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Miscellanies
For Thomas's Massachusetts Spy
The Neighbour. No. IX.

"A STITCH in time will save nine," said my grandmother, when she observed a small hole in my stocking, and took her needle and drew it up. I have always thanked the old lady for this lesson of prudence, for it taught me to do things in season, and pointed out the inconveniences which attend delays. Were a person of a squeamish stomach, who sickens at the mention of an old proverb, to inculcate the same lesson, he would, perhaps, tell us, that "procrastination is thee thief of time." But I think my grandmother's adage equally as good - as well calculated to make an impression upon the mind.

The inconveniences, which accompany deferring until tomorrow, what may as well be done today, are too numerous to be mentioned. It not only gives time for the hole in the stocking to grow larger, but likewise brings the business of two days into one, which necessarily introduces hate, disorder, and confusion. The business of each individual, if taken in season, may be accomplished with ease; but if put off until the last moment, until necessity obliges him to procrastinate no longer, it is passed over in a hurry, and consequently done at the halves. It is observed by a certain author, that "whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well;" and to do a thing well we must, to use another saying of my grandmother's, "take time by the [[soretop]]." The same author says, that "the foundation, or first principles, of all scientifick knowledge, must be imbibed previous to the age of eighteen." I think I may with as much truth affirm that the person who would perform a large day's work, must begin beofre ten in the morning; or the farmer, who would defend his inclosures from [[the]] ravages of his neighbour's cattle, and [[see the]] year crowned with a plentiful harvest, must prepare his [[fencing]] [[?]] before it is time to be planting his corn. -My neighbour Dozy sleeps away the Spring and never thinks of repairing his fences, until his neighbours are sowing their grain. He then tackles them just so as will do from the present. The season advances so fast upon him, that he is obliged to sow his grain before the earth is half prepared to receive it, and his corn is planted late. He is called from his business almost every day to drive his own, or his neighbour's cattle out of his mowing ground, and half an hour at least is spent in mending the fence. His hoeing and haying crowd upon him at once, and one of the other must be neglected. Before either can be accomplished his grain is ripe for the sickle. His business of every kind is done out of season-his corn is not hoed, until it is overrun with weeds-his grain is shelled out, and devoured by the birds-his grass is not cut, until it is almost dried up in the field-his potatoes lie in the ground, until they are spoiled by the frost, and his corn is half covered with snow, before it is gathered. The consequence is, that his crops of every kind are very small-quite insufficient to support his family; and, notwithstanding he had a handsome patrimony left him by his father, for Dozy must in a few years more become a town charge. Wheras if he would attend the instruction of my grandmother, take time by the [[soretop]], and draw up the hole in his stocking in season, he might become a wealthy man and a useful citizen.

Influence of the American Revolution upon the Human Body
[From Medical Inquiries and Observations, by Dr. Rush]
Before I proceed to the second general division of this subject, I shall take notice, that more instances of apoplexies occured in the city of Philadelphia, in the winter of 1774, 5, than had been known in former years. I should have hesitated in recording this fact, had I not found the observation supported by a fact of the same kind, and produced by a nearly similar cause, in the appendix to the practical works of Doctor Baglivi, professor of physick and anatomy at Rome. After a very wet season in the winter of 1964, 5, he informs us that "apoplexies displayed their rage;" and perhaps (adds our author) that some part of this "epidemick illness was owing to the universal grief and domestick care, occasioned by all Europe being engaged in a war. All commerce was disturbed, and all the avenues of peace blocked up, so that the strongest heart could scarcely bear the thoughts of it." The winter of 1774, 5, was a period of uncommon anxiety among the citizens of America. Every countenance wore the marks of painful solicitude, for the event of a petition to the throne of Britain, which was to determine whether reconciliation, or a civil war, with all its terrible and destroying consequences, were to take place. The apoplectick fit, which deprived the world of the talents and virtues of the honourable Payton Randolph, Efq; while he filled the chair of Congress in 1775, appeared to be occasioned by the pressure of the uncertainty of those great events upon his mind. To the name of this illustrious patriot, several others might be added, who were affected by the apoplexy in the same memorable year. At this time, a difference of opinion upon the subject of the contest with Greatbritain, had fearcely taken place among the citizens of America.

II. The political events of the revolution produced different effects upon the human body, through the medium of the mind, accordingly as they acted upon the friends or enemies of the revolution.

I shall first describe its effects upon the former class of citizens of the United States.

Many persons of infirm and delicate habits, were restored to perfect health, by the change of place, or occupation, to which the war exposed them. This was the case in a more especial manner with hysterical women, who were much interested in the successful issue of the contest. The same effects of a civil war upon the hysteria, were observed by Dr. Cullen, in Scotland, in the years 1745 and 1746. It may perhaps help to extend our ideas of the influence of the passions upon diseases, to add, that when either love, jealousy, grief, or even devotion, wholly engross the female mind, they seldom fail, in like manner, to cure, or suspend hysterical complaints.

The population in the United States was more rapid from births during the war, than it had ever been in the same number of years since the settlement of the country.

I am disposed to ascribe this increase of births chiefly to the quantity and extensive circulation of money, and to the facility of procuring the means of subsistence during the war, which favoured marriages among the labouring part of the people. But I have sufficient documents to prove, that marriages were more fruitful than in former years, and that a considerable number of unfruitful marriages became fruitful during the war. In 1783, the year of the peace, there were several children born of parents who had lived many years together without issue.

Mr. Hume informs us, in his history of England, that some old people, upon hearing the news of the restoration of Charles the IId, died suddenly of joy. There was a time when I doubted the truth of this assertions; but I am now disposed to believe it, from having heard of a similar effect from an agreeable political event, in the course of the American revolution. The door keeper of Congress, an aged man, died suddenly, immediately after hearing od the capture of Lord Cornwall's army. His death was universally ascribed to a violent emotion of political joy. This species of joy appears to be one of the strongest emotions that can agitate the human mind.

Perhaps the influence of that ardor in trade and speculation which seized many of the friends of the revolution, and which was excited by the fallacious nominal amount of the paper money should rather be considered as a disease than as a passion. It unhinged the judgment, deposed the moral faculty, and filled the imaginations, in many people, with airy and impracticable schemes of wealth and grandeur. Desultory manners, and a peculiar species of extempore conduct, were among its characteristic symptoms. It produced insensibility to cold, hunger, and danger. The trading towns, an in some instances the extremities of the United States, were frequently visited in a few hours or days by persons affected by this disease; and hence "to travel with the speed of a speculator" became a common saying in many parts of the country. This species of insanity (if I may be allowed to call it by that name) did not require the confinement of a bedlam to cure it, like the south sea madness described by Doctor Mead. Its remedies were the depreciation of the paper money, and the events of the peace.

The political events of the revolution produced upon its enemies very different effects from those which have been mentioned.

The hypochondriasis of Doctor Cullen, occured in many instances in persons of this description. In some of them, the terror and the distress of the revolution, brought on a true melancholia. The causes which produced these diseases, may be reduced to four heads.
1. The loss of former power or influence in government. 2. The destruction of the hierarchy of the English church in America. 3. The change in the habits of diet, company and manners, produced by the annihilation of just debts by means of depreciated paper money. And, 4. The neglect, insults, and oppression, to which the loyalists were exposed, from individuals, and in several instances, from the laws of some of the states.

It was observed in Southcarolina, that several gentlemen who had protected their estates by swearing allegiance to the British government, died soon after the evacuation of Charleston by the British army. Their deaths were ascribed to the neglect with which they were treated by their ancient friends, who had adhered to the goverment of the United States. The disease was called by the common people, the Protection Fever.

From the causes which produced this hypochondriasis, I have taken the liberty of distinguishing it by the specifick name of the Revolutiana.

In some cases, this disease was rendered fatal by exile and confinement; and, in others, by those persons who were afflicted with it, seeking relief from spirituous liquors.

The termination of the war by the peace in 1783, did not terminate the American revolution. The minds of the citizens of the United States were wholly unprepared for their new situation. The excess of the passion for liberty, inflamed by the successful issue of the war, produced, in many people, opinions and conduct which could not be removed by reason, nor restrained by government. For a while they threatened to render abortive the goodness of heaven to the United States, in delivering them from the evils of slavery and war. The extensive influence which these opinions had upon the understandings, passions, and morals of many of the citizens of the United States, constituted a species of insanity, which I shall take the liberty of distinguishing by the name of Anarchia.

I hope no offence will be given by the freedom of any of these remarks. An inquirer after philosophical truth, should consider the passion of men in the same light that he does the lawes of matter or motion. The friends and enemies of the American revolution must have been more or less than men, if the could have sustained the magnitude and rapidity of the events that characterised it, without discovering some marks of human weakness, both in body and mind. Perhaps these weaknesses were permitted, that human nature might receive fresh honours in America, by the contending parties (whether produced by the controversies about independence or the national goverment) mutually forgiving each other, and uniting in plans of general order and happiness.

Extract from Mr. Necker's Treatise on the Importance of Religious Opinions.
Twelfth Chapter.
That there is a God!
That there is a God! How is it possible to avoid being penetrated with an awful respect in uttering these words? ¿How reflect on them without the deepest humility, and even an emotion of surprise, that man, this weak creature, this atom dispersed in the immensity of space, undertakes to add some weight to a truth, of which all nature is the splendid witness? However, if this truth be our supreme good, if we be nothing without it, ¿How can we banish it from our minds? ¿Does it not constrain us to dwell continually on the subject? Compared with it, all other thoughts are insignificant and uninteresting. It gives birth to, and sustains all the sentiments on which the happiness of an intelligent creature depends. I confess, I tremblingly discussed the different objections which are employed to destroy our confidence in the existence of a Supreme Being. I dreaded the melancholy which those arguments produced. I was afraid to feel the impression of it myself, and this to hazard the opinion most dear to my heart, and most essential to my happiness. It appeared to me, that a few general ideas, supported by lively feelings, would have been sufficient for my tranquility: And without an interest more extended, without the desire of opposing, according to my powers, a spirit of indifference and false philosophy, which is every day gaining ground, I should never have stepped beyond my circle. But I am far from regreting the part I have taken. I have ran over, without much trouble, those books where the most pernicious doctrines are ingeniously disseminated; and have thought that a person endowed with common sense, on whom metaphysical subtleties were obtruded, would resemble those savages, who are brought sometimes among us, and who, from the depraved refinement of our morals and manners, have often recalled us, by some natural reflections, to those simple principles which we have abandoned to those ancient truths whose vestages are loft.

The whole structure of religion would be overturned if, by the strength or artifices of reasoning, men could destroy our confidence in the existence of a Supreme Being. Morality, being detached from the opinions which sustain it, would remain a wavering, unsupported notion, only defended by a policy, whole power time would insensibly weaken. A fatal languor invading every mind, ¿Where would be that universal interest, that sentiment felt by all men, and proper to form a general alliance between them? Then those, who with pure intentions, can only be guided and sustained by an intimate persuasion, would retire sad, and leave to other the care of supporting oral order by fictions and falsehoods. They would pity hat dismayed race, called to appear and pass away like flowers, which bloom but for a day. They would despise those animated phantoms, which only come to make a buz with their vanity and trivial passions, and fall, in a little while, into eternal oblivion. All that appears beautiful in the universe, and excites our enthusiasm, would soon lose its splendour and enchantment, if we perceived nothing in this brilliant scene, but the play of some atoms, and the uniform walk of blind may be otherwise, that it acquires a claim to our admiration. In short, that foul, that spirit, which vivifies a man-- that faculty of thought which surprises and confounds those who reflect-- would only appear a vain movement, if nothing were before, or were to follow-- if some unknown breath or general intelligence, did not animate nature. But we have dwelt too long on those gloomy thoughts. Reassume your light and life, admirable works of God. Come, and confound the pride of some, and comfort others. Come, and take possession of our souls, and direct our affections towards him whom we ought to love-- towards him who is the eternal model of perfect wisdom, and unlimited goodness!

I shall not endeavor to prove, that there is a God, by reciting all the wonders the works of nature display to out eyes. Several celebrated writers have already done it, and have missed their aim. Infinity can only be represented by astonishment and respect, which overwhelms all our thoughts: And when we labour to explain the successive and varied picture of the wonders of nature, this change of objects is more calculated to relax our admiration than to increase it; for any changes to ease out mind, by affording those relaxations which our weakness has need of; and if we were to investigate only one phenomenon, we should soon discover the utmost extent of our faculties. We find the limits of our understanding in the examination of the organization of the smallest insect, as well as in observing the faculties of the soul: And the mysteries of the simplest vegetation are as far above the reach of our intelligence, as the principal agent of the universe.

It is the hymn of praise to the Supreme Being, and not as necessary instruction, that I freely follow the course of my thoughts. I shall begin by throwing a rapid glance on the principal characters of wisdom and grandeur, which we are all equally struck with, when we contemplate the wonder of the universe.

What a sight is that of the world! What a magnificent picture for those who can be roused out of the state of indifference, in which habit has thrown them! We know not where to begin, or stop, when we expatiate on so many wonders: And the most noble of all is the faculty which has been bestowed on us of admiring and conceiving them. What an astonishing and sublime relation, is that of the innumerable beauties of nature, with the intelligence which permits us to enjoy, and to be made happy by them! What relation so surprising, as that of the order and harmony of the universe, with the moral intelligence which enables us to anticipate the enjoyments of wisdom and unclouded knowledge! Nature is immense, and all that it contains, all that it spreads with so much splendour seems within the reach fo our sensibility, or the powers of our mind: And these faculties, invisible and incomprehensible, unite to form that wonder of wonders, which we fall felicity. Let not these plain words turn out attention from the magical ideas which they represent. It is because the grand phenomena of our existence cannot either be defined or expressed many ways, that they are so much more wonderful; and those words, used by common consent, soul, mind, sensation, life, happiness, and many others besides which we pronounce so slightly, confound not lets our understanding, when we wish to discuss the essence of the properties of which they are they sign. It is for this reason, among several others, that the admiration of particulars in the works of nature, is always insufficient for those who have sensibility; as such admiration is necessarily placed between two ideas susceptible of being known-- ideas which we connect through the aid of our knowledge. But the charm of our relation with the wonders which surround us, arises from experiencing every instant the impression of an infinite grandeur. and feeling the necessity of flying to that mild refuge of ignorance and weakness, the sublime idea of a God, We are continually carried towards this idea by the vain efforts which we make, in order to penetrate the secrets of our own nature: And when I fix my attention on those astonishing

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