58 THEORY OF HEALTH. 



If in such a condition to find deliverance you 

 would submit to any terms, think it not hard to 

 adopt those which, as they are easy, are able also 

 to save from such a calamity. Have first a sense 

 of the might and stedfastness of those laws which 

 belong to your constitution, and which the almighty 

 Founder of them never suffers to be broken with 

 impunity. It is no matter on what pretence or 

 from what cause the violation is made ; ill health, 

 disease, or death, will be the consequence. Piety 

 seeks seclusion, and thinks it does well ; but the 

 mind becomes vapid, the frame nervous, the ima- 

 gination gloomy, and the loved seclusion is soon 

 completed in the grave. Ignorance fares no better: 

 in the merry dance, a draught of cold water is 

 surely a harmless luxury, being the ready cure of 

 burning heat ; but the cure is followed by inflam- 

 mation and sudden death. The most helpless inno- 

 cence fares no better: the lovely child, in his playful 

 way, drinks the wrong vial, and quickly dies. 



Why is this life the dawn of an immortal 

 existence, the all that we have in this world, and 

 chiefly given as a preparation for eternity, so badly 

 guarded from a thousand causes of destruction, by 

 the non-observance of those laws which are ordained 

 for its advantage, but of which the violation is 

 fatal ? Why does the knowledge of those laws not 

 form a part in the elementary process of every 

 school and seminary of learning? why should not 

 ministers contribute to a boon so essential to the 

 designs of their calling, and the welfare of all men 



