LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 109 



there is a low degree of strength, there is always a 

 high degree of SENSIBILITY you need only look 

 through the world. 



Let us first approach the couch of sickness. 

 Tread lightly ; for the slightest noise makes the 

 poor sufferer start, and gives him the headache. 

 Be careful to close the door after you; for the 

 faintest breath of air gives him cold. See how he 

 is shading his eyes with his hand ! for the few rays 

 of light which struggle feebly through the Venetian 

 blind are painful to them. Observe his hand : 

 how white and bloodless ! If you take it in your 

 own, you must handle it as you would an infant's 

 an ordinary pressure will make him cringe with 

 pain. His banker has just failed, and reduced him 

 to ruin ; but you must not breathe a syllable of this 

 in his hearing ! it would kill him. Do you observe 

 that rope suspended over the bed from the ceiling, 

 with a small cross-bar of wood attached to the end 

 of it ? So faint is the contractility of his muscles, 

 that he could not, without this contrivance, raise 

 himself in bed. Observe him, as he carries his cup 

 of gruel to his pallid lips ! Mark how the liquid 

 quivers in the vessel ! Hark, how its edge rattles 

 against his teeth, as he applies it to his mouth ! The 

 contractile property of the muscles of his arm is so 



