DISORDERED EYES. I9I 



panies, and indeed all intercourfe with human fociety ; 

 feldom took even a folitary walk, and ufually parTed 

 1 7 or 18 of the four and twenty hours in writing and 

 reading. In the fpace of three years I fcarcely went to 

 bed three times before midnight, or at leafl I read till 

 that hour in bed. For eating I feldom allowed myfelf 

 more than five minutes ; nay I even ate Handing ; or, 

 if I fat, I had the book lying open befide me on the 

 napkin. In the twilight I ufed to go with my book 

 to the window, and by moonlight I frequently wrote 

 verfes in bed, as they came into my fancy in long 

 fleeplefs nights. 



In this manner I proceeded to ufe my eyes, as if it 

 had been impoffible to fpoil them ; and in fa6l they 

 ftood it out much longer than my bodily health. By 

 continued fitting I loft my appetite ; I regarded the 

 neceffity of eating more as a punimment than a plea- 

 fure. — In reality it is as prejudicial to the health to 

 eat alone, as to take no exercife. In the former cafe a 

 man is too liable to the habit of fwallowing his food 

 without fufficient maftication and mixture with the 

 juice of the falival glands, from whence a bad digeftion 

 rauft neceffarily arife. But this is not all. He that 

 lits down to eat without company and diverfion, al- 

 ways brings with him to table the fuhjecl on which 

 he was immediately before employed; and, for my 

 own part, I have never more vigoroufly exerted my 

 thoughts for founding a matter to the bottom than 

 while I was eating. The confequence of this practice 

 was, that I grew lick, without rightly knowing what 

 ailed me; that I became thin and wan, could no longer 

 bear any exertion of body, as heretofore, that my feet 

 1 failed 



