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diff --git a/37640.txt b/37640.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07d284d --- /dev/null +++ b/37640.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2476 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Health, by John Brown + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Health + Five Lay Sermons to Working-People + +Author: John Brown + +Release Date: October 5, 2011 [EBook #37640] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEALTH *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + He is not far from every one of us. For in Him we live + and move not less than in Him we have our being. + + "Out of darkness comes the hand + Reaching through nature,--moulding man." + + + + + _HEALTH:_ + + FIVE LAY SERMONS TO WORKING-PEOPLE. + + BY + + JOHN BROWN, M.D. + + + BOSTON: + JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, + _Late Ticknor and Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co._ + 1877. + + + _Affectionately inscribed to the memory of the_ REV. JAMES + TRENCH, _the heart and soul of the Canongate Mission, who, while + he preached a pure and a fervent gospel to its heathens, taught + them also and therefore to respect and save their health, and + was the Originator and Keeper of their Library and Penny Bank, + as well as their Minister._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Three of these sermons were written for, and (shall I say?) preached +some years ago, in one of the earliest missionary stations in Edinburgh, +established by Broughton Place Congregation, and presided over at that +time by the Reverend James Trench; one of the best human beings it was +ever my privilege to know. He is dead; dying in and of his work,--from +typhus fever caught at the bedside of one of his poor members--but he +lives in the hearts of many a widow and fatherless child; and lives +also, I doubt not, in the immediate vision of Him to do whose will was +his meat and his drink. Given ten thousand such men, how would the +crooked places be made straight, and the rough places plain, the +wildernesses of city wickedness, the solitary places of sin and despair, +of pain and shame, be made glad! This is what is to regenerate mankind; +this is the leaven that some day is to leaven the lump. + +The other two sermons were never preached, except in print; but they +were composed in the same key. I say this not in defence, but in +explanation. I have tried to speak to working men and women from my lay +pulpit, in the same words, with the same voice, with the same thoughts I +was in the habit of using when doctoring them. This is the reason of +their plain speaking. There is no other way of reaching these sturdy and +weather and work-beaten understandings; there is nothing fine about them +outside, though they are often as white in the skin under their clothes +as a duchess, and their hearts as soft and tender as Jonathan's, or as +Rachel's, or our own Grizel Baillie's; but you must speak out to them, +and must not be mealy-mouthed if you wish to reach their minds and +affections and wills. I wish the gentlefolks could hear and could use a +little more of this outspokenness; and, as old Porson said, condescend +to call a spade a spade, and not a horticultural implement; five letters +instead of twenty-two, and more to the purpose. + +You see, my dear working friends, I am great upon sparing your strength +and taking things cannily. "All very well," say you; "it is easy +speaking, and saying, Take it easy; but if the pat's on the fire it maun +bile." It must, but you needn't poke up the fire forever, and you may +now and then set the kettle on the hob, and let it sing, instead of +leaving it to burn its bottom out. + +I had a friend who injured himself by overwork. One day I asked the +servant if any person had called, and was told that some one had. "Who +was it?" "O, it's the little gentleman that _aye rins when he walks_!" +So I wish this age would walk more and "rin" less. A man can walk +farther and longer than he can run, and it is poor saving to get out of +breath. A man who lives to be seventy, and has ten children and (say) +five-and-twenty grandchildren, is of more worth to the state than three +men who die at thirty, it is to be hoped unmarried. However slow a coach +seventy may have been, and however energetic and go-ahead the three +thirties, I back the tortoise against the hares in the long run. + +I am constantly seeing men who suffer, and indeed die, from living too +fast; from true though not consciously immoral dissipation or scattering +of their lives. Many a man is bankrupt in constitution at forty-five, +and either takes out a _cessio_ of himself to the grave, or goes on +paying ten per cent for his stock-in-trade; he spends his capital +instead of merely spending what he makes, or better still, laying up a +purse for the days of darkness and old age. A queer man, forty years +ago,--Mr. Slate, or, as he was called, _Sclate_, who was too clever and +not clever enough, and had not wisdom to use his wit, always scheming, +full of "go," but never getting on,--was stopped by his friend, Sir +Walter Scott,--that wonderful friend of us all, to whom we owe Jeanie +Deans and Rob Roy, Meg Merrilies and Dandie Dinmont, Jinglin' Geordie, +Cuddie Headrigg, and the immortal Baillie,--one day in Princess Street. +"How are ye getting on, Sclate?" "Oo, just the auld thing, Sir Walter; +_ma pennies a' gang on tippenny eerands_." And so it is with our nervous +power, with our vital capital, with the pence of life; many of them go +on "tippenny eerands." We are forever getting our bills renewed, till +down comes the poor and damaged concern with dropsy or consumption, +blazing fever, madness, or palsy. There is a Western Banking system in +living, in using our bodily organs, as well as in paper-money. But I am +running off into another sermon. + +Health of mind and body, next to a good conscience, is the best blessing +our Maker can give us, and to no one is it more immediately valuable +than to the laboring man and his wife and children; and indeed a good +conscience is just moral health, the wholeness of the sense and the +organ of duty; for let us never forget that there is a religion of the +body, as well as, and greatly helpful of, the religion of the soul. We +are to glorify God in our souls and in our bodies, for the best of all +reasons, _because they are his_, and to remember that at last we must +give account, not only of our thoughts and spiritual desires and acts, +but _all the deeds done in our body_. A husband who, in the morning +before going to his work, would cut his right hand off sooner than +injure the wife of his bosom, strangles her that same night when mad +with drink; that is a deed done in his body, and truly by his body, for +his judgment is gone; and for that he must give an account when his name +is called; his judgment was gone; but then, as the child of a drunken +murderer said to me, "A' but, sir, wha goned it?" I am not a teetotaler. +I am against teetotalism as a doctrine of universal application; I think +we are meant to use these things as not abusing them,--this is one of +the disciplines of life; but I not the less am sure that drunkenness +ruins men's bodies,--it is not for me to speak of souls,--is a greater +cause of disease and misery, poverty, crime, and death among the +laboring men and women of our towns, than consumption, fever, cholera, +and all their tribe, with thieving and profligacy and improvidence +thrown into the bargain: these slay their thousands; this its tens of +thousands. Do you ever think of the full meaning of "he's the waur o' +drink?" How much the waur?--and then "dead drunk,"--"mortal." Can there +be anything more awfully significant than these expressions you hear +from children in the streets? + + * * * * * + +You will see in the woodcut a good illustration of the circulation of +the blood: both that through our lungs, by which we breathe and burn, +and that through the whole body, by which we live and build. That hand +grasps the heart, the central depot, with its valves opening out and in, +and, by its contraction and relaxation, makes the living fluid circulate +everywhere, carrying in strength, life, and supply to all, and carrying +off waste and harm. None of you will be the worse of thinking of that +hand as His who makes, supports, moves, and governs all things,--that +hand which, while it wheels the rolling worlds, gathers the lambs with +his arm, carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with +young, and which was once nailed for "our advantage on the bitter +cross." + + J. B. + 23 RUTLAND STREET, + December 16, 1861. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Preface + + SERMON I. THE DOCTOR: OUR DUTIES TO HIM + + " II. THE DOCTOR: HIS DUTIES TO YOU + + " III. CHILDREN, AND HOW TO GUIDE THEM + + " IV. HEALTH + + " V. MEDICAL ODDS AND ENDS + + + + +HEALTH. + + + + +SERMON I. + +THE DOCTOR: OUR DUTIES TO HIM. + + +Everybody knows the Doctor; a very important person he is to us all. +What could we do without him? He brings us into this world, and tries to +keep us as long in it as he can, and as long as our bodies can hold +together; and he is with us at that strange and last hour which will +come to us all, when we must leave this world and go into the next. + +When we are well, we perhaps think little about the Doctor, or we have +our small joke at him and his drugs; but let anything go wrong with our +body, that wonderful tabernacle in which our soul dwells, let any of its +wheels go wrong, then off we fly to him. If the mother thinks her +husband or her child dying, how she runs to him, and urges him with her +tears! how she watches his face, and follows his searching eye, as he +examines the dear sufferer; how she wonders what he thinks,--what would +she give to know what he knows! how she wearies for his visit! how a +cheerful word from him makes her heart leap with joy, and gives her +spirit and strength to watch over the bed of distress! Her whole soul +goes out to him in unspeakable gratitude when he brings back to her from +the power of the grave her husband or darling child. The Doctor knows +many of our secrets, of our sorrows, which no one else knows,--some of +our sins, perhaps, which the great God alone else knows; how many cares +and secrets, how many lives, he carries in his heart and in his hands! +So you see he is a very important person the Doctor, and we should do +our best to make the most of him, and to do our duty to him and to +ourselves. + +A thinking man feels often painfully what a serious thing it is to be a +doctor, to have the charge of the lives of his fellow-mortals, to stand, +as it were, between them and death and eternity and the judgment-seat, +and to fight hand to hand with Death. One of the best men and greatest +physicians that ever lived, Dr. Sydenham, says, in reference to this, +and it would be well if all doctors, young and old, would consider his +words:-- + +"It becomes every man who purposes to give himself to the care of +others, seriously to consider the four following things: _First_, That +he must one day give an account to the Supreme Judge of all the lives +intrusted to his care. _Secondly_, That all his skill and knowledge and +energy, as they have been given him by God, so they should be exercised +for his glory and the good of mankind, and not for mere gain or +ambition. _Thirdly_, and not more beautifully than truly, Let him +reflect that he has undertaken the care of no mean creature, for, in +order that we may estimate the value, the greatness of the human race, +the only begotten Son of God became himself a man, and thus ennobled it +with his divine dignity, and, far more than this, died to redeem it; and +_Fourthly_, That the Doctor, being himself a mortal man, should be +diligent and tender in relieving his suffering patients, inasmuch as he +himself must one day be a like sufferer." + +I shall never forget a proof I myself got twenty years ago, how serious +a thing it is to be a doctor, and how terribly in earnest people are +when they want him. It was when cholera first came here in 1832. I was +in England at Chatham, which you all know is a great place for ships and +sailors. This fell disease comes on generally in the night; as the Bible +says, "it walks in darkness," and many a morning was I roused at two +o'clock to go and see its sudden victims, for then is its hour and +power. One morning a sailor came to say I must go three miles down the +river to a village where it had broken out with great fury. Off I set. +We rowed in silence down the dark river, passing the huge hulks, and +hearing the restless convicts turning in their beds in their chains. +The men rowed with all their might: they had too many dying or dead at +home to have the heart to speak to me. We got near the place; it was +very dark, but I saw a crowd of men and women on the shore, at the +landing-place. They were all shouting for the Doctor; the shrill cries +of the women, and the deep voices of the men coming across the water to +me. We were near the shore, when I saw a big old man, his hat off, his +hair gray, his head bald; he said nothing, but turning them all off with +his arm, he plunged into the sea, and before I knew where I was, he had +me in his arms. I was helpless as an infant. He waded out with me, +carrying me high up in his left arm, and with his right levelling every +man or woman who stood in his way. + +It was Big Joe carrying me to see his grandson, little Joe; and he bore +me off to the poor convulsed boy, and dared me to leave him till he was +better. He did get better, but Big Joe was dead that night. He had the +disease on him when he carried me away from the boat, but his heart was +set upon his boy. I never can forget that night, and how important a +thing it was to be able to relieve suffering, and how much Old Joe was +in earnest about having the Doctor. + +Now, I want you to consider how important the Doctor is to you. Nobody +needs him so much as the poor and laboring man. He is often ill. He is +exposed to hunger and wet and cold, and to fever, and to all the +diseases of hard labor and poverty. His work is heavy, and his heart is +often heavy, too, with misery of all kinds,--his heart weary with its +burden,--his hands and limbs often meeting with accidents,--and you know +if the poor man, if one of you falls ill and takes fever, or breaks his +leg, it is a far more serious thing than with a richer man. Your health +and strength are all you have to depend on; they are your +stock-in-trade, your capital. Therefore I shall ask you to remember +_four things_ about your duty to the Doctor, so as to get the most good +out of him, and do the most good to him too. + +_1st_, It is your duty to trust the Doctor; + +_2dly_, It is your duty to obey the Doctor; + +_3dly_, It is your duty to speak the truth to the Doctor, the whole +truth, and nothing but the truth; and, + +_4thly_, It is your duty to reward the Doctor. + +And so now for the _first_. It is your duty to _trust_ the Doctor, that +is, to believe in him. If you were in a ship, in a wild storm, and among +dangerous rocks, and if you took a pilot on board, who knew all the +coast and all the breakers, and had a clear eye, and a firm heart, and a +practised hand, would you not let him have his own way? would you think +of giving him your poor advice, or keep his hand from its work at the +helm? You would not be such a fool, or so uncivil, or so mad. And yet +many people do this very same sort of thing, just because they don't +really trust their Doctor; and a doctor is a pilot for your bodies when +they are in a storm and in distress. He takes the helm, and does his +best to guide you through a fever; but he must have fair play; he must +be trusted even in the dark. It is wonderful what cures the very sight +of a doctor will work, if the patient believes in him; it is half the +battle. His very face is as good as a medicine, and sometimes +better,--and much pleasanter too. + +One day a laboring man came to me with indigestion. He had a sour and +sore stomach, and heartburn, and the water-brash, and wind, and colic, +and wonderful misery of body and mind. I found he was eating bad food, +and too much of it; and then, when its digestion gave him pain, he took +a glass of raw whiskey. I made him promise to give up his bad food and +his worse whiskey, and live on pease-brose and sweet milk, and I wrote +him a prescription, as we call it, for some medicine, and said, "Take +_that_, and come back in a fortnight and you will be well." He did come +back, hearty and hale;--no colic, no sinking at the heart, a clean +tongue, and a cool hand, and a firm step, and a clear eye, and a happy +face. I was very proud of the wonders my prescription had done; and +having forgotten what it was, I said, "Let me see what I gave you." +"O," says he, "I took it." "Yes," said I, "but the prescription." "_I +took it_, as you bade me. I swallowed it." He had actually eaten the bit +of paper, and been all that the better of it; but it would have done him +little, at least less good had he not trusted me when I said he would be +better, and attended to my rules. + +So, take my word for it, and trust your Doctor; it is his due, and it is +for your own advantage. Now, our next duty is to _obey_ the Doctor. This +you will think is simple enough. What use is there in calling him in, if +we don't do what he bids us? and yet nothing is more common--partly from +laziness and sheer stupidity, partly from conceit and suspiciousness, +and partly, in the case of children, from false kindness and +indulgence--than to disobey the Doctor's orders. Many a child have I +seen die from nothing but the mother's not liking to make her swallow a +powder, or put on a blister; and let me say, by the by, teach your +children at once to obey you, and take the medicine. Many a life is lost +from this, and remember you may make even Willie Winkie take his +castor-oil in spite of his cries and teeth, _by holding his nose_, so +that he must swallow. + +_Thirdly, You should tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but +the truth_, to your Doctor. He may be never so clever, and never so +anxious, but he can no more know how to treat a case of illness without +knowing all about it, than a miller can make meal without corn; and many +a life have I seen lost from the patient or his friends concealing +something that was true, or telling something that was false. The +silliness of this is only equal to its sinfulness and its peril. + +I remember, in connection with that place where Big Joe lived and died, +a singular proof of the perversity of people in not telling the Doctor +the truth,--as you know people are apt to send for him in cholera when +it is too late, when it is a death rather than a disease. But there is +an early stage, called premonitory,--or warning,--when medicines can +avail. I summoned all the people of that fishing-village who were well, +and told them this, and asked them if they had any of the symptoms. They +all denied having any (this is a peculiar feature in that terrible +disease, they are afraid to _let on_ to themselves, or even the Doctor, +that they are "in for it"), though from their looks and from their going +away while I was speaking, I knew they were not telling the truth. Well, +I said, "You must, at any rate, every one of you take some of this," +producing a bottle of medicine. I will not tell you what it was, as you +should never take drugs at your own hands, but it is simple and cheap. I +made every one take it; only one woman going away without taking any; +she was the only one of all those _who died_. + +_Lastly, It is your duty to reward_ your Doctor. There are four ways of +rewarding your Doctor. The first is by giving him your money; the second +is by giving him your gratitude; the third is by your doing his bidding; +and the fourth is by speaking well of him, giving him a good name, +recommending him to others. Now, I know few if any of you can pay your +Doctor, and it is a great public blessing that in this country you will +always get a good Doctor willing to attend you for nothing, and this +_is_ a great blessing; but let me tell you,--I don't think I need tell +you,--try and pay him, be it ever so little. It does you good as well as +him; it keeps up your self-respect; it raises you in your own eye, in +your neighbor's, and, what is best, in your God's eye, because it is +doing what is right. The "man of independent mind," be he never so poor, +is "king of men for a' that"; ay, and "for twice and mair than a' that"; +and to pay his way is one of the proudest things a poor man can say, and +he may say it oftener than he thinks he can. And then let me tell you, +as a bit of cool, worldly wisdom, that your Doctor will do you all the +more good, and make a better job of your cure, if he gets something, +some money for his pains; it is human nature and common sense, this. It +is wonderful how much real kindness and watching and attendance and +cleanliness you may get _for so many shillings a week_. Nursing is a +much better article at that,--much,--than at _nothing_ a week. But I +pass on to the other ways of paying or rewarding your Doctor, and, above +all, _to gratitude_. + +Honey is not sweeter in your mouths, and light is not more pleasant to +your eyes, and music to your ears, and a warm, cosey bed is not more +welcome to your wearied legs and head, than is the honest, deep +gratitude of the poor to the young Doctor. It is his glory, his reward; +he fills himself with it, and wraps himself all round with it as with a +cloak, and goes on in his work, happy and hearty; and the gratitude of +the poor is worth the having, and worth the keeping, and worth the +remembering. Twenty years ago I attended old Sandie Campbell's wife in a +fever, in Big Hamilton's Close in the Grassmarket,--two worthy, kindly +souls they were and are. (Sandie is dead now.) By God's blessing, the +means I used saved "oor Kirsty's" life, and I made friends of these two +forever; Sandie would have fought for me if need be, and Kirsty would do +as good. I can count on them as my friends, and when I pass the +close-mouth in the West Port, where they now live, and are thriving, +keeping their pigs, and their hoary old cuddie and cart, I get a +courtesy from Kirsty, and see her look after me, and turn to the women +beside her, and I know exactly what she is saying to them about "Dr. +Broon." And when I meet old Sandie, with his ancient and long-lugged +friend, driving the draff from the distillery for his swine, I see his +gray eye brighten and glisten, and he looks up and gives his manly and +cordial nod, and goes on his way, and I know that he is saying to +himself, "God bless him! he saved my Kirsty's life," and he runs back in +his mind all those twenty past years, and lays out his heart on all he +remembers, and that does him good and me too, and nobody any ill. +Therefore, give your gratitude to your Doctor, and remember him, like +honest Sandie; it will not lose its reward and it costs you nothing; it +is one of those things you can give and never be a bit the poorer, but +all the richer. + +One person I would earnestly warn you against, and that is the _Quack +Doctor_. If the real Doctor is a sort of God of healing, or rather our +God's cobbler for the body, the Quack is the Devil for the body, or +rather the Devil's servant against the body. And like his father, he is +a great liar and cheat. He offers you what he cannot give. Whenever you +see a medicine that cures everything, be sure it cures nothing; and +remember, it may kill. The Devil promised our Saviour all the kingdoms +of the world if he would fall down and worship him; now this was a lie, +he could not give him any such thing. Neither can the Quack give you his +kingdoms of health, even though you worship him as he best likes, by +paying him for his trash; he is dangerous and dear, and often +deadly,--have nothing to do with him. + +We have our duties to one another, yours to me, and mine to you: but we +have all our duty to one else,--to Almighty God, who is beside us at +this very moment--who followed us all this day, and knew all we did and +didn't do, what we thought and didn't think,--who will watch over us all +this night,--who is continually doing us good,--who is waiting to be +gracious to us,--who is the great Physician, whose saving health will +heal all our diseases, and redeem our life from destruction, and crown +us with loving-kindness and tender mercies,--who can make death the +opening into a better life, the very gate of heaven; that same death +which is to all of us the most awful and most certain of all things, and +at whose door sits its dreadful king, with that javelin, that sting of +his, which is sin, our own sin. Death would be nothing without sin, no +more than falling asleep in the dark to awake to the happy light of the +morning. Now, I would have you think of your duty to this great God, our +Father in heaven; and I would have you to remember that it is your duty +to trust him, to believe in him. If you do not, your soul will be +shipwrecked, you will go down in terror and in darkness. + +It is your duty to _obey_ him. Whom else in all this world should you +obey, if not him? and who else so easily pleased, if we only do obey? +It is your duty to speak the truth to him, not that he needs any man to +tell him anything. He knows everything about everybody; nobody can keep +a secret from him. But he hates lies; he abhors a falsehood. He is the +God of truth, and must be dealt honestly with, in sincerity and godly +fear; and, lastly, you must in a certain sense _reward_ him. You cannot +give him money, for the silver and gold, the cattle upon a thousand +hills, are all his already, but you can give him your grateful lives; +you can give him your hearts; and as old Mr. Henry says, "Thanksgiving +is good, but thanks-living is better." + +One word more; you should call your Doctor early. It saves time; it +saves suffering; it saves trouble; it saves life. If you saw a fire +beginning in your house, you would put it out as fast as you could. You +might perhaps be able to blow out with your breath what in an hour the +fire-engine could make nothing of. So it is with disease and the Doctor. +A disease in the morning when beginning is like the fire beginning; a +dose of medicine, some simple thing, may put it out, when if left alone, +before night it may be raging hopelessly, like the fire if left alone, +and leaving your body dead and in the ruins in a few hours. So, call in +the Doctor soon; it saves him much trouble, and may save you your life. + +And let me end by asking you to call in the Great Physician; to call him +instantly, to call him in time; there is not a moment to lose. He is +waiting to be called; he is standing at the door. But he must be +_called_,--he may be called too late. + + + + +SERMON II. + +THE DOCTOR: HIS DUTIES TO YOU. + + +You remember our last sermon was mostly about your duties to the Doctor. +I am now going to speak about his duties to you; for you know it is a +law of our life, that there are no one-sided duties,--they are all +double. It is like shaking hands, there must be two at it; and both of +you ought to give a hearty grip and a hearty shake. You owe much to +many, and many owe much to you. The Apostle says, "Owe no man anything +but to love one another"; but if you owe that, you must be forever +paying it; it is always due, always running on; and the meanest and most +helpless, the most forlorn, can always pay and be paid in that coin, and +in paying can buy more than he thought of. Just as a farthing candle, +twinkling out of a cotter's window, and, it may be, guiding the gudeman +home to his wife and children, sends its rays out into the infinite +expanse of heaven, and thus returns, as it were, the light of the +stars, which are many of them suns. You cannot pass any one on the +street to whom you are not bound by this law. If he falls down, you help +to raise him. You do your best to relieve him, and get him home; and let +me tell you, to your great gain and honor, the poor are far more ready +and better at this sort of work than the gentlemen and ladies. You do +far more for each other than they do. You will share your last loaf; you +will sit up night after night with a neighbor you know nothing about, +just because he is your neighbor, and you know what it is to be +neighbor-like. You are more natural and less selfish than the fine +folks. I don't say you are better, neither do I say you are worse; that +would be a foolish and often mischievous way of speaking. We have all +virtues and vices and advantages peculiar to our condition. You know the +queer old couplet,-- + + "Them what is rich, them rides in chaises; + Them what is poor, them walks like blazes." + +If you were well, and not in a hurry, and it were cold, would you not +much rather "walk like blazes" than ride listless in your chaise? But +this I know, for I have seen it, that according to their means, the poor +bear one another's burdens far more than the rich. + +There are many reasons for this, outside of yourselves, and there is no +need of your being proud of it or indeed of anything else; but it is +something to be thankful for, in the midst of all your hardships, that +you in this have more of the power and of the luxury of doing immediate, +visible good. You pay this debt in ready-money, as you do your meal and +your milk; at least you have very short credit, and the shorter the +better. Now, the Doctor has his duties to you, and it is well that he +should know them, and that you should know them too; for it will be long +before you and he can do without each other. You keep each other alive. +Disease, accidents, pain, and death reign everywhere, and we call one +another _mortals_, as if our chief peculiarity was that we must die, and +you all know how death came into this world. "By one man sin entered the +world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all +have sinned"; and disease, disorder, and distress are the fruits of sin, +as truly as that apple grew on that forbidden tree. You have nowadays +all sorts of schemes for making bad men good, and good men better. The +world is full of such schemes, some of them wise and some foolish; but +to be wise they must all go on the principle of lessening misery by +lessening _sin_; so that the old weaver at Kilmarnock, who at a meeting +for abolishing slavery, the corn laws, and a few more things, said, "Mr. +Preses, I move that we abolish Original Sin," was at least beginning at +the right end. Only fancy what a world it would be, what a family any of +ours would be, when everybody did everything that was right, and nothing +that was wrong, say for a week! The world would not know itself. It +would be inclined to say with the "wee bit wifiekie," though reversing +the cause, "This is no me." I am not going to say more on this point. It +is not my parish. But you need none of you be long ignorant of who it is +who has abolished death, and therefore vanquished sin. + +Well, then, it is the duty of the Doctor in the first place, to _cure +us_; in the second, _to be kind to us_; in the third, to be _true to +us_; in the fourth, to keep _our secrets_; in the fifth, to _warn us_, +and, best of all, to _forewarn us_; in the sixth, to _be grateful to +us_; and, in the last, to _keep his time and his temper_. + +And, _first_, it is the duty of the Doctor to _cure_ you,--if he can. +That is what we call him in for; and a doctor, be he never so clever and +delightful, who doesn't cure, is like a mole-catcher who can't catch +moles, or a watchmaker who can do everything but make your watch go. Old +Dr. Pringle of Perth, when preaching in the country, found his shoes +needed mending, and he asked the brother whom he was assisting to tell +him of good cobbler, or as he called him, a _snab_. His friend mentioned +a "Tammas Rattray, a godly man, and an elder." "But," said Dr. Pringle, +in his snell way, "can he mend my shoon? that's what I want; I want a +shoemaker; I'm not wanting an elder." It turned out that Tammas was a +better elder than a shoemaker. A doctor was once attending a poor woman +in labor; it was a desperate case, requiring a cool head and a firm +will; the good man--for he _was_ good--had neither of these, and, losing +his presence of mind, gave up the poor woman as lost, and retired into +the next room to pray for her. Another doctor, who, perhaps, wanted what +the first one had, and certainly had what he wanted, brains and courage, +meanwhile arrived, and called out, "Where is Doctor ----?" "O, he has +gone into the next room to pray!" "Pray! tell him to come here this +moment, and help me; he can work and pray too"; and with his assistance +the snell doctor saved that woman's life. This, then, is the Doctor's +first duty to you,--to cure you,--and for this he must, in the first +place, be up to his business; he must know what to do, and, secondly, he +must be able to do it; he must not merely do as a pointer dog does, +stand and say, "There it is," and no more, he must point and shoot too. +And let me tell you, moreover, that unless a man likes what he is at, +and is in earnest, and sticks to it, he will no more make a good doctor +than a good anything else. Doctoring is not only a way for a man to do +good by curing disease, and to get money to himself for doing this, but +it is also a study which interests for itself alone, like geology, or +any other science; and moreover it is a way to fame and the glory of the +world; all these four things act upon the mind of the Doctor, but unless +the first one is uppermost, his patient will come off second-best with +him; he is not the man for your lives or for your money. + +They tell a story, which may not be word for word true, but it has truth +and a great principle in it, as all good stories have. It is told of one +of our clever friends, the French, who are so knowing in everything. A +great French doctor was taking an English one round the wards of his +hospital; all sort of miseries going on before them, some dying, others +longing for death, all ill; the Frenchman was wonderfully eloquent about +all their diseases, you would have thought he saw through them, and knew +all their secret wheels like looking into a watch or into a glass +beehive. He told his English friend what would be seen in such a case, +_when the body was opened_! He spent some time in this sort of work, and +was coming out, full of glee, when the other doctor said: "But, Doctor +----, you haven't _prescribed_ for these cases." "O, neither I have!" +said he, with a grumph and a shrug; "I quite forgot _that_"; that being +the one thing why these poor people were there, and why he was there +too. Another story of a Frenchman, though I dare say we could tell it of +ourselves. He was a great professor, and gave a powerful poison as a +medicine for an ugly disease of the skin. He carried it very far, so as +to weaken the poor fellow, who died, just as the last vestige of the +skin disease died too. On looking at the dead body, quite smooth and +white, and also quite dead, he said, "Ah, never mind; he was _dead +cured_." + +So let me advise you, as, indeed, your good sense will advise +yourselves, to test a Doctor by this: Is he in earnest? Does he speak +little and do much? Does he make your case his first care? He may, after +that, speak of the weather, or the money-market; he may gossip, and even +_haver_; or he may drop, quietly and shortly, some "good words,"--the +fewer the better; something that causes you to think and feel; and may +teach you to be more of the Publican than of the Pharisee, in that story +you know of, when they two went up to the temple to pray; but, generally +speaking, the Doctor should, like the rest of us, stick to his trade and +mind his business. + +_Secondly_, It is the Doctor's duty to be _kind_ to you. I mean by this, +not only to speak kindly, but to _be_ kind, which includes this and a +great deal more, though a kind word, as well as a merry heart, does good +like a medicine. Cheerfulness, or rather cheeriness, is a great thing in +a Doctor; his very foot should have "music in't, when he comes up the +stair." The Doctor should never lose his power of pitying pain, and +letting his patient see this and feel it. Some men, and they are often +the best at their proper work, can let their hearts come out only +through their eyes; but it is not the less sincere, and to the point; +you can make your mouth say what is not true; you can't do quite so much +with your eyes. A Doctor's eye should command, as well as comfort and +cheer his patient; he should never let him think disobedience or despair +possible. Perhaps you think Doctors get hardened by seeing so much +suffering; this is not true. Pity as a motive, as well as a feeling +ending in itself, is stronger in an old Doctor than in a young, so he be +made of the right stuff. He comes to know himself what pain and sorrow +mean, what their weight is, and how grateful he was or is for relief and +sympathy. + +_Thirdly_, It is his duty to be _true_ to you. True in word and in deed. +He ought to speak nothing but the truth, as to the nature, and extent, +and issues of the disease he is treating; but he is not bound, as I said +you were, to tell _the whole truth_,--that is for his own wisdom and +discretion to judge of; only, never let him tell an untruth, and let him +be honest enough, when he can't say anything definite, to say nothing. +It requires some courage to confess our ignorance, but it is worth it. +As to the question, often spoken of,--telling a man he is dying,--the +Doctor must, in the first place, be sure the patient is dying; and, +secondly, that it is for his good, bodily and mental, to tell him so: he +should almost always warn the friends, but, even here, cautiously. + +_Fourthly_, It is his duty to _keep your secrets_. There are things a +Doctor comes to know and is told which no one but he and the Judge of +all should know; and he is a base man, and unworthy to be in such a +noble profession as that of healing, who can betray what he knows must +injure, and in some cases may ruin. + +_Fifthly_, It is his duty to _warn_ you against what is injuring your +health. If he finds his patient has brought disease upon himself by sin, +by drink, by overwork, by over-eating, by over-anything, it is his duty +to say so plainly and firmly, and the same with regard to the treatment +of children by their parents; the family doctor should forewarn them; he +should explain, as far as he is able and they can comprehend them, the +Laws of Health, and so tell them how to _prevent disease_, as well as do +his best to _cure_ it. What a great and rich field there is here for our +profession, if they and the public could only work well together! In +this, those queer, half-daft, half-wise beings, the Chinese, take a +wiser way; they pay their Doctor for keeping them well, and they stop +his pay as long as they are ill! + +_Sixthly_, It is his duty to be _grateful_ to you; 1st, for employing +him, whether you pay him in money or not, for a Doctor, worth being +one, makes capital, makes knowledge, and therefore power, out of every +case he has; 2dly, for obeying him and getting better. I am always very +much obliged to my patients for being so kind as to be better, and for +saying so; for many are ready enough to say they are worse, not so many +to say they are better, even when they are; and you know our Scotch way +of saying, "I'm no that ill," when "I" is in high health, or, "I'm no +ony waur," when "I" is much better. Don't be niggards in this; it cheers +the Doctor's heart, and it will lighten yours. + +_Seventhly_, and lastly, It is the Doctor's duty _to keep his time and +his temper_ with you. Any man or woman who knows how longed for a +doctor's visit is, and counts on it to a minute, knows how wrong, how +painful, how angering it is for the Doctor not to keep his time. Many +things may occur, for his urgent cases are often sudden, to put him out +of his reckoning; but it is wonderful what method, and real +consideration, and a strong will can do in this way. I never found Dr. +Abercrombie a minute after or _before_ his time (both are bad, though +one is the worser), and yet if I wanted him in a hurry, and stopped his +carriage in the street, he could always go with me at once; he had the +knack and the principle of being true in his times, for it is often a +matter of _truth_. And the Doctor must keep his _temper_: this is often +worse to manage than even his time, there is so much unreason, and +ingratitude, and peevishness, and impertinence, and impatience, that it +is very hard to keep one's tongue and eye from being angry: and +sometimes the Doctor does not only well, but the best, when he is +downrightly angry, and astonishes some fool, or some insolent, or some +untruth doing or saying patient; but the Doctor should be patient with +his patients, he should bear with them, knowing how much they are at the +moment suffering. Let us remember Him who is full of compassion, whose +compassion never fails; whose tender mercies are new to us every +morning, as his faithfulness is every night; who healed all manner of +diseases, and was kind to the unthankful and the evil; what would become +of us, if he were as impatient with us as we often are with each other? +If you want to be impressed with the Almighty's infinite loving-kindness +and tender mercy, his forbearance, his long-suffering patience, his +slowness to anger, his Divine ingeniousness in trying to find it +possible to spare and save, think of the Israelites in the desert, and +read the chapter where Abraham intercedes with God for Sodom, and these +wonderful "peradventures." + +But I am getting tedious, and keeping you and myself too long, so good +night. Let the Doctor and you be honest and grateful, and kind and +cordial, in one word, dutiful to each other, and you will each be the +better of the other. + +I may by and by say a word or two to you on your _Health_, which is your +wealth, that by which you are and do well, and on your _Children_, and +how to guide it and them. + + + + +SERMON III. + +CHILDREN, AND HOW TO GUIDE THEM. + + +Our text at this time is Children and their treatment, or as it sounds +better to our ears, Bairns, and how to guide them. You all know the +wonder and astonishment there is in a house among its small people when +a baby is born; how they stare at the new arrival with its red face. +Where does it come from? Some tell them it comes from the garden, from a +certain kind of cabbage; some from "Rob Rorison's bonnet," of which wha +hasna heard? some from that famous wig of Charlie's, in which the cat +kittled, when there was three o' them leevin', and three o' them dead; +and you know the Doctor is often said to bring the new baby in his +pocket; and many a time have my pockets been slyly examined by the +curious youngsters,--especially the girls!--in hopes of finding another +baby. But I'll tell you where all the babies come from; _they all come +from_ _God_; his hand made and fashioned them; he breathed into their +nostrils the breath of life,--of his life. He said, "Let this little +child be," and it was. A child is a true creation; its soul, certainly, +and in a true sense, its body too. And as our children came from him, so +they are going back to him, and he lends them to us as keepsakes; we are +to keep and care for them for his sake. What a strange and sacred +thought this is! Children are God's gifts to us, and it depends on our +guiding of them, not only whether they are happy here, but whether they +are happy hereafter in that great unchangeable eternity, into which you +and I and all of us are fast going. I once asked a little girl, "Who +made you?" and she said, holding up her apron as a measure, "God make me +that length, and I growed the rest myself." Now this, as you know, was +not quite true, for she could not grow one half-inch by herself. God +makes us grow as well as makes us at first. But what I want you to fix +in your minds is, that children come from God, and are returning to him, +and that you and I, who are parents, have to answer to him for the way +we behave to our dear children,--the kind of care we take of them. + +Now, a child consists, like ourselves, of a body and a soul. I am not +going to say much about the guiding of the souls of children,--that is a +little out of my line,--but I may tell you that the soul, especially in +children, depends much, for its good and for its evil, for its happiness +or its misery, upon the kind of body it lives in: for the body is just +the house that the soul dwells in; and you know that, if a house be +uncomfortable, the tenant of it will be uncomfortable and out of sorts; +if its windows let the rain and wind in, if the chimney smoke, if the +house be damp, and if there be a want of good air, then the people who +live in it will be miserable enough; and if they have no coals, and no +water, and no meat, and no beds, then you may be sure it will soon be +left by its inhabitants. And so, if you don't do all you can to make +your children's bodies healthy and happy, their souls will get miserable +and cankered and useless, their tempers peevish; and if you don't feed +and clothe them right, then their poor little souls will leave their +ill-used bodies,--will be starved out of them; and many a man and woman +have had their tempers, and their minds and hearts, made miseries to +themselves, and all about them, just from a want of care of their bodies +when children. + +There is something very sad, and, in a true sense, very unnatural, in an +unhappy child. You and I, grown-up people, who have cares, and have had +sorrows and difficulties and sins, may well be dull and sad sometimes; +it would be still sadder, if we were not often so; but children should +be always either laughing and playing, or eating and sleeping. Play is +their business. You cannot think how much useful knowledge, and how much +valuable bodily exercise, a child teaches itself in its play; and look +how merry the young of other animals are: the kitten making fun of +everything, even of its sedate mother's tail and whiskers; the lambs, +running races in their mirth; even the young asses,--the +baby-cuddie,--how pawky and droll and happy he looks with his fuzzy +head, and his laughing eyes, and his long legs, stot, stotting after +that venerable and _sair nauden-doun lady_, with the long ears, his +mother. One thing I like to see, is a child clean in the morning. I like +to see its plump little body well washed, and sweet and _caller_ from +top to bottom. But there is another thing I like to see, and that is a +child dirty at night. I like a _steerin' bairn_,--goo-gooin', crowing +and kicking, keeping everybody alive. Do you remember William Miller's +song of "Wee Willie Winkie?" Here it is. I think you will allow, +especially you who are mothers, that it is capital. + + "Wee Willie Winkie + Rins through the toun, + Up stairs an' doon stairs + In his nicht-goun, + Tirlin' at the window, + Crying at the lock, + 'Are the weans in their bed, + For it's noo ten o'clock?' + + "'Hey Willie Winkie, + Are ye comin' ben! + The cat's singin' gray thrums + To the sleepin' hen, + The dog's speldert on the floor, + And disna gi'e a cheep, + But here's a waakrife laddie! + That winna fa' asleep.' + + "'Onything but sleep, you rogue! + Glow'rin' like the moon! + Rattlin' in an airn jug + Wi' an airn spoon, + Rumblin', tumblin' roun' about, + Crawin' like a cock, + Skirlin' like a kenna-what, + Wauk'nin' sleepin' folk. + + "'Hey, Willie Winkie, + The wean's in a creel! + Wamblin' aff a bodie's knee + Like a verra eel, + Ruggin' at the cat's lug, + And ravelin' a' her thrums,-- + Hey, Willie Winkie,-- + See, there he comes!' + + "Wearied is the mither + That has a stoorie wean, + A wee stumpie stousie, + Wha canna rin his lane, + That has a battle aye wi' sleep + Afore he'll close an e'e,-- + But ae kiss frae aff his rosy lips + Gi'es strength anew to me." + +Is not this good? first-rate! The cat singin' gray thrums, and the wee +stumpie stousie, ruggin' at her lug, and ravlin' a' her thrums; and +then what a din he is making!--rattlit' in an airn jug wi' an airn +spoon, skirlin' like a kenna-what, and ha'in' a battle aye wi' sleep. +What a picture of a healthy and happy child! + +Now, I know how hard it is for many of you to get meat for your +children, and clothes for them, and bed and bedding for them at night, +and I know how you have to struggle for yourselves and them, and how +difficult it often is for you to take all the care you would like to do +of them, and you will believe me when I say, that it is a far greater +thing, because a far harder thing, for a poor, struggling, and it may be +weakly woman in your station, to bring up her children comfortably, than +for those who are richer; but still you may do a great deal of good at +little cost either of money or time or trouble. And it is well-wared +pains; it will bring you in two hundred percent in real comfort, and +profit, and credit; and so you will, I am sure, listen good-naturedly to +me, when I go over some plain and simple things about the health of your +children. + +To begin with their _heads_. You know the head contains the brain, which +is the king of the body, and commands all under him; and it depends on +his being good or bad whether his subjects,--the legs, and arms, and +body, and stomach, and our old friends the bowels, are in good order and +happy, or not. Now, first of all, keep the head cool. Nature has given +it a nightcap of her own in the hair, and it is the best. And keep the +head clean. Give it a good scouring every Saturday night at the least; +and if it get sore and scabbit, the best thing I know for it is to wash +it with soft soap (black soap), and put a big cabbage-blade on it every +night. Then for the _lungs_, or _lichts_,--the bellows that keep the +fire of life burning,--they are very busy in children, because a child +is not like grown-up folk, merely keeping itself up. It is doing this, +and growing too; and so it eats more, and sleeps more, and breathes more +in proportion than big folk. And to carry on all this business it must +have fresh air, and lots of it. So, whenever it can be managed, a child +should have a good while every day in the open air, and should have +well-aired places to sleep in. Then for their _nicht-gowns_, the best +are long flannel gowns; and children should be always more warmly clad +than grown-up people,--cold kills them more easily. Then there is the +_stomach_, and as this is the kitchen and great manufactory, it is +almost always the first thing that goes wrong in children, and generally +as much from too much being put in, as from its food being of an +injurious kind. A baby, for nine months after it is born, should have +almost nothing but its mother's milk. This is God's food, and it is the +best and the cheapest, too. If the baby be healthy it should be weaned +or spained at nine or ten months; and this should be done gradually, +giving the baby a little gruel, or new milk, and water and sugar, or +thin bread-berry once a day for some time, so as gradually to wean it. +This makes it easier for mother as well as baby. No child should get +meat or hard things till it gets teeth to chew them, and no baby should +ever get a drop of whiskey, or any strong drink, unless by the Doctor's +orders. Whiskey, to the soft, tender stomach of an infant, is like +vitriol to ours; it is a burning poison to its dear little body, as it +may be a burning poison and a curse to its never-dying soul. As you +value your children's health of body, and the salvation of their souls, +never give them a drop of whiskey; and let mothers, above all others, +beware of drinking when nursing. The whiskey passes from their stomachs +into their milk, and poisons their own child. This is a positive fact. +And think of a drunk woman carrying and managing a child! I was once, +many years ago, walking in Lothian Street, when I saw a woman staggering +along very drunk. She was carrying a child; it was lying over her +shoulder. I saw it slip, slippin' farther and farther back. I ran, and +cried out; but before I could get up, the poor little thing, smiling +over its miserable mother's shoulder, fell down, like a stone, on its +head on the pavement; it gave a gasp, and turned up its blue eyes, and +had a convulsion, and its soul was away to God, and its little soft, +waefu' body lying dead, and its idiotic mother grinning and staggering +over it, half seeing the dreadful truth, then forgetting it, and +cursing and swearing. That was a sight! so much misery, and wickedness, +and ruin. It was the young woman's only child. When she came to herself, +she became mad, and is to this day a drivelling idiot, and goes about +forever seeking for her child, and cursing the woman who killed it. This +is a true tale, too true. + +There is another practice which I must notice, and that is giving +children laudanum to make them sleep, and keep them quiet, and for +coughs and windy pains. Now, this is a most dangerous thing. I have +often been called in to see children who were dying, and who did die, +from laudanum given in this way. I have known four drops to kill a child +a month old; and ten drops one a year old. The best rule, and one you +should stick to, as under God's eye as well as the law's, is, never to +give laudanum without a Doctor's line or order. And when on this +subject, I would also say a word about the use of opium and laudanum +among yourselves. I know this is far commoner among the poor in +Edinburgh than is thought. But I assure you, from much experience, that +the drunkenness and stupefaction from the use of laudanum is even worse +than that from whiskey. The one poisons and makes mad the body; the +other, the laudanum, poisons the mind, and makes it like an idiot's. So, +in both matters beware; death is in the cup, murder is in the cup, and +poverty and the workhouse, and the gallows, and an awful future of pain +and misery,--all are in the cup. These are the wages the Devil pays his +servants with for doing his work. + +But to go back to the bairns. At first a word on our old friends, the +bowels. Let them alone as much as you can. They will put themselves and +keep themselves right, if you take care to prevent wrong things going +into the stomach. No sour apples, or raw turnips or carrots; no sweeties +or tarts, and all that kind of abomination; no tea, to draw the sides of +their tender little stomachs together; no whiskey, to kill their +digestion; no _Gundy_, or _Taffy_, or _Lick_, or _Black Man_, or _Jib_; +the less sugar and sweet things the better; the more milk and butter and +fat the better; but plenty of plain, halesome food, parritch and milk, +bread and butter, potatoes and milk, good broth,--kail as we call it. +You often hear of the wonders of cod-liver oil, and they are wonders; +poor little wretches who have faces like old puggies, and are all belly +and no legs, and are screaming all day and all night too,--these poor +little wretches under the cod-liver oil, get sonsy, and rosy, and fat, +and happy, and strong. Now, this is greatly because the cod-liver oil is +capital _food_. If you can't afford to get cod-liver oil for delicate +children, or if they reject it, give them plain olive oil, a +tablespoonful twice a day, and take one to yourself, and you will be +astonished how you will both of you thrive. + +Some folk will tell you that children's feet should be always kept warm. +I say no. No healthy child's feet are warm; but the great thing is to +keep the body warm. That is like keeping the fire good, and the room +will be warm. The chest, the breast, is the place where the fire of the +body,--the heating apparatus,--is, and if you keep it warm, and give +_it_ plenty of fuel, which is fresh air and good food, you need not mind +about the feetikins, they will mind themselves; indeed, for my own part, +I am so ungenteel as to think bare feet and bare legs in summer the most +comfortable wear, costing much less than leather and worsted, the only +kind of soles that are always fresh. As to the moral training of +children, I need scarcely speak to you. What people want about these +things is, not knowledge, but the will to do what is right,--what they +know to be right, and the moral power to do it. + +Whatever you wish your child to be, be it yourself. If you wish it to be +happy, healthy, sober, truthful, affectionate, honest, and godly, be +yourself all these. If you wish it to be lazy and sulky, and a liar, and +a thief, and a drunkard, and a swearer, be yourself all these. As the +old cock crows, the young cock learns. You will remember who said, +"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will +not depart from it." And you may, as a general rule, as soon expect to +gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles, as get good, +healthy, happy children from diseased and lazy and wicked parents. + +Let me put you in mind, seriously, of one thing that you ought to get +done to all your children, and that is, to have them vaccinated, or +inoculated with the cow-pock. The best time for this is two months after +birth, but better late than never, and in these times you need never +have any excuse for its not being done. You have only to take your +children to the Old or the New Town Dispensaries. It is a real crime, I +think, in parents to neglect this. It is cruel to their child, and it is +a crime to the public. If every child in the world were vaccinated, +which might be managed in few years, that loathsome and deadly disease, +the small-pox, would disappear from the face of the earth; but many +people are so stupid, and so lazy, and so prejudiced, as to neglect this +plain duty, till they find to their cost that it is too late. So promise +me, all seriously in your hearts, to see to this if it is not done +already, and see to it immediately. + +Be always frank and open with your children. Make them trust you and +tell you all their secrets. Make them feel at ease with you, and make +_free_ with them. There is no such good plaything for grown-up children +like you and me as _weans_, wee ones. It is wonderful what you can get +them to do with a little coaxing and fun. You all know this as well as I +do, and you all practise it every day in your own families. Here is a +pleasant little story out of an old book. "A gentleman having led a +company of children beyond their usual journey, they began to get weary, +and all cried to him to carry them on his back, but because of their +multitude he could not do this. 'But,' says he, 'I'll get horses for us +all'; then cutting little wands out of the hedge as ponies for them, and +a great stake as a charger for himself, this put mettle in their little +legs, and they rode cheerily home." So much for a bit of ingenious fun. + +One thing, however poor you are, you can give your children, and that is +your prayers, and they are, if real and humble, worth more than silver +or gold,--more than food and clothing, and have often brought from our +Father who is in heaven, and hears our prayers, both money and meat and +clothes, and all worldly good things. And there is one thing you can +always teach your child; you may not yourself know how to read or write, +and therefore you may not be able to teach your children how to do these +things; you may not know the names of the stars or their geography, and +may therefore not be able to tell them how far you are from the sun, or +how big the moon is; nor be able to tell them the way to Jerusalem or +Australia, but you may always be able to tell them who made the stars +and numbered them, and you may tell them the road to heaven. You may +always teach them to pray. Some weeks ago, I was taken out to see the +mother of a little child. She was very dangerously ill, and the nurse +had left the child to come and help me. I went up to the nursery to get +some hot water, and in the child's bed I saw something raised up. This +was the little fellow under the bedclothes kneeling. I said, "What are +you doing?" "I am praying God to make mamma better," said he. God likes +these little prayers and these little people,--for of such is the +kingdom of heaven. These are his little ones, his lambs, and he hears +their cry; and it is enough if they only lisp their prayers. "Abba, +Father," is all he needs; and our prayers are never so truly prayers as +when they are most like children's in simplicity, in directness, in +perfect fulness of reliance. "They pray right up," as black Uncle Tom +says in that wonderful book, which I hope you have all read and wept +over. + +I forgot to speak about punishing children. I am old-fashioned enough to +uphold the ancient practice of warming the young bottoms with some +sharpness, if need be; it is a wholesome and capital application, and +does good to the bodies, and the souls too, of the little rebels, and it +is far less cruel than being sulky, as some parents are, and keeping up +a grudge at their children. Warm the bott, say I, and you will warm the +heart too; and all goes right. + +And now I must end. I have many things I could say to you, but you have +had enough of me and my bairns, I am sure. Go home, and when you see the +little curly pows on their pillows, sound asleep, pour out a blessing on +them, and ask our Saviour to make them his; and never forget what we +began with, that they came from God, and are going back to him, and let +the light of eternity fall upon them as they lie asleep, and may you +resolve to dedicate them and yourselves to him who died for them and for +us all, and who was once himself a little child, and sucked the breasts +of a woman, and who said that awful saying, "Whosoever shall offend one +of these little ones, it had been better for him that a millstone were +hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the midst of the +sea." + + + + +SERMON IV. + +HEALTH. + + +My dear friends,--I am going to give you a sort of sermon about your +health,--and you know a sermon has always a text; so, though I am only a +doctor, I mean to take a text for ours, and I will choose it, as our +good friends the ministers do, from that best of all books, the Bible. +Job ii. 4: "All that a man hath will he give for his life." + +This, you know, was said many thousands of years ago by the Devil, when, +like a base and impudent fellow, as he always was and is, he came into +the presence of the great God, along with the good angels. Here, for +once in his life, the Devil spoke the truth and shamed himself. + +What he meant, and what I wish you now seriously to consider, is, that a +man--you or I--will lose anything sooner than life; we would give +everything for it, and part with all the money, everything we had, to +keep away death and to lengthen our days. If you had L500 in a box at +home, and knew that you would certainly be dead by to-morrow unless you +gave the L500, would you ever make a doubt about what you would do? Not +you! And if you were told that if you got drunk, or worked too hard, or +took no sort of care of your bodily health, you would turn ill to-morrow +and die next week, would you not keep sober, and work more moderately, +and be more careful of yourself? + +Now, I want to make you believe that you are too apt to do this very +same sort of thing in your daily life, only that instead of to-morrow or +next week, your illness and your death comes next year, or at any rate, +some years sooner than otherwise. _But your death is actually preparing +already, and that by your own hands_, by your own ignorance, and often +by your own foolish and sinful neglect and indulgence. A decay or +rottenness spreads through the beams of a house, unseen and unfeared, +and then, by and by down it comes, and is utterly destroyed. So it is +with our bodies. You plant, by sin and neglect and folly, the seeds of +disease by your own hands; and as surely as the harvest comes after the +seed-time, so will you reap the harvest of pain, and misery, and death. +And remember there is nobody to whom health is so valuable, is worth so +much, as the poor laboring man; it is his stock-in-trade, his wealth, +his capital; his bodily strength and skill are the main things he can +make his living by, and therefore he should take better care of his +body and its health than a rich man; for a rich man may be laid up in +his bed for weeks and months, and yet his business may go on, for he has +means to pay his men for working under him, or he may be what is called +"living on his money." But if a poor man takes fever, or breaks his leg, +or falls into a consumption, his wife and children soon want food and +clothes: and many a time do I see on the streets poor, careworn men, +dying by inches of consumption, going to and from their work, when, poor +fellows, they should be in their beds; and all this just because they +cannot afford to be ill and to lie out of work,--they cannot spare the +time and the wages. + +Now, don't you think, my dear friends, that it is worth your while to +attend to your health? If you were a carter or a coach-driver, and had a +horse, would you not take care to give him plenty of corn, and to keep +his stable clean and well aired, and to curry his skin well, and you +would not kill him with overwork, for, besides the cruelty, this would +be a dead loss to you,--it would be so much out of your pocket? And +don't you see that God has given you your bodies to work with, and to +please him with their diligence; and it is ungrateful to him, as well as +unkind and wicked to your family and yourself, to waste your bodily +strength, and bring disease and death upon yourselves? But you will say, +"How can we make a better of it? We live from hand to mouth; we can't +have fine houses and warm clothes, and rich food and plenty of it." No, +I know that; but if you have not a fine house, you may always have a +clean one, and fresh air costs nothing,--God gives it to all his +children without stint,--and good plain clothes and meal may now be had +cheaper than ever. + +Health is a word that you all have some notion of, but you will perhaps +have a clearer idea of it when I tell you what the word comes from. +Health was long ago _wholth_, and comes from the word _whole_ or _hale_. +The Bible says, "They that are whole need not a physician"; that is, +healthy people have no need of a doctor. Now, a man is whole when, like +a bowl or any vessel, he is entire, and has nothing broken about him; he +is like a watch that goes well, neither too fast nor too slow. But you +will perhaps say, "You doctors should be able to put us all to rights, +just as a watchmaker can clean and sort a watch; if you can't, what are +you worth?" But the difference between a man and a watch is, that you +must try to mend the man when he is going. You can't stop him and then +set him agoing; and, you know, it would be no joke to a watchmaker, or +to the watch, to try and clean it while it was going. But God, who does +everything like himself, with his own perfectness, has put inside each +of our bodies a Doctor of his own making,--one wiser than we with all +our wisdom. Every one of us has in himself a power of keeping and +setting his health right. If a man is overworked, God has ordained that +he desires rest, and that rest cures him. If he lives in a damp, close +place, free and dry air cures him. If he eats too much, fasting cures +him. If his skin is dirty, a good scrubbing and a bit of yellow soap +will put him all to rights. + +What we call disease or sickness is the opposite of health, and it comes +on us,--1st. By descent from our parents. It is one of the surest of all +legacies; if a man's father and mother are diseased, naturally or +artificially, he will have much chance to be as bad, or worse. 2dly. +Hard work brings on disease, and some kinds of work more than others. +Masons who hew often fall into consumption; laborers get rheumatism, or +what you call "the pains"; painters get what is called their colic, from +the lead in the paint, and so on. In a world like ours, this set of +causes of disease and ill health cannot be altogether got the better of; +and it was God's command, after Adam's sin, that men should toil and +sweat for their daily bread; but more than the half of the bad effects +of hard work and dangerous employments might be prevented by a little +plain knowledge, attention, and common sense. 3dly. Sin, wickedness, +foolish and excessive pleasures, are a great cause of disease. Thousands +die from drinking, and from following other evil courses. There is no +life so hard, none in which the poor body comes so badly off, and is +made so miserable, as the life of a drunkard or a dissolute man. I need +hardly tell you, that this cause of death and disease you can all avoid. +I don't say it is easy for any man in your circumstances to keep from +sin; he is a foolish or ignorant man who says so, and that there are no +temptations to drinking. You are much less to blame for doing this than +people who are better off; but you CAN keep from drinking, and you know +as well as I do, how much better and happier, and healthier and richer +and more respectable you will be if you do so. 4thly and lastly. Disease +and death are often brought on from ignorance, from not knowing what are +called the _laws of health_,--those easy, plain, common things which, if +you do, you will live long, and which, if you do not do, you will die +soon. + +Now, I would like to make a few simple statements about this to you; and +I will take the body bit by bit, and tell you some things that you +should know and do in order to keep this wonderful house that your soul +lives in, and by the deeds done in which you will one day be +judged,--and which is God's gift and God's handiwork,--clean and +comfortable, hale, strong, and hearty; for you know that, besides doing +good to ourselves and our family and our neighbors with our bodily +labor, we are told that we should glorify God in our bodies as well as +in our souls, for they are his, more his than ours,--he has bought them +by the blood of his Son Jesus Christ. We are not our own, we are bought +with a price; therefore ought we to glorify God with our souls and with +our bodies, which are his. + +Now, first, for _the skin_. You should take great care of it, for on its +health a great deal depends; keep it clean, keep it warm, keep it dry, +give it air; have a regular scrubbing of all your body every Saturday +night; and, if you can manage it, you should every morning wash not only +your face, but your throat and breast, with cold water, and rub yourself +quite dry with a hard towel till you glow all over. You should keep your +hair short if you are men; it saves you a great deal of trouble and +dirt. + +Then, the inside of your _head_,--you know what is inside your +head,--your brain; you know how useful it is to you. The cleverest pair +of hands among you would be of little use without brains: they would be +like a body without a soul, a watch with the mainspring broken. Now, you +should consider what is best for keeping the brain in good trim. One +thing of great consequence is _regular sleep, and plenty of it_. Every +man should have at the least eight hours in his bed every +four-and-twenty hours, and let him sleep all the time if he can; but +even if he lies awake it is a rest to his wearied brain, as well as to +his wearied legs and arms. _Sleep is the food of the brain._ Men may go +mad and get silly, if they go long without sleep. Too much sleep is bad; +but I need hardly warn you against that, or against too much meat. You +are in no great danger from these. + +Then, again, whiskey and all kinds of intoxicating liquors in excess are +just so much poison to the brain. I need not say much about this, you +all know it; and we all know what dreadful things happen when a man +poisons his brain and makes it mad, and like a wild beast with drink; he +may murder his wife, or his child, and when he comes to himself he knows +nothing of how he did it, only the terrible thing is certain, that he +_did_ do it, and that he may be hanged for doing something when he was +mad, and which he never dreamt of doing when in his senses: but then he +knows that he made himself mad, and he must take all the wretched and +tremendous consequences. + +From the brains we go to the _lungs_,--you know where they are,--they +are what the butchers call the _lichts_; here they are, they are the +bellows that keep the fire of life going; for you must know that a +clever German philosopher has made out that we are all really +burning,--that our bodies are warmed by a sort of burning or combustion, +as it is called,--and fed by breath and food, as a fire is fed with +coals and air. + +Now the great thing for the lungs is plenty of fresh air, and plenty of +room to play in. About seventy thousand people die every year in Britain +from that disease of the lungs called consumption,--that is, nearly half +the number of people in the city of Edinburgh; and it is certain that +more than the half of these deaths could be prevented if the lungs had +fair play. So you should always try to get your houses well ventilated, +that means to let the air be often changed, and free from impure +mixtures; and you should avoid crowding many into one room, and be +careful to keep everything clean, and put away all filth; for filth is +not only disgusting to the eye and the nose, but is dangerous to the +health. I have seen a great deal of cholera, and been surrounded by +dying people, who were beyond any help from doctors, and I have always +found that where the air was bad, the rooms ill ventilated, cleanliness +neglected, and drunkenness prevailed, there this terrible scourge, which +God sends upon us, was most terrible, most rapidly and widely +destructive. Believe this, and go home and consider well what I now say, +for you may be sure it is true. + +Now we come to the _heart_. You all know where it is. It is the most +wonderful little pump in the world. There is no steam-engine half so +clever at its work, or so strong. There it is in every one of us, beat, +beating,--all day and all night, year after year, never stopping, like +a watch ticking; only it never needs to be wound up,--God winds it up +once for all. It depends for its health on the state of the rest of the +body, especially the brains and lungs. But all violent passions, all +irregularities of living, damage it. Exposure to cold when drunk, +falling asleep, as many poor wretches do, in stairs all night,--this +often brings on disease of the heart; and you know it is not only +dangerous to have anything the matter with the heart, it is the +commonest of all causes of sudden death. It gives no warning; you drop +down dead in a moment. So we may say of the bodily as well as of the +moral organ, "Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the +issues of life." + +We now come to the _stomach_. You all know, I dare say, where it lies! +It speaks for itself. Our friends in England are very respectful to +their stomachs. They make a great deal of them, and we make too little. +If an Englishman is ill, all the trouble is in his stomach; if an +Irishman is ill, it is in his heart, and he's "kilt entirely"; and if a +Scotsman, it is in his "heed." Now, I wish I saw Scots men and women as +nice and particular about their stomachs, or rather about what they put +into them, as their friends in England. Indeed, so much does your +genuine John Bull depend on his stomach, and its satisfaction, that we +may put in his mouth the stout old lines of Prior:-- + + "The plainest man alive may tell ye + The seat of empire is the Belly: + From hence are sent out those supplies, + Which make us either stout or wise; + The strength of every other member + Is founded on your Belly-timber; + The qualms or raptures of your blood + Rise in proportion to your food, + Your stomach makes your fabric roll, + Just as the bias rules the bowl: + That great Achilles might employ + The strength designed to ruin Troy, + He dined on lions' marrow, spread + On toasts of ammunition bread; + But by his mother sent away, + Amongst the Thracian girls to play, + Effeminate he sat and quiet; + Strange product of a cheese-cake diet. + Observe the various operations, + Of food and drink in several nations. + Was ever Tartar fierce or cruel, + Upon the strength of water-gruel? + But who shall stand his rage and force, + If first he rides, then eats his horse! + Salads and eggs, and lighter fare, + Turn the Italian spark's guitar; + And if I take Dan Congreve right, + Pudding and beef make Britons fight." + +Good cooking is the beauty of a dinner. It really does a man as much +good again if he eats his food with a relish, and with a little +attention, it is as easy to cook well as ill. And let me tell the wives, +that your husbands would like you all the better, and be less likely to +go off to the public-house, if their bit of meat or their drop of broth +were well cooked. Laboring men should eat well. They should, if +possible, have meat--_butcher-meat_--ever day. Good broth is a capital +dish. But, above all, keep whiskey out of your stomachs; it really plays +the very devil when it gets in. It makes the brain mad, it burns the +coats of the stomach; it turns the liver into a lump of rottenness; it +softens and kills the heart; it makes a man an idiot and a brute. If you +really need anything stronger than good meat, take a pot of wholesome +porter or ale; but I believe you are better without even that. You will +be all the better able to afford good meat, and plenty of it. + +With regard to your _bowels_,--a very important part of your +interior,--I am not going to say much, except that neglect of them +brings on many diseases; and laboring men are very apt to neglect them. +Many years ago, an odd old man, at Green-cock, left at his death a +number of sealed packets to his friends, and on opening them they found +a Bible, L50, and a box of pills, and the words, "Fear God, and keep +your bowels open." It was good advice, though it might have been rather +more decorously worded. If you were a doctor, you would be astonished +how many violent diseases of the mind, as well as of the body, are +produced by irregularity of the bowels. Many years ago, an old minister, +near Linlithgow, was wakened out of his sleep to go to see a great lady +in the neighborhood who was thought dying, and whose mind was in +dreadful despair, and who wished to see him immediately. The old man, +rubbing his eyes, and pushing up his Kilmarnock nightcap, said, "And +when were her leddyship's booels opened?" And finding, after some +inquiry, that they were greatly in arrears, "I thocht sae. Rax me ower +that pill-box on the chimney-piece, and gie my compliments to Leddy +Margret, and tell her to tak thae twa pills, and I'll be ower by and by +mysel'." They did as he bade them. They did their duty, and the pills +did theirs, and her leddyship was relieved, and she was able at +breakfast-time to profit by the Christian advice of the good old man, +which she could not have done when her nerves were all wrong. The old +Greeks, who were always seeking after wisdom, and didn't always find it, +showed their knowledge and sense in calling depression of mind +Melancholy, which means black bile. Leddy Margret's liver, I have no +doubt, had been distilling this perilous stuff. + +My dear friends, there is one thing I have forgot to mention, and that +is about keeping common-stairs clean; you know they are often abominably +filthy, and they aggravate fever, and many of your worst and most deadly +diseases; for you may keep your own houses never so clean and tidy, but +if the common-stair is not kept clean too, all its foul air comes into +your rooms, and into your lungs, and poisons you. So let all in the +stair resolve to keep it clean, and well aired. + +But I must stop now. I fear I have wearied you. You see I had nothing +new to tell you. The great thing in regulating and benefiting human +life, is not to find out new things, but to make the best of the old +things,--to live according to Nature, and the will of Nature's +God,--that great Being who bids us call him our Father, and who is at +this very moment regarding each one of us with far more than any earthly +father's compassion and kindness, and who would make us all happy if we +would but do his bidding, and take his road. He has given us minds by +which we may observe the laws he has ordained in our bodies, and which +are as regular and as certain in their effects, and as discoverable by +us as the motions of the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens; and we +shall not only benefit ourselves and live longer and work better and be +happier, by knowing and obeying these laws, from love to ourselves, but +we shall please him, we shall glorify him, and make him our +_Friend_,--only think of that! and get his blessing, by taking care of +our health, from love to him, and a regard to his will, in giving us +these bodies of ours to serve him with, and which he has, with his own +almighty hands, so fearfully and wonderfully made. + +I hope you will pardon my plainness in speaking to you. I am quite in +earnest, and I have a deep regard, I may say a real affection, for you; +for I know you well. I spent many of my early years as a doctor in going +about among you. I have attended you long ago when ill; I have delivered +your wives, and been in your houses when death was busy with you and +yours, and I have seen your fortitude, energy, and honest, hearty, +generous kindness to each other; your readiness to help your neighbors +with anything you have, and to share your last sixpence and your last +loaf with them. I wish I saw half as much real neighborliness and +sympathy among what are called your betters. If a poor man falls down in +a fit on the street, who is it that takes him up and carries him home, +and gives him what he needs? it is not the man with a fine coat and +gloves on,--it is the poor, dirty-coated, hard-handed, warm-hearted +laboring man. + +Keep a good hold of all these homely and sturdy virtues, and add to them +temperance and diligence, cleanliness and thrift, good knowledge, and, +above all, the love and the fear of God, and you will not only be happy +yourselves, but you will make this great and wonderful country of ours +which rests upon you still more wonderful and great. + + + + +SERMON V. + +MEDICAL ODDS AND ENDS. + + +My dear friends,--We are going to ring in now, and end our course. I +will be sorry and glad, and you will be the same. We are this about +everything. It is the proportion that settles it. I am, upon the whole, +as we say, sorry, and I dare say on the whole you are not glad. I +dislike parting with anything or anybody I like, for it is ten to one if +we meet again. + +My text is, "_That His way may he known upon earth; His saving health to +all nations._" You will find it in that perfect little Psalm, the 67th. +But before taking it up, I will, as my dear father used to say,--you all +remember him, his keen eye and voice; his white hair, and his grave, +earnest, penetrating look; and you should remember and possess his +Canongate Sermon to you,--"The Bible, what it is, what it does, and what +it deserves,"--well, he used to say, let us _recapitulate_ a little. It +is a long and rather kittle word, but it is the only one that we have. +He made it longer, but not less alive, by turning it into "a few +recapitulatory remarks." What ground then have we travelled over? +_First_, our duties to and about the Doctor; to call him in time, to +trust him, to obey him, to be grateful to, and to pay him with our money +and our hearts and our good word, if we have all these; if we have not +the first, with twice as much of the others. _Second_, the Doctor's +duties to us. He should be able and willing to cure us. That is what he +is there for. He should be sincere, attentive, and tender to us, keeping +his time and our secrets. We must tell him all we know about our +ailments and their causes, and he must tell us all that is good for us +to know, and no more. _Third_, your duties to your children; to the wee +Willie Winkies and the little wifies that come toddlin' hame. It is your +duty to _mind_ them. It is a capital Scotch use of this word: they are +to be in your mind; you are to exercise your understanding about them; +to give them simple food; to keep goodies and trash, and raw pears and +whiskey, away from their tender mouths and stomachs; to give them that +never-ending meal of good air, night and day, which is truly food and +fire to them and you; to _be_ good before as well as to them, to speak +and require the truth in love,--that is a wonderful expression, isn't +it?--the truth in love; that, if acted on by us all, would bring the +millennium next week; to be plain and homely with them, never _spaining_ +their minds from you. You are all sorry, you mothers, when you have to +spain their mouths; it is a dreadful business that to both parties; but +there is a spaining of the affections still more dreadful, and that need +never be, no, never, neither in this world nor in that which is to come. +Dr. Waugh, of London, used to say to bereaved mothers, Rachels weeping +for their children, and refusing to be comforted, for that simplest of +all reasons, because they were not, after giving them God's words of +comfort, clapping them on the shoulders, and fixing his mild deep eyes +on them (those who remember those eyes well know what they could mean), +"My woman, your bairn is where it will have two fathers, but never but +one mother." + +You should also, when the time comes, explain to your children what +about their own health and the ways of the world they ought to know, and +for the want of the timely knowledge of which many a life and character +has been lost. Show them, moreover, the value you put upon health, by +caring for your own. + +Do your best to get your sons well married, and soon. By "well married," +I mean that they should pair off old-fashionedly, for love, and marry +what deserves to be loved, as well as what is lovely. I confess I think +falling in love is the best way to begin; but then the moment you fall, +you should get up and look about you, and see how the land lies, and +whether it is as goodly as it looks. I don't like walking into love, or +being carried into love; or, above all, being sold or selling yourself +into it, which, after all, is not it. And by "soon," I mean as soon as +they are keeping themselves; for a wife, such a wife as alone I mean, is +cheaper to a young man than no wife, and is his best companion. + +Then for your duties to yourselves. See that you make yourself do what +is _immediately_ just to your body, feed it when it is really hungry; +let it sleep when it, not its master, desires sleep; make it happy, poor +hard-working fellow! and give it a gambol when it wants it and deserves +it, and as long as it can execute it. Dancing is just the music of the +feet, and the gladness of the young legs, and is well called the poetry +of motion. It is like all other natural pleasures, given to be used, and +to be not abused, either by yourself or by those who don't like it, and +don't enjoy your doing it,--shabby dogs these, beware of them! And if +this be done, it is a good and a grace, as well as pleasure, and +satisfies some good end of our being, and in its own way glorifies our +Maker. Did you ever see anything in this world more beautiful than the +lambs running races and dancing round the big stone of the field; and +does not your heart get young when you hear,-- + + "Here we go by Jingo ring, + Jingo ring, Jingo ring; + Here we go by Jingo ring, + About the merry ma tanzie." + +This is just a dance in honor of poor old pagan Jingo; measured +movements arising from and giving happiness. We have no right to keep +ourselves or others from natural pleasures; and we are all too apt to +interfere with and judge harshly the pleasures of others; hence we who +are stiff and given to other pleasures, and who, now that we are old, +know the many wickednesses of the world, are too apt to put the vices of +the jaded, empty old heart, like a dark and ghastly fire burnt out, into +the feet and the eyes, and the heart and the head of the young. I +remember a story of a good old Antiburgher minister. It was in the days +when dancing was held to be a great sin, and to be dealt with by the +session. Jessie, a comely, and good, and blithe young woman, a great +favorite of the minister's, had been guilty of dancing at a friend's +wedding. She was summoned before the session to be "dealt with,"--the +grim old fellows sternly concentrating their eyes upon her, as she stood +trembling in her striped short-gown, and her pretty bare feet. The +Doctor, who was one of divinity, and a deep thinker, greatly pitying her +and himself, said, "Jessie, my woman, were ye dancin'?" + +"Yes," sobbed Jessie. + +"Ye maun e'en promise never to dance again, Jessie." + +"I wull, sir; I wull promise," with a courtesy. + +"Now, what were ye thinking o', Jessie, when ye were dancin'? tell us +truly," said an old elder, who had been a poacher in youth. + +"Nae ill, sir," sobbed out the dear little woman. + +"Then, Jessie, my woman, aye dance," cried the delighted Doctor. + +And so say I, to the extent, that so long as our young girls think "nae +ill," they may dance their own and their feet's fills; and so on with +all the round of the sunshine and flowers God has thrown on and along +the path of his children. + +_Lastly_, your duty to your own bodies: to preserve them; to make, or +rather let--for they are made so to go--their wheels go sweetly; to keep +the _girs_ firm round the old barrel; neither to over nor under work our +bodies, and to listen to their teaching and their requests, their cries +of pain and sorrow; and to keep them as well as your souls unspotted +from the world. If you want to know a good book on Physiology, or the +Laws of Health and of Life, get Dr. Combe's _Physiology_; and let all +you mothers get his delightful _Management of Infancy_. You will love +him for his motherly words. You will almost think he might have worn +petticoats,--for tenderness he might; but in mind and will and eye he +was every inch a man. It is now long since he wrote, but I have seen +nothing so good since; he is so intelligent, so reverent, so full of the +solemnity, the sacredness, the beauty, and joy of life, and its work; so +full of sympathy for suffering, himself not ignorant of such evil,--for +the latter half of his life was a daily, hourly struggle with death, +fighting the destroyer from within with the weapons of life, his brain +and his conscience. It is very little physiology that you require, so +that it is physiology, and is suitable for your need. I can't say I like +our common people, or indeed, what we call our ladies and gentlemen, +poking curiously into all the ins and outs of our bodies as a general +accomplishment, and something to talk of. No, I don't like it. I would +rather they chose some other _ology_. But let them get enough to give +them awe and love, light and help, guidance and foresight. + +These, with good sense and good senses, humility, and a thought of a +hereafter in this world as well as in the next, will make us as able to +doctor ourselves--especially to act in the _preventive service_, which +is your main region of power for good--as in this mortal world we have +any reason to expect. And let us keep our hearts young, and they will +keep our legs and our arms the same. For we know now that hearts are +kept going by having strong, pure, lively blood; if bad blood goes into +the heart, it gets angry, and shows this by beating at our breasts, and +frightening us; and sometimes it dies of sheer anger and disgust, if its +blood is poor or poisoned, thin and white. "He may dee, but he'll never +grow auld," said a canty old wife of her old minister, whose cheek was +ruddy like an apple. + +_Run for the Doctor_; don't saunter to him, or go in, by the by, as an +old elder of my father's did, when his house was on fire. He was a +perfect Nathanael, and lived more in the next world than in this, as you +will soon see. One winter night he slipped gently into his neighbor's +cottage, and found James Somerville reading aloud by the blaze of the +licht coal; he leant over the chair, and waited till James closed the +book, when he said, "By the by, I am thinkin' ma hoose is on fire!" and +out he and they all ran, in time to see the auld biggin' fall in with a +glorious blaze. So it is too often when that earthly house of ours--our +cottage, our tabernacle--is getting on fire. One moment your finger +would put out what in an hour all the waters of Clyde would be too late +for. If the Doctor is needed, the sooner the better. If he is not, he +can tell you so, and you can rejoice that he had a needless journey, and +pay him all the more thankfully. So run early and at once. How many +deaths--how many lives of suffering and incapacity--may be spared by +being in time! by being a day or two sooner. With children this is +especially the case, and with workingmen in the full prime of life. A +mustard plaster, a leech, a pill, fifteen drops of Ipecacuanha wine, a +bran poultice, a hint, or a stitch in time, may do all and at once, when +a red-hot iron, a basinful of blood, all the wisdom of our art, and all +the energy of the Doctor, all your tenderness and care, are in vain. +Many a child's life is saved by an emetic at night, who would be lost in +twelve hours. So send in time; it is just to your child or the patient, +and to yourself; it is just to your Doctor; for I assure you we Doctors +are often sorry, and angry enough, when we find we are too late. It +affronts us, and our powers, besides affronting life and all its +meanings, and Him who gives it. And we really _enjoy_ curing; it is like +running and winning a race,--like hunting and finding and killing our +game. And then remember to go to the Doctor early in the day, as well as +in the disease. I always like my patients to send and say that they +would like the Doctor "to call before he goes out!" This is like an +Irish message, you will say; but there is "sinse" in it. Fancy a Doctor +being sent for, just as he is in bed, to see some one, and on going he +finds they had been thinking of sending in the morning, and that he has +to run neck and neck with death, with the odds all against him. + +I now wind up with some other odds and ends. I give you them as an old +wife would empty her pockets,--such wallets they used to be!--in no +regular order; here a bit of string, now a bit of gingerbread, now an +"aiple," now a bunch of keys, now an old almanac, now three _bawbees_ +and a bad shilling, a "wheen" buttons all marrowless, a thimble, a bit +of black sugar, and maybe at the very bottom a "goold guinea." + +_Shoes._--It is amazing the misery the people of civilization endure in +and from their shoes. Nobody is ever, as they should be, comfortable at +once in them; they hope in the long-run and after much agony, and when +they are nearly done, to make them fit, especially if they can get them +once well wet, so that the mighty knob of the big toe may adjust himself +and be at ease. For my part, if I were rich, I would advertise for a +clean, wholesome man, whose foot was exactly my size, and I would make +him wear my shoes till I could put them on, and not know I was in +them.[1] Why is all this? Why do you see every man's and woman's feet so +out of shape? Why are there corns, with their miseries and maledictions? +Why the virulence and unreachableness of those that are "soft"? Why do +our nails grow in, and sometimes have to be torn violently off? + +[1] Frederick the Great kept an aid-de-camp for this purpose, +and, poor fellow! he sometimes wore them too long, and got a kicking for +his pains. + +All because the makers and users of shoes have not common sense, and +common reverence for God and his works enough to study the shape and +motions of that wonderful pivot on which we turn and progress. Because +FASHION,--that demon that I wish I saw dressed in her own crinoline, in +bad shoes, a man's old hat, and trailing petticoats, and with her (for +she must be a _her_) waist well nipped by a circlet of nails with the +points inmost, and any other of the small torments, mischiefs, and +absurdities she destroys and makes fools of us with,--whom, I say, I +wish I saw drummed and hissed, blazing and shrieking, out of the +world,--because this contemptible slave, which domineers over her +makers, says the shoe must be elegant, must be so and so, and the +beautiful living foot must be crushed into it, and human nature must +limp along Princess Street and through life natty and wretched. + +It makes me angry when I think of all this. Now, do you want to know how +to put your feet into new shoes, and yourself into a new world? Go and +buy from Edmonston and Douglas sixpence worth of sense, in _Why the Shoe +Pinches_; you will, if you get your shoemaker to do as it bids him, go +on your ways rejoicing; no more knobby, half-dislocated big toes; no +more secret parings, and slashings desperate, in order to get on that +pair of exquisite boots or shoes. + +Then there is the _Infirmary_.--Nothing I like better than to see +subscriptions to this admirable house of help and comfort to the poor, +advertised as from the quarry men of Craigleith; from Mr. Milne the +brassfounder's men; from Peeblesshire; from the utmost Orkneys; and from +those big, human mastiffs, the navvies. And yet we doctors are often met +by the most absurd and obstinate objections by domestic servants in +town, and by country people, to going there. This prejudice is +lessening, but it is still great. "O, I canna gang into the Infirmary; I +would rather dee!" Would you, indeed? Not you, or, if so, the sooner the +better. They have a notion that they are experimented on, and slain by +the surgeons; neglected and poisoned by the nurses, etc., etc. Such +utter nonsense! I know well about the inner life and work of at least +our Infirmary, and of that noble old Minto House, now gone; and I would +rather infinitely, were I a servant, 'prentice boy, or shopman, a +porter, or student, and anywhere but in a house of my own, and even +then, go straight to the Infirmary, than lie in a box-bed off the +kitchen, or on the top of the coal-bunker, or in a dark hole in the +lobby, or in a double-bedded room. The food, the bedding, the +physicians, the surgeons, the clerks, the dressers, the medicines, the +wine and porter,--and they don't scrimp these when necessary,--the +books, the Bibles, the baths, are all good,--are all better far than one +man in ten thousand can command in his own house. So off with a grateful +heart and a fearless to the Infirmary, and your mistress can come in and +sit beside you; and her doctor and yours will look in and single you out +with his smile and word, and cheer you and the ward by a kindly joke, +and you will come out well cured, and having seen much to do you good +for life. I never knew any one who was once in, afraid of going back; +they know better. + +There are few things in human nature finer than the devotion and courage +of medical men to their hospital and charitable duties; it is to them a +great moral discipline. Not that they don't get good--selfish good--to +themselves. Why shouldn't they? Nobody does good without getting it; it +is a law of the government of God. But, as a rule, our medical men are +not kind and skilful and attentive to their hospital patients, because +this is to make them famous, or even because through this they are to +get knowledge and fame; they get all this, and it is their only and +their great reward. But they are in the main disinterested men. Honesty +is the best policy; but, as Dr. Whately, in his keen way, says, "that +man is not honest who is so for this reason," and so with the doctors +and their patients. And I am glad to say for my profession, few of them +take this second-hand line of duty. + +_Beards._--I am for beards out and out, because I think the Maker of the +beard was and is. This is reason enough; but there are many others. The +misery of shaving, its expense, its consumption of time,--a very +corporation existing for no other purpose but to shave mankind. Campbell +the poet, who had always a bad razor, I suppose, and was late of rising, +said he believed the man of civilization who lived to be sixty had +suffered more pain in littles every day in shaving than a woman with a +large family had from her lyings-in. This would be hard to prove; but +it is a process that never gets pleasanter by practice; and then the +waste of time and temper,--the ugliness of being ill or unshaven. Now, +we can easily see advantages in it; the masculine gender is intended to +be more out of doors, and more in all weathers than the smooth-chinned +ones, and this protects him and his Adam's apple from harm. It acts as +the best of all respirators to the mason and the east-wind. Besides, it +is a glory; and it must be delightful to have and to stroke a natural +beard, not one like bean-stalks or a bottle-brush, but such a beard as +Abraham's or Abd-el-Kader's. It is the beginning ever to cut, that makes +all the difference. I hazard a theory, that no hair of the head or beard +should ever be cut, or needs it, any more than the eyebrows or +eyelashes. The finest head of hair I know is one which was never cut. It +is not too long; it is soft and thick. The secret where to stop growing +is in the end of the native untouched hair. If you cut it off, the poor +hair does not know when to stop; and if our eyebrows were so cut, they +might be made to hang over our eyes, and be wrought into a veil. +Besides, think of the waste of substance of the body in hewing away so +much hair every morning, and encouraging an endless rotation of crops! +Well, then, I go in for the beards of the next generation, the unshorn +beings whose beards will be wagging when we are away; but of course they +must be clean. But how are we to sup our porridge and kail? Try it when +young, when there is just a shadowy down on the upper lip, and no fears +but they will do all this "elegantly" even. Nature is slow and gentle in +her teaching even the accomplishment of the spoon. And as for women's +hair, don't plaster it with scented and sour grease, or with any grease; +it has an oil of its own. And don't tie up your hair tight, and make it +like a cap of iron over your skull. And why are your ears covered? You +hear all the worse, and they are not the cleaner. Besides, the ear is +beautiful in itself, and plays its own part in the concert of the +features. Go back to the curls, some of you, and try in everything to +dress as it becomes you, and as you become; not as that fine lady, or +even your own Tibbie or Grizzy chooses to dress, it may be becomingly to +her. Why shouldn't we even in dress be more ourselves than somebody or +everybody else? + +I had a word about _Teeth_. Don't get young children's teeth drawn. At +least, let this be the rule. Bad teeth come of bad health and bad and +hot food, and much sugar. I can't say I am a great advocate for the +common people going in for tooth-brushes. No, they are not necessary in +full health. The healthy man's teeth clean themselves, and so does his +skin. A good dose of Gregory often puts away the toothache. It is a +great thing, however, to get them early stuffed, if they need it; that +really keeps them and your temper whole. For appearance' sake merely, I +hate false teeth, as I hate a wig. But this is not a matter to dogmatize +about. I never was, I think, deceived by either false hair, or false +teeth, or false eyes, or false cheeks, for there are in the high--I +don't call it the great--world, plumpers for making the cheeks round, as +well as a certain dust for making them bloom. But you and I don't enjoy +such advantages. + +_Rheumatism_ is peculiarly a disease of the workingman. One old +physician said its only cure was patience and flannel. Another said six +weeks. But I think good flannel and no drunkenness (observe, I don't say +no drinking, though very nearly so) are its best preventives. It is a +curious thing, the way in which cold gives rheumatism. Suppose a man is +heated and gets cooled, and being very well at any rate, and is sitting +or sleeping in a draught; the exposed part is chilled; the pores of its +skin, which are always exuding and exhaling waste from the body, +contract and shut in this bad stuff; it--this is my theory--not getting +out is taken up by a blunder of the deluded absorbents, who are always +prowling about for something, and it is returned back to the centre, and +finds its way into the blood, and poisons it, affecting the heart, and +carrying bad money, bad change, bad fat, bad capital all over the body, +making nerves, lungs, everything unhappy and angry. This vitiated blood +arrives by and by at the origin of its mischief, the chilled shoulder, +and here it wreaks its vengeance, and in doing so, does some general +good at local expense. It gives pain; it produces a certain inflammation +of its own, and if it is not got rid of by the skin and other ways, it +may possibly kill by the rage the body gets in, and the heat; or it may +inflame the ill-used heart itself, and then either kill, or give the +patient a life of suffering and peril. The medicines we give act not +only by detecting this poison of blood, which, like yeast, leavens all +in its neighborhood, but by sending it out of the body like a culprit. + +_Vaccination._--One word for this. Never neglect it; get it done within +two months after birth, and see that it is well done; and get all your +neighbors to do it. + +_Infectious Diseases._--Keep out of their way; kill them by fresh air +and cleanliness; defy them by cheerfulness, good food (_better_ food +than usual, in such epidemics as cholera), good sleep, and a good +conscience. + +When in the midst of and waiting on those who are under the scourge of +an epidemic, be as little very close to the patient as you can, and +don't inhale his or her breath or exhalations when you can help it; be +rather in the current to, than from him. Be very cleanly in putting away +all excretions at once, and quite away; go frequently into the fresh +air; and don't sleep in your day clothes. Do what the Doctor bids you; +don't crowd round your dying friend; you are stealing his life in taking +his air, and you are quietly killing yourself. This is one of the worst +and most unmanageable of our Scottish habits, and many a time have I +cleared the room of all but one, and dared them to enter it. + +Then you should, in such things as small-pox, as indeed in everything, +carry out the Divine injunction, "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should +do unto you, do ye even so to them." Don't send for the minister to pray +with and over the body of a patient in fever or delirium, or a child +dying of small-pox or malignant scarlet fever; tell him, by all means, +and let him pray with you, and for your child. Prayers, you know, are +like gravitation, or the light of heaven; they will go from whatever +place they are uttered; and if they are real prayers, they go straight +and home to the centre, the focus of all things; and you know that poor +fellow with the crust of typhus on his lips, and its nonsense on his +tongue,--that child tossing in misery, not knowing even its own +mother,--what can they know, what heed can they give to the prayer of +the minister? He may do all the good he can,--the most good maybe when, +like Moses on the hillside, in the battle with Amalek, he uplifts his +hands apart. No! a word spoken by your minister to himself and his God, +a single sigh for mercy to him who is mercy, a cry of hope, of despair +of self, opening into trust in him, may save that child's life, when an +angel might pour forth in vain his burning, imploring words into the +dull or wild ears of the sufferer, in the vain hope of getting _him_ to +pray. I never would allow my father to go to typhus cases; and I don't +think they lost anything by it. I have seen him rising in the dark of +his room from his knees, and I knew whose case he had been laying at the +footstool. + +And now, my dear friends, I find I have exhausted our time, and never +yet got to the sermon, and its text--"_That the way of God_"--what is +it? It is his design in setting you here; it is the road he wishes you +to walk in; it is his providence in your minutest as in the world's +mightiest things; it is his will expressed in his works and word, and in +your own soul it is his salvation. That it "_may be known_," that the +understandings of his intelligent, responsible, mortal and immortal +creatures should be directed to it, to study and (as far as we ever can +or need) to understand that which, in its fulness, passes all +understanding; that it may be known "_on the earth_," here, in this very +room, this very minute; not, as too many preachers and performers do, to +be known only in the next world,--men who, looking at the stars, stumble +at their own door, and it may be _smoor_ their own child, besides +despising, upsetting, and extinguishing their own lantern. No! the next +world is only to be reached through this; and our road through this our +wilderness is not safe unless on the far beyond there is shining the +lighthouse on the other side of the dark river that has no bridge. Then +"_His saving health_"; His health--whose?--God's--his soundness, the +wholeness, the perfectness, that is alone in and from him,--health of +body, of heart, and brain, health to the finger-ends, health for +eternity as well as time. "_Saving_"; we need to be saved, and we are +salvable, this is much; and God's health can save us, that is more. When +a man or woman is fainting from loss of blood, we sometimes try to save +them, when all but gone, by transfusing the warm rich blood of another +into their veins. Now this is what God, through his Son, desires to do; +to transfuse his blood, himself, through his Son, who is himself, into +us, diseased and weak. "_And_" refers to his health being "_known_," +recognized, accepted, used, "_among all nations_"; not among the U.P.s, +or the Frees, or the Residuaries, or the Baptists, or the New Jerusalem +people,--nor among us in the Canongate, or in Biggar, or even in old +Scotland, but "among all nations"; then, and only then, will the people +praise thee, O God; will all the people praise thee. Then, and then +only, will the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, will +bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear +him. + +And now, my dear and patient friends, we must say good night. You have +been very attentive, and it has been a great pleasure to me as we went +on to preach to you. We came to understand one another. You saw through +my jokes, and that they were not always nothing but jokes. You bore with +my solemnities, because I am not altogether solemn; and so good night, +and God bless you, and may you, as Don Quixote, on his death-bed, says +to Sancho, May you have your eyes closed by the soft fingers of your +great-grandchildren. But no, I must shake hands with you, and kiss the +bairns,--why shouldn't I? if their mouths are clean and their breath +sweet? As for you, _Ailie_, you are wearying for the child; and he is +tumbling and fretting in his cradle, and wearying for you; good by, and +away you go on your milky way. I wish I could (unseen) see you two +enjoying each other. And good night, my bonnie _wee wifie_; you are +sleepy, and you must be up to make your father's porridge; and _Master +William Winkie_, will you be still for one moment while I address you? +Well, Master William, _wamble_ not off your mother's lap, neither rattle +in your excruciating way in an airn jug wi' an airn spoon; no more +crowing like a cock, or skirlin' like a kenna-what. I had much more to +say to you, sir, but you will not bide still; off with you, and a +blessing with you. + +Good night, _Hugh Cleland_, the best smith of any smiddy; with your +bowly back, your huge arms, your big heavy brows and eyebrows, your +clear eye, and warm unforgetting heart. And you, _John Noble_, let me +grip your horny hand, and count the queer knobs made by the perpetual +mell. I used, when I was a Willie Winkie, and wee, to think that you +were born with them. Never mind, you were born for them, and of old you +handled the trowel well, and built to the plumb. _Thomas Bertram_, your +loom is at a discount, but many's the happy day I have watched you and +your shuttle, and the interweaving treadles, and all the mysteries of +setting the "wab." You are looking well, and though not the least of an +ass, you might play Bottom must substantially yet. _Andrew Wilson_, +across the waste of forty years and more I snuff the fragrance of your +shop; have you forgiven me yet for stealing your paint-pot (awful joy!) +for ten minutes to adorn my rabbit-house, and for blunting your pet +_furmer_? Wise you were always, and in the saw-pit you spoke little, and +wore your crape. Yourself wears well, but take heed of swallowing your +shavings unawares, as is the trick of you "wrights"; they confound the +interior and perplex the Doctor. + +_Rob Rough_, you smell of rosin, and your look is stern, nevertheless, +or all the rather, give me your hand. What a grip! You have been the +most sceptical of all my hearers; you like to try everything, and you +hold fast only what you consider good; and then on your _crepida_ or +stool, you have your own think about everything human and divine, as you +smite down errors on the lapstane, and "yerk" your arguments with a +well-rosined lingle; throw your window open for yourself as well as for +your blackbird; and make your shoes not to pinch. I present you, sir, +with a copy of the book of the wise Switzer. + +And nimble _Pillans_, the clothier of the race, and quick as your +needle, strong as your corduroys, I bid you good night. May you and the +cooper be like him of Fogo, each a better man than his father; and you, +_Mungo_ the mole-catcher, and _Tod Laurie_, and _Sir Robert_ the cadger, +and all the other odd people, I shake your fists twice, for I like your +line. I often wish I had been a mole-catcher, with a brown velveteen, or +(fine touch of tailoric fancy!) a moleskin coat; not that I dislike +moles,--I once ate the fore-quarter of one, having stewed it in a +Florence flask, some forty years ago, and liked it,--but I like the +killing of them, and the country by-ways, and the regularly irregular +life, and the importance of my trade. + +And good night to you all, you women-folks. _Marion Graham_ the +milkwoman; _Tibbie Meek_ the single servant; _Jenny Muir_ the +sempstress; _Mother Johnston_ the howdie, thou consequential Mrs. Gamp, +presiding at the gates of life; and you in the corner there, _Nancy +Cairns_, gray-haired, meek and old, with your crimped mutch as white as +snow; the shepherd's widow, the now childless mother, you are stepping +home to your _bein_ and lonely room, where your cat is now ravelling a' +her thrums, wondering where "she" is. + +Good night to you all, big and little, young and old; and go home to +your bedside, there is Some One waiting there for you, and his Son is +here ready to take you to him. Yes, he is waiting for every one of you, +and you have only to say, "Father, I have sinned,--take me"--and he sees +you a great way off. But to reverse the parable; it is the first-born, +your elder brother, who is at your side, and leads you to your Father, +and says, "I have paid his debt"; that Son who is ever with him, whose +is all that he hath. + +I need not say more. You know what I mean. You know who is waiting, and +you know who it is who stands beside you, having the likeness of the Son +of Man. Good night! The night cometh in which neither you nor I can +work,--may we work while it is day; whatsoever thy _hand_ findeth to do, +do it with thy might, for there is no work or device in the grave, +whither we are all of us hastening; and when the night is spent, may we +all enter on a healthful, a happy, an everlasting to-morrow! + + + Cambridge: Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. + + +VEST-POCKET SERIES + +OF + +Standard and Popular Authors. + + + The great popularity of the "Little Classics" has proved anew + the truth of Dr. Johnson's remark: "Books that you may carry to + the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful + after all." The attractive character of their contents has been + very strongly commended to public favor by the convenient size + of the volumes. These were not too large to be carried to the + fire or held readily in the hand, and consequently they have + been in great request wherever they have become known. + + _The Vest-Pocket Series_ consists of volumes yet smaller than + the "Little Classics." Their Lilliputian size, legible type, and + flexible cloth binding make them peculiarly convenient for + carrying on short journeys; and the excellence of their contents + makes them desirable always and everywhere. The series includes + + STORIES, ESSAYS, SKETCHES, AND POEMS + + SELECTED FROM THE WRITINGS OF + _Emerson_, + _Longfellow_, + _Whittier_, + _Hawthorne_, + _Carlyle_, + _Aldrich_, + _Hood_, + _Gray_, + _Aytoun_, + _Tennyson_, + _Lowell_, + _Holmes_, + _Browning_, + _Macaulay_, + _Milton_, + _Campbell_, + _Owen Meredith_, + _Pope_, + _Thomson_, + AND OTHERS OF EQUAL FAME. + +The volumes are beautifully printed, many of them illustrated, and bound +in flexible cloth covers, at a uniform price of + + =FIFTY CENTS EACH.= + + JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., + PUBLISHERS, BOSTON. + + +WORKS OF DR. JOHN BROWN. + + "_Of all the John Browns, commend us to Dr. John Brown, the + physician, the man of genius, the humorist, the student of men, + women, and dogs. By means of two beautiful volumes he has given + the public a share of his by-hours; and more pleasant hours it + would be difficult to find in any life._"--London Times. + + +SPARE HOURS. First Series, I vol. 16mo. Cloth, $2.00; Half calf, $3.75. + +_CONTENTS._--Rab and his Friends.--"With Brains, Sir."--The Mystery of +Black and Tan.--Her Last Half-Crown.--Our Dogs.--Queen Mary's +Child-Garden.--Presence of Mind and Happy Guessing.--My Father's +Memoir.--Mystifications.--"Oh, I'm wat, wat!"--Arthur H. +Hallam.--Education through the Senses.--Vaughan's Poems.--Dr. +Chalmers.--Dr. George Wilson.--St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh.--The Black +Dwarf's Bones.--Notes on Art. + + "Dr. John Brown is a medical practitioner in Edinburgh, whose + leisure mements have been devoted to the cultivation of letters, + and who, without the slightest degree of formality or reserve, + pours out his feelings on paper, showing himself equally at home + in the sphere of genial criticism, pathetic sentiment, and gay + and sportive humor. His confessions have the frankness of + Montaigne, and almost the playful _naivete_ of Charles Lamb, + combined with a vein of tender earnestness that stamps the + individuality of the writer. The tone of his remarks is + uniformly healthful, showing a genuine love of nature, and a + cordial sympathy with all conditions of humanity."--_New York + Tribune._ + + +=SPARE HOURS.= Second Series, I vol. 16mo. With Steel Portrait and +Illustrations. Cloth, $2.00; Half calf, $3.75. + +_CONTENTS._--John Leech.--Marjorie Fleming.--Jeems the +Door-keeper.--Minchmoor.--The Enterkin.--Health: Five Lay Sermons to +Working-People.--The Duke of Athole.--Struan.--Thackeray's +Death.--Thackeray's Literary Career.--More of "Our Dogs."--Plea for a +Dog Home.--"Bibliomania."--"In Clear Dream and Solemn Vision."--A +Jacobite Family. + + "An excellent portrait of the author, showing a broad brow, and + a face replete with sense, shrewdness, humor, and resolute + force, adds to the attractiveness of one of the most attractive + volumes of essays published for a long period."--_Boston + Transcript._ + + +=RAB AND HIS FRIENDS.= Paper, 25 cents. + + "Dr. Brown's masterpiece is the story of a dog called 'Rab.' The + tale moves from the most tragic pathos to the most reckless + humor, and could not have been written but by a man of genius. + Whether it moves to laughter or to tears, it is perfect in its + way, and immortalizes its author."--_London Times._ + + "A veritable gem. It is true, simple, pathetic, and touched with + an antique grace."--_Fraser's Magazine._ + + +=MARJORIE FLEMING ("Pet Marjorie").= Paper, 25 cents. + + "A story of one of the most exquisite children, miraculously + brilliant, thoughtful, and fascinating."--_Detroit Post._ + + "A quaint, winning, sympathetic, beautiful sketch of + child-life."--_Springfield Republican._ + + +JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., + +PUBLISHERS, BOSTON. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Health, by John Brown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEALTH *** + +***** This file should be named 37640.txt or 37640.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/6/4/37640/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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