the country, when they repair to the city, the various vices and irregularities to which they are exposed, as well as sedentary employments, and the various emo-tions of the mind to which they are subject, render these haunts of men fertile sources of these diseases, which the laborious husband-man, in his rustic cottage, has no knowledge of. He may well be reconciled to his poverty and laborious life, when he beholds so many illustrious victims daily suffering worse than death, upon the down of indolence. The particular symptoms which accompany these diseases, are so well described by Whytt, Tissot, and other eminent writers, that I shall content myself with mentioning a few of the most obvious. I hope my readers will pardon me, if I pay more particular attention to this subject than it may seem, to some of them, to deserve; those who have been the victims of this class of diseases, take a pleasure in relating their ills; and, it is always a consolation to fellow-sufferers to hear them.

The state of a person's mind laboring under these diseases, is distinguished by many, or perhaps all the following cir

cumstances:-a languor, listlessness, and want of resolution, with respect to all undertakings; a disposition to seriousness and sadness, and an apprehension of the worst with regard to future events, and consequently, upon the slightest grounds, an apprehension of great evil. Such persons are particularly attentive to the state of their own health, and to every small change of feeling in their bodies; and from any unusual sensation, perhaps of the slightest kind, they apprehend great danger, and even death itself; and, with regard to all these feelings and apprehensions, there is commonly the most obstinate belief and persuasion.* Delicate constitutions, endued with exquisite sensibility are chiefly the victims of nervous disorders; hence we frequently view, with infinite concern, the sex formed to soften and polish our manners, in whose company we forget our natural rudeness, and who communicate to us the social affections, a prey to the bitterest anguish, and the most brooding melancholy. Every temperament and every constitution, is liable to be afflicted with diseases peculiar

* Cullen's First Lines.

to itself. Narrow and confined minds are seldom afflicted with these disorders; shut up in a small circle of ideas, they are only occupied with the wants of the moment; but melancholy loves to vent her fury on superior intellects, born to enlighten their kind, or to preside over the fate of empires.* Nature has bestowed her gifts with greater equality than is generally imagined; to some she distributes enlightened understandings, and calls them from obscurity to the first dignities; but she makes them pay dearly for her kindness, by devouring inquietude and painful sensibility; while she permits the soul on which she has bestowed less pains, to enjoy calmly the various vicissitudes of life.

If it be difficult entirely to eradicate these complaints, it is certainly possible to point out proper methods for preventing them, and to fix a boundary to their ravages. They almost all depend on debility, and are induced by every cause that can relax or weaken the habit, such as intemperance, a sedentary life, and too

* Seè Avis aux buveurs d'eaux minèrales affligès de maux de nerfs.

close application to study or business; the use of coffee, tea, tobacco, and spiritous liquors; but perhaps the most common cause, and the effects of which are the most difficult to remove, is to be looked for in the mind.

The passions and emotions of the soul, when exercised with moderation, and kept within proper bounds, are the sources of life and activity. Without these precious affections, we should be reduced to a kind of vegetation, equally removed from pleasure and from pain. For want of these -elastic springs, the animal spirits would lose their regularity and play; life would become a lethargic sleep, and we should fall into indifference and languor.

If then the passions be so necessary to the support of the health of the body, when in a proper degree; can we expect that when they are inordinate and excessive, we shall escape with impunity? Tumultuous passions are like torrents which overflow their bounds, and overturn every thing before them; and, mournful experience convinces us, that disorders communicated to the mind, likewise affect the

body; we ought, therefore, to be particu larly on our guard against the passions:

""Tis the great art of life, to manage well
"The restless mind."

It is particularly in their infancy, if we may so call it, that we ought to be upon our guard against their seduction; they are then soothing and insidious; but, if we suffer them to gain strength, and establish their empire, reason obscured and overcome, rests in a shameful dependance on the senses; her light becomes too faint to be seen, and her voice too feeble to be heard; and the soul hurried on by an impulse to which no obstacle has been presented, communicates to the body it's languor and debility. Next to the regulation of the passions, exercise in the open air and agreeable amusement promise the most relief. At Harrogate, the keenness and purity of the air, the agreeable mixture of company, and the number of pleasant rides in the neighbourhood, are admirably adapted to the cure of these diseases; when we add to these the bracing powers of the chalybeate waters, I think there are but few hypochondriacs who will not