DISORDERED EYES. 343 



leflhefs of youth, I began fo early as my twelfth year 

 to make melancholy reflections on my condition, 

 I call, from time to time, a look into futurity ; and it 

 made me fh udder ! — My elder brothers had devoted 

 themfelves to commerce and a life of bufinefs ; and my 

 parents frequently expreffed their wifhes, that I, their 

 third fon, would addict myfelf to ftudy. But the 

 example of my brothers, and an anxious concern about 

 the confequences of the infirmity of my eyes, in the 

 choice of a calling in which a man has more need of 

 his eyes than other people, infpired me with an averfion 

 for fhidy, and at the fame time a great inclination to 

 trade. Of the buiineis of a counting-houfe in great 

 mercantile houfes, I had not then an idea, and imagin- 

 ed to myfelf that a merchant might tranfact his affairs 

 with very indifferent eyes. But my parents entertained 

 fuch good hopes of an improvement of my eyes as I 

 advanced in years, as likewife that I mould gradually 

 acquire a greater inclination to the faiences, that they 

 continued me at fchool. 



The latter enfued ; I acquired a difpofition to ftudy ; 

 but my eyes remained jufl as they were. Yet, as if 

 now concerned me more than ever to attend to their 

 perfect: cure, I left nothing untried that was recom - 

 mended to me as an approved remedy. Purging, 

 bleeding, cupping, and bliftering, were fo often repe ate d, 

 that my conftitution muft have been entirely ipoilt, if 

 my body had not been previously rendered exceedingly 

 robuiT. and hardy by a natural and free education in the 

 country. Bleeding and cupping were f~ me times of 

 fervice to me : but the benefits accruing from ikem was 

 ■very traniient ; and in a week or a fortnight after, my 



z 4 $yM 



