinal ca.n.a.l in dysentery or aphtha, as calcined hartshorn, clay, Armenian bole, chalk, bone-ashes. Fifthly, such things as soften or extend the cuticle over tumors, or phlegmons, as warm water, poultices, fomentations, or by confining the perspirable matter on the part by cabbage-leaves, oil, fat, bee's-wax, plasters, oiled silk, externally applied.

These decrease the natural heat and remove pains occasioned by excess of irritative motions.

II. OBSERVATIONS ON THE TORPENTIA.

I. As the torpentia consist of such materials as are less stimulating than our usual diet, it is evident, that where this cla.s.s of medicines is used, some regard must be had to the usual manner of living of the patient both in respect to quant.i.ty and quality. Hence wounds in those, who have been accustomed to the use of much wine, are very liable to mortify, unless the usual potation of wine be allowed the patient. And in these habits I have seen a delirium in a fever cured almost immediately by wine; which was occasioned by the too mild regimen directed by the attendants. On the contrary in great inflammation, the subduction of food, and of spirituous drink, contributes much to the cure of the disease. As by these means both the stimulus from distention of the vessels, as well as that from the acrimony of the fluids, is decreased; but in both these respects the previous habits of diet of the patients must be attended to. Thus if tea be made stronger, than the patient has usually drank it, it belongs to the article sorbentia; if weaker, it belongs to the torpentia.

II. Water in a quant.i.ty greater than usual diminishes the action of the system not only by diluting our fluids, and thence lessening their stimulus, but by lubricating the solids; for not only the parts of our solids have their sliding over each other facilitated by the interposition of aqueous particles; but the particles of mucaginous or saccharine solutions slide easier over each other by being mixed with a greater portion of water, and thence stimulate the vessels less.

At the same time it must be observed, that the particles of water themselves, and of animal gluten dissolved in water, as the glue used by carpenters, slide easier over each other by an additional quant.i.ty of the fluid matter of heat.

These two fluids of heat and of water may be esteemed the universal solvents or lubricants in respect to animal bodies, and thus facilitate the circulation, and the secretion of the various glands. At the same time it is possible, that these two fluids may occasionally a.s.sume an aerial form, as in the cavity of the chest, and by compressing the lungs may cause one kind of asthma, which is relieved by breathing colder air. An increased quant.i.ty of heat by adding stimulus to every part of the system belongs to the article Incitantia.

III. 1. The application of cold to the skin, which is only another expression for the diminution of the degree of heat we are accustomed to, benumbs the cutaneous absorbents into inaction; and by sympathy the urinary and intestinal absorbents become also quiescent. The secerning vessels continuing their action somewhat longer, from the warmth of the blood.

Hence the usual secretions are poured into the bladder and intestines, and no absorption is retaken from them. Hence sprinkling the skin with cold water increases the quant.i.ty of urine, which is pale; and of stool, which is fluid; these have erroneously been ascribed to increased secretion, or to obstructed perspiration.

The thin discharge from the nostrils of some people in cold weather is owing to the torpid state of the absorbent vessels of the membrana sneideriana, which as above are benumbed sooner than those, which perform the secretion of the mucus.

The quick anhelation, and palpitation of the heart, of those, who are immersed in cold water, depends on the quiescence of the external absorbent vessels and capillaries. Hence the cutaneous circulation is diminished, and by a.s.sociation an almost universal torpor of the system is induced; thence the heart becomes incapable to push forwards its blood through all the inactive capillaries and glands; and as the terminating vessels of the pulmonary artery suffer a similar inaction by a.s.sociation, the blood is with difficulty pushed through the lungs.

Some have imagined, that a spasmodic constriction of the smaller vessels took place, and have thus accounted for their resistance to the force of the heart. But there seems no necessity to introduce this imaginary spasm; since those, who are conversant in injecting bodies, find it necessary first to put them into warm water to take away the stiffness of the cold dead vessels; which become inflexible like the other muscles of dead animals, and prevent the injected fluid from pa.s.sing.

All the same symptoms occur in the cold fits of intermittents; in these the coldness and paleness of the skin with thirst evince the diminution of cutaneous absorption; and the dryness of ulcers, and small secretion of urine, evince the torpor of the secerning system; and the anhelation, and coldness of the breath, shew the terminations of the pulmonary artery to be likewise affected with torpor.

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To those gentlemen who call themselves professional men, I, George Gemunder, declare that I am ready at any time to sacrifice my "Emperor violin" or any other which I have made, and I propose to give it to the best chemists in the world to be cut to pieces, that they may examine the wood and ascertain if any chemical preparation has been used. If this is found to be the case they may be allowed to scold and blame me publicly as much as they please; but, if nothing of that kind is found, they are to pay ten thousand dollars for the "Emperor violin."

Address: GEORGE GEMUNDER.

ASTORIA, NEW YORK.

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Yin Li handled things in an extremely swift and decisive manner. That very night he called over a tattoo artist. Leaning on my crutches, I watched a group of people carry various equipment into the house, which they then set up in Yin Li’s room. Prompted by my curious expression, the tattoo artist turned to me and introduced each apparatus.

Tattoo gun, needle points, needle grips, liner machine, shader machine, tattoo inks, ink cups, vaseline, green soap;1 I stared at everything, stupefied. When I inadvertently glanced at the tattoo artist, I noticed that aside from the Azure Dragon on their left arm and the White Tiger on their right arm,2 there was also a Mickey Mouse. Although I knew that tattoo artists, early on in their careers, often practiced various designs on themselves, I still suddenly felt a trickle of cold sweat for Yin Li.

1 green soap is a kind of medicinal grade soap used by tattoo artists 2 Azure Dragon (Qinglong) and White Tiger (Baihu) are creatures from Chinese/East Asian mythology

“Mr. Yin, what section are you thinking of tattooing? Do you have any design or phrase in mind? Do you want to discuss the position and placement of the tattoo?” With a slight bow, the tattoo artist respectfully questioned Yin Li.

“Tattoo her name. The “yan” (颜) from “countenance”, the “xiao” (笑) from “smile.” Yin Li gave me a nonchalant look.

“Mr. Yin, forgive me for being blunt, but these two characters are both complex and the result may not look good. I suggest that you choose one of

them, and I’ll help you come up with a design incorporating it.” The tattoo artist pulled out a paper to draw ideas.

I irrelevantly joked, “Why not make it simple, directly draw a smiley face. It just so happens to match my name’s “xiao”, plus it has a nice and sunny feeling, so even if other people see it, they won’t a.s.sociate a smiley face with someone who has connections to gangs.”3

3 Being tattooed is usually a.s.sociated with gangs/mafia in China

I secretly looked at Yin Li and continued, “Where to tattoo it? Hm, I think tattooing it on the b.u.t.t or the lower back is good. There’s more meat there so they should be the least painful spots, but most likely there’s still going to be quite some blood.” While I spoke my eyes were spinning. The tattoo was only something that I had blurted out off the top of my head, in order to get Yin Li to step back and stop pushing to continue our relationship. In my heart I didn’t actually want Yin Li to tattoo my name on his body. Yin Li’s plan to use this as a reason to tie me down, proved that he really was determined to stay with me, because he didn’t give me any opportunity to escape.

And once he got the tattoo, I knew that I’d no longer be able to liberate myself from the position of fiancée unless Yin Li got fed up with me first. The difference in our strength was too big, so regardless

regardless of whether he loved me or not, and what had happened between us, as long as he wanted to continue, there was no way I could quit in the middle.

I just needed to thicken my skin and continue to lobby. “Yin Li, think for a moment! Once you get a tattoo, it’ll be on your body for the rest of your life. Right now you might like me enough to get my name tattooed, but if we split up, my name will be left behind on your a.s.s or your lower back. When you roll around in the sheets with your future wife, won’t this be a huge eyesore,4 potentially becoming a crisis in your marriage!”

4 大煞风景 is a chengyu meaning something that spoils the otherwise nice scenery

“Mr. Yin, I’ve finished drawing.” The tattoo artist suddenly stood back up and pa.s.sed the paper over to Yin Li, and then gave me a look full of pity, “Erasing old tattoos is not impossible, but there’s a tradition among us tattoo artists, that every person who works with tattoos must respect. If a person’s name is tattooed, it represents a kind of contract. Only if one party pa.s.ses away, can the tattoo be removed.”

I felt greatly alarmed, then what if the day came when Yin Li came to his senses, realized that the tattoo looked really stupid and interfered with his ability to attract women, and concluded that along with removing the tattoo, he’d also need to get rid of me? Wouldn’t this situation be as if my

if my life was tied to the tattoo on Yin Li’s a.s.s?! In my panic, I stared at Yin Li with eyes full of fear. At the moment he was dressed in a loose bathrobe, leaning against the doorway calmly amidst the chaos, watching the expressions on my face change rapidly from one to another.

Then he nodded his head at the tattoo artist, and pointed out a drawing on the paper. “This one is not bad, let her take a look at it. Ask whether she really wants a smiley face or prefers this instead.”

Where would I have the courage to ask for a tattoo on Yin Li’s old tiger a.s.s,5 I just barely resisted the temptation to drop to my knees and beg for forgiveness. I could only wave my hand repeatedly, “As long as you approve, I approve! You look after your own b.u.t.t!” After speaking, I immediately wanted to slip away. I didn’t want to stay even a moment longer in this room!

5 The author was probably referring to the phrase 老虎屁股摸不得, meaning “a tiger’s backside cannot be touched”, attributed to Mao Zedong. Used to refer to someone that doesn’t tolerate dissent; who cannot be provoked.

“Yan Xiao, you stay here.” Yin Li’s words firmly pulled me to a stop just as I was beating a retreat, “This tattoo is for you, how could you be allowed to leave? I want you to properly watch the whole process.” He mockingly smiled a little, and then with his back facing me he took off his bathrobe halfway, his bathrobe halfway, holding it at his waist so only his upper body was exposed. Then he turned his head and glanced back at me before, still with his back towards me, he took a seat. From this angle, I could see both the beautiful lines of his shoulders and the strong but elegant muscles of his back.

“Draw it on the back left shoulder.” Yin Li directed this order at the already-gloved tattoo artist, who respectfully nodded at him. As for me, my eyes were still glued to Yin Li’s back.

I never knew that under Yin Li’s expensive clothes was a body like this, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vitality, beautiful and attractive. Beauty really was a kind of strength. If Yin Li had taken off his clothes earlier, I estimate that I absolutely wouldn’t have said a word about wanting him to tattoo a smiley face onto his b.u.t.t.

It really was beautiful.

But because of this, my reluctance to have Yin Li tattoo himself only increased. At the moment the tattoo artist had already disinfected the area and sketched out the design with a surgical marker, and was already preparing to start tattooing the outlines. Seeing the tattoo artist take out the tattoo gun, I averted my eyes and turned my head away.

Yin Li, on the other hand, didn’t make a single sound.

But I still didn’t dare watch the whole process. This seemed like a ceremony, a kind of contract between Yin Li and I, so by not watching it, I didn’t have to acknowledge it.

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_Direct._ V. Remember that your eye is much of your honour or dishonour, because it is the index of your minds. You see that which is next the mind itself, or the most immediate beam of the invisible soul, when you see the eye. How easily doth a wandering eye, a wanton eye, a proud eye, a luxurious eye, a malicious eye, a pa.s.sionate eye, bewray the treasure of sin which is in the heart![392] Your soul lieth opener to the view of others in your eye, than in any other part: your very reputation therefore should make you watch.

_Direct._ VI. Remember that your eye is of all the senses most subject to the will, and therefore there is the more of duty or sin in it; for voluntariness is the requisite to morality, both good and evil. Your will cannot so easily command your feeling, tasting, hearing, or smelling, as it can your sight; so easily can it open or shut the eye in a moment, that you are the more unexcusable if it be not governed; for all its faults will be proved the more voluntary. Ham was cursed for not turning away his eyes from his father's shame, and Shem and j.a.pheth blessed for doing it. The righteous is thus described, "He that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high," &c. Isa. x.x.xiii. 15. Men's idols which they are commanded to cast away are called, "The abomination of their eyes," Ezek. xx. 7. Covetousness is called, "The l.u.s.t of the eyes," 1 John ii. 16. It is said of the unclean, that they have "eyes full of adultery," 2 Pet. ii. 14. And as sin, so punishment is placed on the eye:[393] "The eyes of the lofty shall be humbled,"

Isa. v. 15. Yea, the whole bodies of the daughters of Zion are threatened to be dishonoured with nakedness, scabs, and stink, and shame, because they walked with "wanton eyes, haughtily, and mincing as they go," &c. Isa. iii. 16.

_Direct._ VII. Therefore let believing reason, and a holy, resolved, fixed will, keep a continual law upon your eyes, and let them be used as under a constant government. This Job calleth, the "making a covenant with them," Job x.x.xi. 1. Leave them not at liberty; as if a look had nothing in it of duty or sin; or as if you might look on what you would. Will you go to foolish, tempting plays, and gaze on vain, alluring objects, and think there is no harm in all this? Do you think your eye cannot sin as well as your tongue? undoubtedly it is much sin that is both committed by it, and entereth at it: keep away therefore from the bait, or command your eye to turn away.

_Direct._ VIII. Remember still how much more easy and safe it is, to stop sin here at the gates and outworks, than to beat it out again when it is once got in: if it have but tainted your very fantasy or memory, (as tempting sights will almost unavoidably do,) it hath there sp.a.w.ned the matter for a swarm of vain and sinful thoughts. It is almost impossible to rule the thoughts without ruling the eye: and then the pa.s.sions are presently tainted; and the citadel of the heart is taken before you are aware. You little know when a l.u.s.tful look, or a covetous look, beginneth the game, to how sad a period it tendeth.

Many a horrid adultery, and murder, and robbery, and wickedness, hath begun but with a look: a look hath begun that which hath brought many a thousand to the gallows, and many millions to h.e.l.l!

_Direct._ IX. Keep both eye and mind employed in continual duty, and let them not be idle, and have leisure to wander upon vanity. Idleness and neglect of spiritual and corporal duty is the beginner and the nurse of much sensuality. Let your spiritual work and your lawful bodily labours, take up your time and thoughts, and command and keep your senses in their services.

_Direct._ X. Beg daily of G.o.d the preserving a.s.sistance of his grace and providence. Of his inward grace to confirm you and a.s.sist you in your resolutions and watch; and of his providence and gracious disposals of you and objects, to keep the temptations from before your eyes: and when others will run and go on purpose, to gaze on vain or tempting shows, or to admire like children the vanities of the playful, pompous world, do you go to G.o.d with David's prayer, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity: and quicken me in thy way,"

Psal. cxix. 37. And imitate him: "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word," ver. 148. And make every look a pa.s.sage to thy mind, to carry it up to G.o.d, and pray, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law," Psal. cxix.

18. Observe these, with the general directions forenamed.

PART III.

_Directions for the Government of the Ear._

_Direct._ I. Employ your ears in the duties which they were made for; and to that end understand those duties.[394] Which are as followeth: 1.

To be the organ of reception of such communications from others, as are necessary for our converse in the world, and the duties of our several relations and vocations. 2. To hear the word of G.o.d delivered publicly by his appointed teachers of the church. 3. To hear the counsel of those that privately advise us for our good; and the reproofs of those that tell us of our sin and danger. 4. To hear the praises of G.o.d set forth by his church in public, and particular servants in private. 5. To hear from our ancestors and the learned in history, what hath been done in the times before us. 6. To hear the complaints and pet.i.tions of the poor, and needy, and distressed, that we may compa.s.sionate them and endeavour their relief. 7. To be the pa.s.sage for grief and hatred to our hearts, by the sinful words which we hear unwillingly.

_Direct._ II. Know which are the sins of the ear that you may avoid them. And they are such as follow: 1. A careless ear, which heareth the word of G.o.d, and the private exhortations of his servants, as if it heard them not. 2. A sottish, sleepy ear, that heareth the word of G.o.d but as a confused sound, and understandeth not, nor feeleth what is heard. 3. A scornful ear, which despiseth the message of G.o.d, and the reproofs and counsel of men, and scorneth to be reproved or taught. 4.

An obstinate, stubborn ear, which regardeth not advice or will not yield. 5. A profane and impious ear, which loveth to hear oaths, and curses, and profane, and blasphemous expressions. 6. A carnal ear, which loveth to hear of fleshly things, but savoureth not the words which savour of holiness. 7. An airy, hypocritical ear, which loveth more the music and melody, than the sense and spiritual elevation of the soul to G.o.d; and regardeth more the numbers and composure and tone, than the matter of preaching, prayer, or other such duties; and serveth G.o.d with the ear, when the heart is far from him. 8. A curious ear, which nauseateth the most profitable sermons, prayers, or discourses, if they be not accurately ordered and expressed; and slighteth or loseth the offered benefit, for a (modal) imperfection in the offer, or instrument; and casteth away all the gold because a piece or two did catch a little rust: and perhaps quarrelleth with the style of the sacred Scriptures, as not exact or fine enough for its expectations. 9. An itching ear, which runs after novelties, and a heap of teachers, and liketh something extraordinary better than things necessary. 10. A selfish ear, which loveth to hear all that tends to the confirmation of its own conceits, and to be flattered or smoothed up by others, and can endure nothing that is cross to its opinions. 11. A proud ear, which loveth its own applause, and is much pleased with its own praises, and hateth all that speak of him with mean, undervaluing words. 12. A peevish, impatient ear, which is nettled with almost all it heareth; and can endure none but silken words, which are oiled and sugared, and fitted by flattery or the lowest submission, to their froward minds; and is so hard to be pleased, that none but graduates in the art of pleasing can perform it.

13. A bold, presumptuous ear, which will hear false teachers and deceivers in a proud conceit, and confidence of their own abilities, to discern what is true and what is false. 14. An unG.o.dly ear, that can easily hear the reproach of holiness, and scorns at the servants and ways of Christ. 15. A neutral, indifferent ear, that heareth either good or evil, without much love or hatred, but with a dull and cold indifferency. 16. A dissembling, temporizing ear, which can complyingly hear one side speak for holiness, and the other speak against it, and suit itself to the company and discourse it meets with. 17. An uncharitable ear, which can willingly hear the censures, backbitings, slanders, revilings, that are used against others, yea against the best.

18. An unnatural ear, which can easily and willingly hear the dishonour of their parents, or other near relations, if any carnal interest do but engage them against their honour. 19. A rebellious, disobedient ear, which hearkeneth not to the just commands of magistrates, parents, masters, and other governors, but hearkeneth with more pleasure to the words of seditious persons that dishonour them. 20. A filthy, unclean, and adulterous ear, which loveth to hear filthy, ribald speeches, and love-songs, and romances, and lascivious plays, and the talk of wanton l.u.s.t and dalliance. 21. A self-provoking ear, that hearkeneth after all that others say against them, which may kindle hatred, or dislike, or pa.s.sion, in them. 22. A busy, meddling ear, which loveth to hear of other men's faults, or matters which concern them not, and to hearken to tattlers, and carry-tales, and make-bates, and to have to do with evil reports. 23. A timorous, cowardly, unbelieving ear, which trembleth at every threatening of man, though in a cause which is G.o.d's, and he hath promised to justify. 24. An idle ear, which can hearken to idle, time-wasting talk, and make the sins of tattlers your own. All these ways (and more) you are in danger of sinning by the ear, and becoming partakers in the sins of all whose sinful words you hear, and of turning into sin the words of G.o.d, and his servants, which are spoken for your good.

[Sidenote: When hearing evil is a sin.]

_Direct._ III. Know when the hearing of evil, and not hearing good, is your sin: that is, 1. When it is not out of any imposed necessity, but of your voluntary choice; and when you might avoid it upon lawful terms, without a greater hurt, and will not. 2. When you hate not the evil which you are necessitated to hear, and love not the good which through necessity you cannot hear; but your hearts comply with your necessities. 3. When you show not so much disowning and dislike of the evil which you hear, as you might do, without an inconvenience greater than the benefit; but make it your own by sinful silence or compliance. 4. When you are presumptuous and fearless of your danger.

[Sidenote: The danger of hearing.]

_Direct._ IV. Know wherein the danger of such sinful hearing lieth. As, 1. in displeasing G.o.d, who loveth not to see his children hearken to those that are abusing him, nor to see them playing too boldly about fire or water, nor to touch any stinking or defiling thing, but calls to them, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you," 2 Cor. vi. 16-18.

2. It is dangerous to your fantasy and memory, which quickly receiveth hurtful impressions by what you hear: if you should hear provoking words, even against your wills, yet it is hard to escape the receiving of some hurtful impression by them: and if you hear lascivious, filthy words against your wills, (much more if willingly), it is two to one but they leave some thoughts in your minds which may gender unto further sin. And it is dangerous to your pa.s.sions and affections, lest they catch fire before you are aware. And it is dangerous to your understandings, lest they be perverted and seduced: and to your wills, lest they be turned after evil, and turned away from good; and alas! how quickly is all this done! 3. It is dangerous to the speaker, lest your voluntary hearing encourage him in his sin, and hinder his repentance.

4. And it is dishonourable to G.o.d and G.o.dliness.

_Direct._ V. Do your best to live in such company where you shall hear that which is good and edifying, and to escape that company whose conference is hurtful and corrupt. Run not yourselves into this temptation: be sure you have a call; and your call must be discerned, 1. By your office and place; whether any duty of your office or relation bind you to be there. 2. By your ends: whether you be there as a physician to do them good, (as Christ went among sinners,) or to do the work of your proper calling; or whether you are there out of a carnal, man-pleasing, or temporizing humour? 3. By the measure of your abilities to attain those ends. 4. By the measure of your danger to receive the infection. 5. By the quality of your company, and the probability of good or evil in the event.

[Sidenote: When you are called into ill company.]

_Direct._ VI. When you are called into ill company, go fortified with defensive and offensive arms, as foreseeing what danger or duty you are like to be cast upon. Foresee what discourse you are like to hear, and accordingly prepare yourselves: let your first preparation be to preserve yourselves from the hurt, and your next preparation to confute the evil, and convince the sinful speaker, or at least to preserve the endangered hearers, if you have ability and opportunity.

If you are to hear a seducing, heretical teacher, there is another kind of preparation to be made. If you are to hear a beastly, filthy talker, there is another kind of preparation to be made. If you are to hear a cunning Pharisee, or malignant enemy of G.o.dliness, reproach, or cavil, or wrangle against the Scriptures, or the ways of G.o.d, there is another kind of preparation to be made. If you are to hear but the senseless scorns, or railings and bawlings of ignorant, profane, and sensual sots, there is another kind of preparation to be made. To give you particular directions for your preparations against every such danger would make my work too tedious; but remember how much lieth upon your own preparations or unpreparedness.

_Direct._ VII. Be not sinfully wanting in good discourse yourselves, if you would not be insnared by bad discourse from others. Your good discourse may prevent, or divert, or shame, or disappoint their evil discourse. Turn the stream another way; and do it wisely, that you expose not yourselves and your cause to scorn and laughter; and do it with such zeal as the cause requireth, that you be not borne down by their greater zeal in evil. And where it is unfit for you to speak, if it may be, let your countenance or departure signify your dislike and sorrow.

_Direct._ VIII. Specially labour to mortify those sins, which the unavoidable discourse of your company doth most tempt you to; that where the devil doth most to hurt you, you may there do most in your own defence. Doth the talk which you hear tend most to heresy, seduction, or to turn you from the truth? Study the more to be established in the truth; read more books for it; and hear more that is said by wise and G.o.dly men against the error which you are tempted to. Is it to profaneness or dislike of a holy life, that your company tempt you?

Address yourselves the more to G.o.d, and give up yourselves to holiness, and let your study and practice be such as tend to keep your souls in relish with holiness, and hatred of sin. Is it pride that their applauding discourse doth tempt you to? Study the more the doctrine of humiliation. Is it l.u.s.t that they provoke you to, or is it drunkenness, gluttony, sinful recreations, or excesses? Labour the more in the work of mortification, and keep the strictest guard where they a.s.sault you.

_Direct._ IX. Be not unacquainted with the particular weaknesses and dangers of your own hearts, or any of your sinful inclinations; that when you know where the wall is weakest, you may there make the best defence. That wanton word will set a wanton heart on fire, which a sober mind doth hear with pity as a bedlam kind of speech. A peevish, pa.s.sionate heart is presently disturbed and kindled with those words which are scarce observed by a well-composed soul.

_Direct._ X. Hear every sinful word as dictated by the devil; and suppose you saw him all the while at the speaker's elbow, putting each word into his mouth, and telling him what to say. For it is as verily the devil that doth suggest them all, as if you saw him. Suppose you saw him behind the railer, hissing him on, as boys do dogs in fighting, and bidding him, Call him thus or thus: suppose you saw him at the malignant's ear, bidding him revile a holy life, and speak evil of the ways and servants of the Lord: suppose you saw him behind the wanton, bidding him use such ribald talk, or on the stage, suggesting it to the actors; or at the ear of those that would provoke you to pa.s.sion, to tell them what to say against you: this just supposition would much preserve you.

_Direct._ XI. Suppose you heard the end annexed to every speech. As when you hear one tempting you to l.u.s.t, suppose he said, Come, let us take our pleasures awhile, and be d.a.m.ned for ever: so also in every word that tempteth you to any other sin; if the tempter put in the sin, do you put in G.o.d's wrath and h.e.l.l, and separate not that which G.o.d hath adjoined, but with the serpent see the sting.

_Direct._ XII. Observe when the infection first seizeth on you, and presently take an antidote to expel it, if you love your souls. The signs of infection are, 1. When your zeal abateth, and you grow more indifferent to what you hear. 2. Next you will feel some little inclination to it. 3. Next you will a little venture upon an imitation.

4. And lastly you will come to a full consent, and so to ruin. If you feel but a remitting of your dislike and hatred, or any filth or tincture left on your thoughts and fantasy, go presently and shake them off; bewail it to G.o.d in true repentance, and wash your souls in the blood of Christ, and cast up the poison by holy resolutions, and sweat out the remnant by the fervent exercises of love and holiness.

PART IV.

_Directions for governing the Taste and Appet.i.te._

_t.i.t._ 1. _Directions against Gluttony._

The most that is necessary to be said to acquaint you with the nature and evil of this sin, is said before in chapter iv. part vii. against flesh-pleasing. But something more particularly must be said, 1. To show you what is and what is not the sin of gluttony. 2. To show you the causes of it. 3. The odiousness of it. And, 4. To acquaint you with the more particular helps and means against it.

I. Gluttony is a voluntary excess in eating, for the pleasing of the appet.i.te, or some other carnal end.[395] Here note, 1. The matter. 2.

The end or effect of this excess. (1.) It is sometimes an excess in quant.i.ty, when more is eaten than is meet. (2.) Or else it may be an excess in the delicious quant.i.ty, when more regard is had to the delight and sweetness than is meet. (3.) Or it may be an excess in the frequency and ordinary unseasonableness of eating; when men eat too oft, and sit at it too long. (4.) It may be an excess in the costliness or price; when men feed themselves at too high rates. (5.) Or it may be an excess of curiosity in the dressing, and saucing, and ordering of all. 2. And it is usually for some carnal end. Whether it may be properly called gluttony, if a man should think that at a sacrifice of thanksgiving he were bound to eat inordinately, and so made the service of G.o.d his end, we need not inquire (though I see not but it may have that name). For that is a case that is more rare; and it is undoubtedly a sin: and it is gluttony, if it be done for the pleasing of others that are importunate with you. But the common gluttony is when it is done for the pleasing of the appet.i.te, with such a pleasure, as is no help to health or duty, but usually a hurt to body or soul; the body being hurt by the excess, the soul is hurt by the inordinate pleasure.[396]

Yea, it is a kind of gluttony and excess, when men will not fast or abstain when they are required, from that which at other times they may use with abstinence and without blame. If a man use not to eat excessively nor deliciously, yet if he will not abstain from his temperate diet, either at a public fast, or when his l.u.s.t requireth him to take down his body, or when his physician would diet him for his health, and his disease else would be increased by what he eateth, this is an inordinate eating and excess to that person, at that time. Or if the delight that the appet.i.te hath in one sort of meat, which is hurtful to the body, prevail against reason and health so with the person that he will not forbear it, it is a degree of gulosity or gluttony, though for quant.i.ty and quality it be in itself but mean and ordinary.

By this you may see, 1. That it is not the same quant.i.ty which is an excess in one, which is in another. A labouring man may eat somewhat more than one that doth not labour; and a strong and healthful body, more than the weak and sick. It must be an excess in quant.i.ty, as to that particular person at that time, which is, when to please his appet.i.te he eateth more than is profitable to his health or duty. 2.

So also the frequency must be considered with the quality of the person; for one person may rationally eat a little and often, for his health, and another may luxuriously eat ofter than is profitable to health. Eccl. x. 16, 17, "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of n.o.bles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness." 3. And in point of costliness, the same measure is not to be set to a prince and to a ploughman; that is luxurious excess in one, which may be temperance and frugality in another. But yet, unprofitable cost, which, all things considered, would do more good another way, is excess in whomsoever. 4. And in curiosity of diet a difference must be allowed: the happier healthful man need not be so curious as the sick; and the happy ploughman need not be so curious, as state and expectation somewhat require the n.o.ble and the rich to be. 5. And for length of time, though unnecessary sitting out time at meat be a sin in any, yet the happy poor man is not obliged to spend all out so much this way, as the rich may do. 6.

And it is not all delight in meat, or pleasing the appet.i.te, that is a sin;[397] but only that which is made men's end, and not referred to a higher end; even when the delight itself doth not tend to health, nor alacrity in duty, nor is used to that end, but to please the flesh and tempt unto excess. 7. And it is not necessary that we measure the profitableness of quant.i.ty or quality by the present and immediate benefits; but by the more remote, sometimes: so merciful is G.o.d, that he alloweth us that which is truly for our good, and forbiddeth us but that which doth us hurt, or at least, no good. 8. All sin in eating is not gluttony; but only such as are here described.

II. The causes of gluttony are these: 1. The chiefest is an inordinate appet.i.te, together with a fleshly mind and will, which is set upon flesh-pleasing as its felicity. "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh," Rom. viii. 6, 7. This gulosity, which Clemens Alexandrinus calleth the throat devil, and the belly devil is the first cause.[398]

2. The next cause is, the want of strong reason, faith, and a spiritual appet.i.te and mind, which should call off the glutton, and take him up with higher pleasures; even such as are more manly, and in which his real happiness doth consist. "They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit," Rom. viii. 6. Reason alone may do something to call up a man from this felicity of a beast, (as appeareth by the philosopher's a.s.saults upon the epicures,) but faith and love, which feast the soul with sweeter delicates, must do the cure.

3. Gluttony is much increased by use: when the appet.i.te is used to be satisfied, it will be the more importunate and impetuous; whereas a custom of temperance maketh it easy, and makes excess a matter of no delight, but burden. I remember myself, that when I first set upon the use of Cornaro's and Lessius's diet, as it is called, (which I did for a time, for some special reasons,) it seemed a little hard for two or three days; but within a week it became a pleasure, and another sort, or more was not desirable. And I think almost all that use one dish only, and a small quant.i.ty, do find that more is a trouble and not a temptation to them: so great a matter is use (unless it be with very strong and labouring persons).

4. Idleness and want of diligence in a calling is a great cause of luxury and gluttony. Though labour cause a healthful appet.i.te, yet it cureth a beastly, sensual mind. An idle person hath leisure to think of his guts, what to eat and what to drink, and to be longing after this and that; whereas a man that is wholly taken up in lawful business, especially such as findeth employment for the mind as well as for the body, hath no leisure for such thoughts. He that is close at his studies, or other calling, hath somewhat else to think on than his appet.i.te.

5. Another incentive of gluttony is the pride of rich men, who, to be accounted good housekeepers, and to live at such rates as are agreeable to their grandeur, do make their houses shops of sin, and as bad as alehouses; making their tables a snare both to themselves and others, by fulness, variety, deliciousness, costliness, and curiosity of fare. It is the honour of their houses that a man may drink excessively in their cellars when he please: and that their tables have excellent provisions for gluttony, and put all that sit at them upon the trial of their temperance, whether a bait so near them, and so studiously fitted, can tempt them to break the bounds and measure which G.o.d hath set them.[399] It is a lamentable thing when such as have the rule of others, and influence on the common people, shall think their honour lieth upon their sin; yea, upon such a constant course of sinning; and shall think it a dishonour to them to live in sweet and wholesome temperance, and to see that those about them do the like. And all this is, either because they overvalue the esteem and talk of fleshly epicures, cannot bear the censure of a swine; or else because they are themselves of the same mind, and are such as glory in their shame, Phil. iii. 18, 19.

6. Another incentive is the custom of urging and importuning others to eat still more and more; as if it were a necessary act of friendship.

People are grown so uncharitable and selfish, that they suspect one another, and think they are not welcome, if they be not urged thus to eat; and those that invite them think they must do it to avoid the suspicion of such a sordid mind. And I deny not but it is fit to urge any to that which it is fit for them to do; and if we see that modesty maketh them eat less than is best for them, we may persuade them to eat more. But now, without any due disrespect to what is best for them, men think it a necessary compliment to provoke others more and more to eat, till they peremptorily refuse it: but amongst the familiarest friends, there is scarce any that will admonish one another against excess, and advise them to stop when they have enough, and tell them how easy it is to stop when they have enough, and tell them how easy it is to step beyond our bounds, and how much more p.r.o.ne we are to exceed, than to come short: and so custom and compliment are preferred before temperance and honest fidelity. You will say, What will men think of us if we should not persuade them to eat, much more if we should desire them to eat no more? I answer, 1. Regard your duty more than what men think of you. Prefer virtue before the thoughts or breath of men. 2. But yet if you do it wisely, the wise and good will think much the better of you. You may easily let them see that you do it not in sordid sparing, but in love of temperance and of them; if you speak but when there is need either for eating more or less; and if your discourse be first in general for temperance, and apply it not till you see that they need help in the application. 3. It is undeniable that healthful persons are much more p.r.o.ne to excess, than to the defect in eating, and that nature is very much bent to luxury and gluttony, I think as much as to any one sin; and it is as sure that it is a beastly, breeding, odious sin. And if this be so, is it not clear that we should do a great deal more to help one another against such luxury, than to provoke them to it? Had we not a greater regard to men's favour, and fancies, and reports, than to G.o.d and the good of their souls, the case were soon decided.

7. Another cause of gluttony is, that rich men are not acquainted with the true use of riches, nor think of the account which they must make to G.o.d of all they have.[400] They think that their riches are their own, and that they may use them as they please; or that they are given them as plentiful provisions for their flesh, and they may use them for themselves, to satisfy their own desires, as long as they drop some crumbs, or sc.r.a.ps, or small matters to the poor. They think they may be saved just in the same way that the rich man in Luke xvi. was d.a.m.ned; and he that would have warned his five brethren that they come not to that place of torment, is yet himself no warning to his followers. They are clothed in purple and fine linen or silk, and fare sumptuously or deliciously every day; and have their good things in this life, and perhaps think they merit by giving the sc.r.a.ps to Lazarus (which it is like that rich man also did). But G.o.d will one day make them know, that the richest were but his stewards, and should have made a better distribution of his provisions, and a better improvement of his talents; and that they had nothing of all their riches given them for any hurtful or unprofitable pleasing of their appet.i.tes, nor had more allowance for luxury than the poor. If they knew the right use of riches, it would reform them.

8. Another cause of gluttony is their unacquaintedness with those rational and spiritual exercises in which the delightful fruits of abstinence do most appear. A man that is but a painful, serious student, in any n.o.ble study whatsoever, doth find a great deal of serenity and apt.i.tude come by temperance, and a great deal of cloudy mistiness on his mind and dulness on his invention come by fulness and excess: and a man that is used to holy contemplations, meditation, reading, prayer, self-examination, or any spiritual converse above, or with his heart, doth easily find a very great difference; how abstinence helpeth, and luxury and fulness hinder him. Now these epicures have no acquaintance with any such holy or manly works, nor any mind of them, and are therefore unacquainted with the sweetness and benefit of abstinence; and having no taste or trial of its benefits, they cannot value it. They have nothing to do when they rise from eating, but a little talk about their worldly business, or compliment and talk with company which expect them, or go to their sports to empty their paunches for another meal, and quicken their appet.i.tes lest luxury should decay: as the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, (and as the heathens their G.o.d Bacchus,) Exod. x.x.xii. 6, "They sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."[401] Their diet is fitted to their work; their idle or worldly lives agree with gluttony; but were they accustomed to better work, they would find a necessity of a better diet.

9. Another great cause of gluttony is, men's beastly ignorance of what is hurtful or helpful to their very health:[402] they make their appet.i.tes their rule for the quant.i.ty and quality of their food: and they think that nature teacheth them so to do, because it giveth them such an appet.i.te, and because it is the measure to a beast: and to prove themselves beasts, they therefore take it for their measure; as if their natures were not rational, but only sensitive; or nature had not given them reason to be the superior and governor of sense. As if they knew not that G.o.d giveth the brutes an appet.i.te more bounded, because they have not reason to bound it; and giveth them not the temptation of your delicate varieties; or giveth them a concoction answerable to their appet.i.tes; and yet giveth man to be the rational governor of those of them that are for his special service and apt to exceed: and if his swine, his horses, and his cattle were all left to their appet.i.tes, they would live but a little while.[403] If promiscuous generating be not lawful in mankind, which is lawful in brutes, why should they not confess the same of the appet.i.te. Men have so much love of life and fear of death, that if they did but know how much their gluttony doth hasten their death, it would do more to restrain it with the most, than the fear of death eternal doth. But they judge of their digestion by their present feeling: if they feel not their stomachs sick, or disposed to vomit, or if no present pain correct them, they think they have eaten no more than doth them good.

But of this more anon in the directions.

10. Another great cause of gluttony is, that it is grown the commonest custom, and being not known, is in no disgrace, unless men eat till they spew, or to some extraordinary measure. And so the measure which every man seeth another use, he thinketh is moderation, and is fit for him: whereas the ignorance of physic and matters of their own health, hath made gluttony almost as common as eating, with those that are not restrained by want or sickness. And so every man is an example of evil to another, and encourage one another in the sin. If gluttony were but in as much disgrace as wh.o.r.edom, yea, or as drunkenness is, and as easily known, and as commonly taken notice of, it would contribute much to a common reformation.