274 
THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 
exhibit. Now, in all these cases, some disorder must have 
been felt, or the patients would not have applied for a rem¬ 
edy; yet we see how large a proportion of the maladies 
which were brought forward, have either yielded to propet 
treatment, or, what is more probable, ceased of their own 
accord. We owe these frequent recoveries, and where re¬ 
covery does not take place, this patience of the human con¬ 
stitution under many of the distempers by which it is visit¬ 
ed, to two benefactions of our nature. One is, that she 
works within certain limits; allows of a certain latitude 
within which health may be preserved, and within the con¬ 
fines of which it only suffers a graduated diminution. Dif¬ 
ferent quantities of food, different degrees of exercise, dif¬ 
ferent portions of sleep, different states of the atmosphere, 
are compatible with the possession of health. So likewise 
it is with the secretions and excretions, with many internal 
functions of the body, and with the state, probably, of most 
of its internal organs. They may vary considerably, not 
only without destroying life, but withoi.t occasioning any 
high degree of inconveniency. The other property of our 
nature, to which we are still more beholden, is its constant 
endeavour to restore itself, when disordered, to its regular 
coui'se. The fluids of the body appear to possess a power 
of separating and expelling any noxious substance which 
may have mixed itself with them. This they do in erup¬ 
tive fevers, by a kind of despumation, as Sydenham calls 
it, analogous in some measure to the intestine action by 
which fermenting liquors work the yeast to the surface. 
The solids, on their part, when their action is obstructed, 
not only resume that action, as soon as the obstruction is 
removed, but they struggle with the impediment. They 
take an action as near to the true one, as the difficulty and 
the disorganization, with which they have to contend, will 
allow of. 
Of mortal diseases, the great use is to reconcile us to 
death. The horror of death proves the value of life. But 
it is in the power of disease to abate, or even extinguish, 
this horror; which it does in a wonderful manner, and of¬ 
tentimes by a mild and imperceptible gradation. Every 
man who has been placed in a situation to observe it, is 
surprised with the change which has been wrought in him¬ 
self, when he compares the view which he entertains of 
death upon a sick-bed, with the heart-sinking dismay with 
which he should some time ago have met it in health. 
There is no similitude between the sensations of a man 
