52 THE BITE. 



indespensable that the minister should be his own 

 gardener, wholly as to knowledge, and partially as 

 to work. 



Now the book will not do without the bite; but 

 how to get at hand or heel to infuse a little of the 

 mania is the ticklish question. In order that you 

 may let me come at all near you, it is probable that 

 you should like first to be informed as to the na- 

 ture of the bite, the intensity of the virus, and its 

 effects on the system. It would be unreasonable 

 not to satisfy an inquiry so natural into the cir- 

 cumstances of the case; and I can assure you that 

 you need to be under no serious apprehension. You 

 may experience a little uneasiness at the first, from 

 a powerful excitement of the nervous system; but 

 the uneasiness is occasioned rather by the novelty 

 of the movement from a state of comparative rest 

 than from the motion itself. In this respect it 

 resembles the law of projectiles. There is first a 

 considerable disturbance produced amongst the 

 sleeping particles in overcoming their vis-inertiae ; 

 but, when once impelled, they find the motion so 

 agreeable, that were it not for obstacles they would 

 never cease to move. The effect of the bite does 

 not disappear till the decline of life not that the 

 mental and nervous energy are then expended, but 

 a more quiescent state is superinduced in accommo- 

 dation to the weakness of the bones and muscles. 

 From all the cases, however, that have come under 

 my observation, I can truly say that this decline 

 has been put off to a far greater distance from those 



