ON FRESH AIR. 



151 



modern commerce is allowed to take precedence 

 of health. " Quasrenda pecunia primum est." 

 God help the poor soul whom abject poverty 

 forces into those colossal repositories of pesti- 

 lential vapours where the direful effect of con- 

 finement puts one so much in mind of Sterne's 

 "Captive:" "He saw him pale and feverish. 

 For thirty years the western blast not once had 

 fanned his blood." 



Why should the farmer's boy be so rosy, 

 blithe, and joyous the live-long day, whilst the 

 poor fellow in the factory appears so broken 

 up and jaded ? they are both the sons of toil 

 and labour, but the work of the first is in reality 

 more fatiguing. The cause is obvious. A 

 tainted atmosphere scathes all the vigour of the 

 one, whilst the fresh air of heaven upholds the 

 other in all the full luxuriance of health. 



If we turn to a sick room, we are apt to 

 surmise that the doctor in attendance never 

 once takes the state of the lungs under his 

 serious consideration, except in cases of ap- 

 parent consumption. Although he has learned 

 from anatomy that pure air is most essential to 

 them, still he allows his patient to be in a tomb 

 as it were, walled round with dense curtains, 



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