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hitherto, such a method must be sought from the assistance of medicine: and Plutarch, speaking of the reaction of the mind upon the body as the cause of those injuries which it requires medicine to repair, very playfully observes, that "should the body sue the mind before a court of judicature for damages, it would be found that the mind had proved to be a ruinous tenant to its landlord."

None, we trust, will infer from what has thus been said of medical assistance, that we approve of that habitual tampering with drugs, or the injudicious perusal of medical books, which is so common with the nervous valetudinarian, by which he only makes his malady the worse.

Exuperat magis, ægrescitque medendo.

The disease is aggravated by the means used to cure it.

Rousseau admitted that this was a powerful cause of hypochondria in respect to himself. "Having read," he says, "a little on physiology, I set about studying anatomy; and passing in review the number and varied actions

of the parts which compose my frame, I expected twenty times a day to feel them going wrong. Far from being astonished at finding myself dying, my wonder was that I could live at all. I did not read the description of any disease which I did not imagine myself to be affected with; and I am sure that if I had not been ill, I must have become so from this fatal study. Finding in every complaint the symptoms of my own, I believed I had got them all, and thereby added another still more intolerable, the fantasy of curing myself." All this private empiricism we would discourage, by directing the sufferer away from these experiments upon himself, to the well-taught physician, that more competent counsellor, who has been designated by Providence. Another important auxiliary to the desponding Christian is

SUITABLE SOCIETY,

or habitual intercourse with others, and especially the devout, who possess a happier temperament.

Whatever cheerful and serene

Supports the mind, supports the body too.

The influence of sympathy, its operation for both evil and good, is familiarly known. "We are all," says Locke, "a kind of chameleon, who take a moral tinge from the objects which surround us." The manifestation of fear or of confidence and self-possession in a time of danger, inspires a corresponding emotion in those who behold it. The "quid times? Cæsarem vehis," or Cæsar's appeal to the affrighted shipmaster, not to be afraid while he was aboard, will occur as a striking illustration; and how we all assimilate in character, as well as in manners, to those with whom we associate, is a fact of daily observation. Hence the salutary effect of a cheerful, sanguine Christian, upon those who are prone to melancholy. As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. His society is exhilarating, like the wine prescribed by Solomon to those that be of heavy hearts. An interview with those of their own morbid tendencies may be advantageous sometimes, by correcting the usual mistake of such believers, that their case is peculiar, or has cer

tain unfavourable characteristics, by which it is placed without the reach of the ordinary means of relief. A comparison of exercises and sentiments is often productive of good, in showing that their condition is not so singular as they had imagined. It is very hard indeed to persuade a person under great pain and anguish, and the sense of the wrath of God, and a fear of hell, that ever any has heretofore been so perplexed as he. Such, generally, think themselves worse than Cain, or Judas, or Simon Magus, and that their sins have greater aggravation. Mr. Rogers says, "I have known several that were long afflicted with trouble of mind, and melancholy-as Mr. Rosewell and Mr. Porter-both ministers, the latter whereof was six years oppressed with this distemper; yet afterwards both rejoiced in the light of God's countenance. I myself was near two years in great pain of body, and greater pain of soul, and without any prospect of peace or help; and yet God hath revived me in his sovereign grace and mercy; and there have been several heretofore sorely perplexed with

great inward and outward trouble, whom God after that wonderfully refreshed. Mr. Robert Bruce, some time ago minister at Edinburgh, was twenty years in terrors of conscience, and yet delivered afterwards." From the prevailing lack of sympathy with which such sufferers meet, many prefer to hide their sorrows in their own bosom, to the risk of opening their heart to those who could poorly appreciate an experience so foreign to their own. Thus the late Captain Benjamin Wickes, of Philadelphia, concealed his long and oppressive melancholy for nearly twenty years, until it was discovered by that devoted servant of Christ, Mr. Joseph Eastburn, whose affectionate conversation and judicious counsels were the means of affording immediate relief.

How far the distressing symptoms of Cowper's malady were mitigated by the delightful society of the Unwins, is easily inferred from his memoirs; nor are any of us so imperturbable in our spiritual temperament, as not to be more or less lifted up or depressed by the joy or sadness of those Christian friends with

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