And this science is _Political Economy.--Senior's Lecture
on Political Economy._
* * * * *
PROLONGING LIFE.
The notion of prolonging life by inhaling the breath of young women, was
an agreeable delusion easily credited: and one physician who had himself
written on health, was so influenced by it, that he actually took
lodgings in a boarding-school, that he might never be without a constant
supply of the proper atmosphere. Philip Thicknesse, who wrote the
"Valetudinarian's Guide," in 1779, seems to have taken a dose whenever
he could. "I am myself," says he, "turned of sixty, and in general,
though I have lived in various climates, and suffered severely both in
body and mind; yet having always partaken of the breath _of young
women, whenever they lay in the way_, I feel none of the infirmities
which so often strike the eyes and ears in this great city (Bath) of
sickness, by men many years younger than myself."
_Wadd's Memoirs._
* * * * *
FELLOW FEELING.
It is told of a certain worthy and wealthy citizen, who has acquired
the reputation of being a considerable consumer of the good things of
the table, and has been "widened at the expense of the corporation,"
that on coming out of a tavern, after a turtle feast, a poor boy
begged charity of him--"For mercy's sake, sir, I am so very hungry!"
"Hungry!--hungry!--hey!--what!--complain of being hungry!--why I never
heard the like!--complain of being hungry!!--Prodigious!!!--why I'd give
a guinea to be hungry!!!--why, a hungry man (with a good dinner before
him) is the happiest fellow in the world!--There, (giving the boy
half-a-crown,) there, I don't want you to take my word for it: run
along, my fine fellow, and make the experiment yourself.
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