44 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



this moment, and every moment of your life, ac- 

 tively engaged in the pleasant task of eating you 

 up. They may be compared to a swarming host 

 of long, delicate, and slender leeches, attached, by 

 their innumerable mouths, to every point in your 

 fabric, and having their bodies gradually and pro- 

 gressively united together, until they all terminate 

 in one tail ; which tail perforates the side of one of 

 the large veins at the bottom of the neck, on the 

 left side ; so that whatever is taken in at their 

 mouths is all emptied, by the other extremity, into 

 that vein, where it becomes mixed with the blood 

 contained in that vein. 



Now, my dear John, for a moment turn your 

 eyes inward contemplate these greedy little cor- 

 morants, complacently if you can observe their 

 activity remark their unwearied assiduity behold 

 the dogged perseverance, the unerring certainty, 

 and beautiful precision, with which they are de- 

 vouring you. See ! mouthful after mouthful is 

 going going ! They never tire, nor are they ever 

 satisfied ; for every atom which each mouth sucks 

 up, and converts into fluid, is instantly conducted 

 along the body, towards the tail, by which it is dis- 

 charged into the above-mentioned vein. Thus, 

 though for ever feeding, they are for ever hungry. 



