PRIVATE LIFE. CCCclxxiii 



most conversant. He was ever happy to commend, and 

 unwilling to censure; and when he could not assent to an 

 opinion, he would set forth its ingenuity, and so grace and 

 adorn it by his own luminous statement, that his opponent 

 could not feel lowered by his defeat, (a) 



His wit was brilliant, and when it flashed upon any Wit. 

 subject, it was never with ill-nature, which, like the crack 

 ling of thorns ending in sudden darkness, is only fit for a 

 fool s laughter; (b) the sparkling of his wit was that of the 



Query, whether the reasons of this are not, 1st, that the mind requires 

 rest; and 2ndly, that the spirit which produces thought is required for 

 digestion and exercise. Ramazini, on the Diseases of learned Men, says, 

 &quot; For while the brain is employed in digesting what the desire of knowledge 

 and the love of learning takes in, the stomach cannot but make an imperfect 

 digestion of the aliment, because the animal spirits are diverted and taken 

 up in the intellectual service; or these spirits are not conveyed to the 

 stomach with a sufficient influx, upon the account of the strong application 

 of the nervous fibres, and the whole nervous system, in profound study. 

 How much the influx of the animal spirits contributes to the due perform 

 ance of all the natural functions of the viscera, is manifest from the decay 

 of paralytic parts; for though these parts are supplied with vital juice by 

 the perpetual afflux of the arterial blood, yet they dwindle and decay by 

 being deprived of that nervous juice, or spirits, or whatever it is, which is 

 conveyed to them through the nerves/ 

 (a) See note (c), ante, 471. 



(6) Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron, 



Before I saw you : and the world s large tongue 



Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks ; 



Full of comparisons and wounding flouts ; 



Which you on all estates will execute, 



That lie within the mercy of your wit : 



To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain ; 



And therewithal, to win me, if you please, 



(Without the which I am not to be won,) 



You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day 



Visit the speechless sick, and still converse 



With groaning wretches ; and your task shall be, 



With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, 



To enforce the pained impotent to smile. 



