LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 167 



forty hours under a disease which will often kill 

 its victim in twenty-four; and that however mild 

 it might have been at its onset, it has now, by the 

 aid of brandy and gin, been urged on to incurable 

 violence. 



Experience may be the mother of Wisdom, for 

 aught I know ; but she is certainly the mother of 

 Mischief also. Experience may teach a man to 

 make bricks, and to lay bricks; but she can never 

 teach him the practice of physic. Money is of no 

 use to a man, unless he knows how to lay it out : 

 and experience is unprofitable, unless a man knows 

 how to apply it. And as money may be laid out to 

 the injury of the spender, so experience, misapplied, 

 becomes a curse in the hands of its possessor. 

 Farewell ! 



E. JOHNSON. 



