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1Author:  Burke William M.DRequires cookie*
 Title:  The mineral springs of western Virginia  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: Among the numerous advantages bestowed on Virginia by a bountiful Providence, there are perhaps none more important than the salubrity of climate and rich profusion of mineral waters of its transmontane territory. The happy combinations of these blessings, added to its central position, will not only make Western Virginia the great Mecca of invalid pilgrims, but its pellucid fountains, its beautiful villas, its secluded glens and majestic mountains, and the rich drapery of its noble forests, will ever attract to it the admirers of Nature's own workmanship. I have just received your letter of the 7th inst., soliciting my opinion and experience of the remedial effects of the waters of the Hot Springs in chronic diarrhœa and difficult menstruation. "In April, 1833, I was seized with cholera in a southern climate, from which I had scarcely recovered when intermittent fever attacked me. This continued at intervals until September, when congestive fever intervened, and continued with great violence for the space of nine days, and only subsided to give place to the intermittent again. From this, morbid appetite began to prey upon me. The ague alternated with a severe dysentery until March, 1834. Ostematous swellings of the lower extremities made their appearance, but gave way to the use of alteratives and muriated tincture of iron. I became much emaciated and debilitated; my spleen became much enlarged; an excessively morbid condition of the stomach continued; an ungovernable craving for food of the grossest description, and other indigestible substances. In the mean time, an uncontrollable diarrhœa, which has given me more uneasiness than every other symptom, came on. "In the month of January, 1806, during my attendance on the Virginia Legislature, of which I was then a member, I was very sorely afflicted with an attack of inflammatory rheumatism; and about the first of July, in the same year, after the disease had assumed a chronic state, I arrived at the Hot Springs in Virginia much debilitated, requiring two persons to put me in and take me out of the carriage. I remained at the Springs sixty-three days, using the bath once every day except three. I was weighed the day I got to the Springs, and also on the day I left them; and if I was correctly weighed, I gained sixty pounds in weight in sixty-three days, and remained free from that complaint for upwards of twenty years. "In 1826, I had a protracted attack of bilious fever, which left me in this condition. My stomach and bowels being much disordered, accompanied with great flatulency, gave me from 4 to 6 passages every 24 hours, and sometimes oftener; my stools mixed with blood more or less, and sometimes with matter very offensive. At length a tumor formed in the lower intestine about the size of a small walnut, attended with great heat and itching, which ultimately broke, and I occasionally discharged considerable quantities of blood and matter by stool. I then thought, and still think, that the whole rectum was much diseased, and I should be compelled to submit to an operation or fall a victim to the disease. In addition to many other sufferings, in the fall of 1831, I had a severe rheumatic attack, which pervaded my whole muscular system, but was most distressing about my breast, chest, bowels and hips. In this situation, about the first of July following, I went to the Hot Springs barely able to sit up, and used the waters freely, drinking and bathing until the 30th of August, when I left them much relieved in every way. The ensuing summer I again returned to the Hot Springs, and used the waters by drinking and bathing until the last of August, when I returned home entirely relieved of bowel disease and nearly so of my rheumatism. I have again this summer visited these Springs, where I have been for three weeks using the waters as before, and believe myself entirely relieved of all my complaints, except a little stiffness in my hips and back. At your request, and for the benefit of the afflicted, I give you as near as I can, a statement of my case, which has been complicated and difficult to describe. I am a resident of Detroit, State of Michigan. In July, 1829, I was attacked with a bilious fever and severe inflammation of the stomach, and was reduced very low by bleeding and medicine. I remained in a feeble state about six months, when an ulcer came out on the side of my ancle nearly the size of a dollar. This has continued on one or the other, and sometimes on both of my ancles, ever since except about two months in March and April last. My legs have been so much swelled, that I have been compelled to bandage them to the knee, most of the time. About three years ago, a rheumatic disease set in, the cords of my legs 8* swelled to the knees, and at times to the body, (mostly on the inside) with hard lumps on the cords frequently as large as hickory nuts, and extremely painful. "In the summer of 1836 I visited the Virginia Springs, with liver disease, as stated by many physicians. I used the Sulphur Waters for some time, but without any decided effect. I then came to the Hot Springs, and after using the Spout bath for a few days, the pain in the right side, from a dull, increased to an acute, which induced me to apply to Dr. Goode for advice. He gave me ten grains of calomel, which brought about a most happy change in my feelings and health; producing copious discharges of dark bilious matter, when forty grains, often before taken, produced but a limited effect. I give you the following statement of my case. About ten years ago I became dyspeptic, and was unwell in the usual way, when at length I became much worse; almost every thing taken in the stomach produced pain, and frequently violent spasms, which threatened death. I experienced no relief except when under the influence of calomel. Tiring of which, after suffering for about two years, I determined to try the Sulphur Waters. In compliance with your request, I transmit you an account of my case. In the latter part of 1836, I had a violent attack of cholica pictonum, or white lead disease; which, in despite of the most energetic treatment, terminated in a paralysis of my arms and hands, which deprived me almost entirely of the use of them, with great emaciation and general debility and prostration. I received on yesterday your message from Mr. Seth Ward; it affords me pleasure to comply. The case of rheumatism you desired the particulars of was that of Mr. J— C—, of Charleston, S. C., aged eighteen years. He had been seriously afflicted for some time before he was put under my protection, which was on the 17th day of June, when we left Charleston for the Virginia Springs. We arrived at the White Sulphur on the 28th of June, and remained there until the 9th of July, taking from eight to ten tumblers of the water daily. I am now erecting a continuous line of framed house (one story high) one hundred and sixty feet long, by twenty-one feet in width, containing twenty-four (fire) rooms, ten feet by twelve feet in clear, and all upon the same level, with a neat portico in front the entire length. I have removed the house from the Bath near the hotel, and I mean to convert the bath into a pool with a railing around it. In the place of this I shall make two spacious baths sixteen by twenty up at the Red Chalybeate Springs. A new walk from the centre of the hotel towards these Springs, together with other improvements not only about the hotel, but in the road, fences, &c., I hope will add both comfort and pleasure to my future visitors. Through my friends, J. S. Cook, Esq. and Dr. H. J. Bowditch, I received specimens of the water, red deposit and mud, from the Red Sulphur Springs, in Virginia, for chemical analysis. It was with great interest that I engaged in the experiments, as very little was known of the chemical composition of this water, although its medicinal effects had rendered the watering-place a celebrated one. I have sent Mr. Cook an account of the results obtained. Since my observations were communicated, Mr. Cook has allowed me to peruse a copy of a letter from Professor Rogers, dated in May, 1835, in which is contained a notice of a peculiar organic matter contained in the water. He has therefore anticipated my discovery, by some years. I do not, however, consider this substance identical with baragene or glairine of the Warm Springs of Italy and France. It is, so far as I know, new and peculiar, and seems to be an azotised base combined with sulphur, and so combined as to neutralize the distinctive characters of the sulphur. The hy-drosulphuric acid gas (sulphuretted hydrogen) found in the water, is produced through the agency of this body; either by its action on the sulphates present, or more probably the substance itself disengages hydro. sulp. acid, before reaching the surface of the earth, abstracting oxygen from air already dissolved in the water. It is in favour of this view that less oxygen is present in this than in common water, the mixture of oxygen and nitrogen in river water often giving 38 per 100 of oxygen. I have minutely examined the saline contents of the water, and the results sent you are those which have been checked by independent experiments. The almost entire absence of chlorine, or muriatic acid, is a singular fact. I examined every bottle for chlorine, and although in most of them traces were found, they were not constantly observed, and quite as likely to be derived from accidental sources, as from the water. The largest quantity found would have carried my decimals to four, or five, and is wholly unimportant. The water gives by tests indications like those observed when chlorine is present, but the appearance is fallacious. I have arranged the acids and basis according to the views of Murray and Berzelius, and experiments show that in this case these views are correct. The alkaline action of this water is due to the solution of the carbonate of magnesia in carbonic acid (Murray's fluid magnesia), and the peculiar substance distinctive of this water seems to be dissolved in this solution. I. When separated from a solution by evaporation, or by drying from a gelatinous state, it forms greasy films, which do not darken solutions of lead or copper. We think that a candid review of the analysis of the Red Sulphur and of our remarks on its action, founded on a long observation and experience, will lead every unbiassed mind to conclude that the claims of this water as a curative agent are well founded; but we do not mean to rest our case here; we can prove beyond a doubt that this water exerts an influence over the circulation that no other agent has been known to exert. The evidences which we have received of this fact in the course of our nine years of ownership, would fill a large volume; but we will content ourselves with publishing a few recent cases in addition to those given by the late Dr. Huntt in his pamphlet on this Spring. Few persons were better qualified than that lamented physician to make observations on a mineral water. His perception was clear, his observation acute, his discrimination accurate, his judgment sound, and his integrity 19 incorruptible; and after witnessing with his own eyes the effects of this water, and reflecting well and long on what he was about to assert, he pays it the following compliment: On my way to this place, at a public house where we stopped to dine, I picked up a newspaper, the Western Whig, dated 14th August (last month), in which I find there had been a committee formed to take into consideration a report prevailing prejudicial to the curative qualities of the Mineral Waters at the Red Sulphur Springs, &c., &c., which report was proven to be false by said committee, as well as by a number of certificates signed by gentlemen of high reputation and intelligence. I have purposely delayed advising you of the state of my health since my return to this city. The change which came over me while under the operation of the Red Sulphur water was so sudden, and so great, that I confess I doubted whether the good effects would be permanent. It is now upwards of two months since I left the Red Sulphur Spring, and I am happy to be able to assure you that my health is even better than when I left you. My cough and expectoration, 21 which was confined almost entirely to the morning when I returned to this city, has now pretty much subsided, and my lungs are evidently stronger than they were then. I have, moreover, gained some two or three pounds in weight since I returned. Having been a sufferer for more than three years, from organic disease of the heart, connected with bronchitis, pronounced so by eminent physicians of S. Carolina, I had the good fortune to visit your Spring, and using the water freely for nearly two weeks, with a decidedly good effect upon my obstinate disease, I feel it a duty I owe to the public, and to other sufferers like myself, to say, that I find it to possess none of the irritating quality that some persons suppose. So highly have I been pleased with the medicinal qualities of the water of your Spring, that I beg you will send me a barrel of it containing 30 or 35 gallons. The undersigned, visiters at the Salt Sulphur Springs, prompted by a sense of grateful respect for your kind and unwearied attentions to ourselves and families, beg leave to convey to you our assurance of entire satisfaction with the arrangements of your establishment. Such have been the cordial hospitalities and ample and varied accommodations of your house, that we shall ever look back to our temporary residence with you with pleasure and delight. Having been greatly benefitted by drinking the waters of your valuable Spring, I deem it a duty to my fellow-beings to leave this statement of my case in your hands.—For six months previous to my coming here, I had been suffering with a most obstinate constipation of the bowels, which I had tried in vain to remove by medicine, diet, and exercise; and during that time I could not obtain a stool without the aid of an injection, and great pain attending it. After being here ten days, the Salt Sulphur water began to act freely on my bowels, and now, at the expiration of a month, I am glad to inform you that the constipation is entirely removed, my health and strength restored, and I am now going home in cheerful spirits to my friends. Mrs. — left her house in a state of great debility, scarcely able to walk, and was but little recruited by the journey. She reached the Salt Sulphur on the 20th July having stopped a week at the White Sulphur on the way but without using the water. After remaining three days at the Salt Sulphur, and partaking of the waters there she proceeded to the Red Sulphur, and staid there six days returning on the 29th July to the Salt, having, while at the Red, used two or three tumblers of the water per diem; remained at the Salt Sulphur until the 9th of August. When Mrs. — arrived first at the Salt Sulphur, she weighed 91 pounds, and was unable to walk any distance, or use any degree of exercise, without suffering greatly. Some years since I was afflicted with an obstinate and dangerous disease, from which I was unable to obtain relief until I visited the Salt Sulphur Spring, near Union, in the county of Monroe. The use of that water restored me to perfect health; which makes it my duty to state, at the request of the proprietors, the high opinion I have formed of its medicinal efficacy. I consider the Salt Sulphur water eminently useful in all cases that require cathartic remedies, particularly such diseases of the liver and stomach as proceed from biliary obstructions. The operation upon the bowels is active, but not violent; cleansing effectually the alimentary canal, and promoting digestion in a remarkable degree. The cathartic tendency of the water is so mild and certain, that the stomach and bowels are never oppressed or irritated; and whilst the healthy functions of the system are enabled to take their course, the suspended causes of disease are gradually worn away. In the year 1812 I visited the Sweet and Sulphur Springs. I was then laboring under a nervous debility and extreme costiveness. I derived much benefit from the use of all those waters, but found none so strong and active as the Salt Sulphur. I concur in the opinion with many, that this is a valuable water, and should be more sought after. Intending to leave your excellent and perfectly arranged establishment to-morrow on my return home, I cannot, however, do so without expressing my thanks to you for your politeness and attention to myself, (and I observed the same attention to others,) during my stay at the Salt Sulphur; and I have much pleasure in saying, that the use of the Salt Sulphur Spring water has been eminently beneficial to me, for, prior to my coming here, I had been suffering for upwards of eighteen months from a total derangement of stomach from a long residence in a warm climate (Bermuda), say, bad bile, great acidity of stomach, and an overflow of mucus to the lungs; in short, I had the dyspepsia with all its disagreeables, accompanied with debility of body. Having tried the White Sulphur for ten days without benefit, I came here, and in a week I found relief from all my complaints; but my medical adviser, who practised at the White, recommended me to try the Red Sulphur, notwithstanding my having written to him of my improved state,—my pulse, for one thing, being reduced from 80 to 73 beats. I went to the Red, and staid there eight days;* *We have a distinct recollection of this gentleman's case. He had been laboring under chronic irritation of the stomach, which, by too free use of the Sulphur waters, and perhaps imprudence in diet, was converted into an acute form, about the time he reached the Red Sulphur. Dr. Saunders, then resident physician at the Red, instituted a vigorous treatment, which in a few days subdued the attack, and the patient's system was now in a condition to receive all the benefit which he subsequently derived from the Salt Sulphur. my pulse rose on the third day to 82, the fifth day 89, the sixth day to 96 and 100. I was obliged to be leeched, which reduced my pulse to 84. I had three headaches and great dryness of tongue; so on the 9th day in the morning, I returned to the Salt, where, on the fourth day, my pulse was again at 73, on the sixth day at 71, and has continued from that day to this, varying only from 71 to 72, night and morning. I have been affected for five or six years with an obstinate disease of the liver, and dyspepsia, and have visited nearly all the Springs in the mountains without having experienced any material benefit, until I came to this place. I have applied to some of the best physicians without being relieved, but am happy to state, that the Salt Sulphur water has had a most beneficial effect in removing many of the inconveniences attending my disease, insomuch that I am induced to carry a portion of it home with me. During the summer of 1845 I was induced to try the Iodine Spring, at the Salt Sulphur Springs, in Monroe, for an obstinate and (as I then supposed) incurable eruption on the skin of one of my children. The disease first appeared, at the age of three weeks, in the shape of small red spots upon the cheeks, succeeded very soon by little watery pimples, which rose and broke continually, but without healing. In a short time the affected parts increased in size as well as quantity, until they extended from the face to the head and neck, and thence over the entire body—presenting one uniform and consolidated appearance of disease over the whole surface. The neck, head, and face discharged matter from the scabs, and the legs from the knee down. For fourteen months I kept the child constantly under medical treatment, but without any permanent benefit, or any prospect of recovery, until, at the instance of Dr. M.—(who at that time was residing at the Salt,) I was induced to make a trial of its waters. He represented the disease as a constitutional affection of the blood which could not be relieved, and which ought not to be arrested very suddenly, but assured me, very confidently, that it would yield to nothing with so much certainty and success as to the external application of the Iodine water at the Salt. The child was bathed twice a day in the water made gently tepid, of which it drank pretty copiously during the ceremony. About the fourth day there was an evident change for the better, and the child from that time continued to improve daily, until at the expiration of six weeks, the sores had healed, the scabs had disappeared, the pimples and splotches had subsided, and the skin for the first time for more than fourteen months assumed a natural and healthy appearance. I have no doubt by remaining a few weeks longer every vestige of the eruption would have been removed. But I consider the disease at this time as effectually conquered, and as having changed its type completely. Indeed, the only indications ever visible are an occasional roughness on the skin. As we used no medicine, except occasionally some mild cathartic, I feel no hesitation in ascribing all the results that I have stated to the effects of the Iodine water.
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2Author:  Sawyer Lemuel 1777-1852Requires cookie*
 Title:  A biography of John Randolph, of Roanoke  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: On the 10th of January, 1800, Mr. Randolph made his maiden speech on Mr. Nicholas's resolution for reducing the army. In the course of his remarks, he applied the term "raggamuffins" to the soldiery in general. On the following night, while he was seated in a front row of a box at the Chestnut street theatre, in company with some friends, members of the House, two officers of the army or navy, in an adjoining box, just before the curtain rose, began to vociferate to the orchestra, "Play up, you d—d raggamuffins," and repeated it at intervals during the performance. The friends of Mr. Randolph, apprehending some mischief or personal insult, sat closely on each side of him, and put him on his guard. At the conclusion of the piece as they arose to depart, Mr. R. felt some one seize him by the hair of the head from behind and give him a violent pull, that nearly brought him down on his seat. Turning suddenly around, he found the two officers standing close by, when he asked, "Which of these two d—d rascals did that?" No answer was returned, and his friends, taking him between them, retired to their respective lodgings without further molestation. The next day Mr. Randolph wrote a letter to the President, in which he complained of this treatment by two officers of the army or navy (he did not know which), with evident intention to provoke him to a course of conduct which might, in some sort, justify the hostile designs they entertained towards him, from the execution of which they were only deterred by the presence of several of his friends. He stated that he was acquainted with the name of one of these young men, who appeared to have so false an estimate of true dignity of character, who seemed to have mistaken brutality for spirit, and an armed combination against the person of an individual for an indication of courage. He was called McKnight, rank unknown. Mr. Christie, a member of the House, appeared to know him; and that gentleman, with Capt. Campbell Smith, who, as he understood, endeavored to deter those rash young men from their scheme, and whose conduct would evince, if, indeed, there were any need of proof, that the character of the man and the citizen is not incompatible with the soldier, can give an account of the various instances of misconduct which were exhibited by the parties. As the enclosed letter from a member of your body, received by me on the night of Saturday, the 11th instant, relates to the privileges of the House, which in my opinion ought to be inquired into by the House itself, if anywhere, I have thought proper to submit the whole letter and its tendencies to your consideration, without any other comments on its matter and style. But as no gross impropriety of conduct on the part of officers holding commissions in the army or navy of the United States, ought to pass without due animadversions, I have directed the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to investigate the conduct complained of, and report to me without delay such a statement of facts as will enable me to decide on the course which duty and justice shall appear to prescribe. Your note handed to me last night by Mr. Goode, in which you say, `understanding that the friends of the administration and others will support you for the Senate in opposition to Mr. Randolph, you desire to understand distinctly whether they have my consent, or not; and if not, request me to say whether I will not abandon the chair of state at this time, to accept a seat in the Senate,' deserves and shall have a candid reply. Let me premise that I am unacquainted with the political preferences of those disposed to sustain me for the Senate. Suffice it to say, that my political opinions on the fundamental principles of the government are the same with those espoused by Mr. Randolph, and I admire him most highly for his undeviating attachment to the constitution, manifested at all times, and through all the events of a long political life; and if any man votes for me under a different persuasion, he most grievously deceives himself. Yon ask me whether I have yielded my consent to oppose him. On the contrary, I have constantly opposed myself to all solicitations. I desire most earnestly to be left at peace. There is no motive which could induce me to seek to change my present situation for a seat in the Senate at this time. I cannot admit that to be one in a body of forty-eight members is to occupy a more elevated station than that presented in the chief magistracy of Virginia. My private interests, intimately connected with the good of my family, are more highly sustained by remaining where I am, than by the talked-of change. There is then no consideration, public or private, which could lead me to desire it. From the first to the last, everywhere and to all with whom I have conversed, this has been my uniform language. Your last inquiry is one, which, urged by those who felt disposed to sustain me, I have constantly declined answering. Propriety and a due regard to consistency of deportment require me to decline an answer now. Should the office, in opposition to my wishes (a result which I cannot anticipate), be conferred upon me, I shall then give to the expression of the legislative will such reflection and pronounce such decision as my sense of what is due to it may seem to require. These explanations might have been had by each and all of you, gentlemen, verbally if you had sought to have attained them in that way, which might possibly have discovered a greater degree of confidence in me. But as they are now given, you are at liberty to use them in any mode you please, reserving to myself a similar privilege. We take great pleasure in complying with the wishes of a number of the members of the Legislature and citizens of Richmond, to ask the favor of your company to a dinner at the Eagle Hotel, to-morrow, at 5 o'clock, as the best mode they can adopt to evince the high sense they entertain of your distinguished public services, and firmness in maintaining the principles of the Constitution, and resisting the mischievous measures of an infatuated administration. The feebleness of my health admonishes me of the imprudence I commit in accepting your very kind and flattering invitation, but I am unable to practise the self-denial which prudence would impose. I have only to offer my profound acknowledgments for an honor to which I am sensible of no claim on my part except the singleness of purpose with which I have endeavored to uphold our common principles, never more insidiously and vigorously assailed than now, and never more resolutely defended and asserted. Your very kind and flattering invitation found me confined by a painful and distressing disease, which only leaves me power to express my sense of the honor done me, and my regret at being unable to partake of the hospitality and festivity of my Prince Edward friends, to whom I am bound by every tie that can unite me to the kindest and most indulgent constituents that ever man had. "In the name of God—amen. I, John Randolph, of Roanoke, in the county of Charlotte, do ordain this writing, written with my own hand, this 4th of May, 1819, to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all others whatever. I give my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience tells me they are justly entitled. It has a long time been a matter of the deepest regret to me, that the circumstances under which I inherited them, and the obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have prevented my manumitting them in my lifetime, which is my full intention to do, in case I can accomplish it. All the residue of my estate (with the exceptions herein made), whether real or personal, I bequeath to William Leigh, Esquire, of Halifax, attorney at law, to the Rev. William Meade, of Frederick, and to Francis S. Key, Esquire, of Georgetown, in trust for the following uses and purposes, viz. 1. To provide one or more tracts of land, in any of the States or Territories, not exceeding in the whole, four thousand acres, nor less than two thousand, to be partitioned and apportioned by them in such manner as may seem best, among said slaves. 2d. To pay the expense of their removal and of furnishing them with the necessary cabins, clothes and utensils. 3d. To pay the expense, not to exceed four hundred dollars per annum, of the education of John Randolph Clay, until he shall arrive at the age of twenty-three, leaving him my injunction to scorn to eat the bread of idleness or dependence. 4th. To pay to Theodoric Bland Dudley ten thousand dollars. 5th. With the residue of said estate to found a college, to be called Roanoke College. I give to Theodore B. Dudley all my books, plate, household and kitchen furniture, and all my liquors; also my guns and pistols, and the choice of six of my horses or brood mares, and my single chaise, with my best riding saddle and valise. It is my wish and desire that my executors give no bond or security for the trust reposed in them. In witness whereof, &c., &c. * * * * "I hope you have not exposed yourselves to the inconvenience of any debt, however small; but I know this is an error into which youthful heedlessness is too apt to run. If you have escaped it, you have exercised more judgment than I possessed at your age, the want of which cost me many a heart-ache. When any bauble caught my fancy, I would perhaps buy it on credit for twice as much as it was worth. In a day or two, cloyed with the possession of what, to my youthful imagination, had appeared so very desirable, I would readily have given it to the first I met; but, in disearding it, I could not exonerate myself from the debt that accrued, the recollection of which incessantly tormented me. Many a night's sleep has been broken by sad reflection on the difficulty into which I had plunged myself, and in devising means of extrication. At the appearance of my creditor I shrunk, and looked, no doubt, as meanly as I felt; for the relation of debtor and creditor is that of a slave to his master. It begins with the subjugation of his mind, and ends with that of his body. Speaking of a promiser (and every creditor is a promisemaker, and too often a promise-breaker), you cannot be too much upon your guard against them, unless you are sure the performance is in your power, and at the same time will conduce to your honor and benefit, or those of another. * * * * The courage which enables us to say no to an improper application, cannot be too soon acquired. The want of it has utterly rumed many an amiable man. Do not, through false shame, through a vicious modesty, entrap yourself into a situation which may dye your cheeks with real shame. As to the promiser, he is like the keeper who puts his head into the lion's mouth to amuse the spectators. This he did frequently and got it safely out, till at last the lion, in a fit of ill-humor, bit it off. Your word ought to be dearer to you than your head. Beware how you put it into the lion's mouth. * * * A liar is always a coward." "One of the best and wisest men I ever saw, has often said to me, that a decayed family could never recover its loss of rank in the world, until it left off talking and dwelling upon its former rank and opulence in the world. I have seen this verified in numerous instances in my own connexions, who, to use the words of my oracle, will never thrive till they become poor folks. He added, `they may make some struggles, and with apparent success, to recover lost ground, they may get half way up again, but are sure to fall back, unless, reconciling themselves to their circumstances, they become poor in form, as well as in fact.' The blind pursuit of wealth for the sake of hoarding, is a species of insanity. There are spirits, and not the less worthy, who, content with an humble mediocrity, leave the field of wealth and ambition open to more active, perhaps more guilty competitors. Nothing can be more respectable than the independence that grows out of self-denial. The man who, by abridging his wants, can find time to cultivate his mind, or to aid his fellow-creatures, is a being far above the plodding sons of industry and gain. His is a spirit of the noblest order. But what shall we say to the drone whom society is eager to shake from her encumbered lap—who lounges from place to place, and spends more time in Adonising his person, even in a morning, than would serve to earn his breakfast—who is curious in his living, a connoisseur in wines, fastidious in his cooking, but who never knew the luxury of earning a meal? Such a creature, sponging from house to house and always on the borrow, may still be seen in Virginia. One more generation may put an end to them." * * "I have been up since half-past one. Yesterday I dined by accident at the Union in Georgetown with Mr. K. (Key), and though I had toast and water, I missed my milk. I drank, too, at the earnest recommendation of some of the party, some old port wine, which has done me no good. My dinner was the lean of a very fine haunch of venison, without any gravy, and a little rice. Since it began to rain I have felt as restless as a leech in a weather-glass, and so I sit down to write to you. On Saturday I had a narrow escape from a most painful death. Wildair dashed off with me on the avenue, alarmed at a tattered wagon-cover, shivering in the wind, and would have dashed us both to pieces against a poplar, but when she was running full-bent against it, and not a length off, by a violent exertion of the left heel and right hand, I bore her off. There was not the thickness of half a quire of paper on which I am writing, between my body and the tree. Had I worn a great-coat, or cloth boots, I must have touched, perhaps been dragged off by them. * * * * In the course of my life, I have encountered some risks, but nothing like this. My heart was in my mouth for a moment, and I felt the strongest convictions of my utter demerit in the sight of God, and it gushed out in thankfulness for His signal and providential preservation. `What,' thought I, `had been my condition had I then died? As the tree falleth, so it must lie.' I had been but a short time before saying to a man who tried to cheat me, some very hard and bitter things. It was a poor auctioneer, who had books on private sale. He attempted to impose upon me in respect to some classical books of which he was entirely ignorant, and I exposed his ignorance to people in the shop, many of whom were members of Congress, and no better informed than him. The danger I escaped was no injury to the speech which I made, out of breath, on finding, when I reached the House, that there was a call for the previous question. So true it is, that of all motives religious feeling is the most powerful. I am reading for the second time an admirable novel called `Marriage.' It is recommended by Scott in his `Legend of Montrose.' I wish you would read it. Perhaps it might serve to palliate some of your romantic notions (for I despair of a cure) on the subject of love and marriage. A man that marries a woman he does not esteem and treat kindly, is a villain. But marriage was made for man, and if the woman be good-tempered, healthy (a qualification scarcely thought of now-a-days), chaste, cleanly, economical, and not an absolute fool, she will make him a better wife than nine out of ten deserve to have. To be sure, if to these beauty and understanding be added, all the better. Neither would I quarrel with a good fortune, if it has produced no ill effect upon the possessor." "As I have recommended Marriage to you (the book I mean), this digression on genealogy* *He gave his own genealogy. may remind you of Misses Jockey, the agreeable sisters. You entirely misapprehend my mode of life. I am very rarely out of bed after 9 o'clock, and when I exceed that hour, it is not at evening parties. Last night I was seduced by a book to go beyond that hour a little. * * * The other day I dined at the French minister's. It was Saturday, Madame De N.'s (De Neuville's) night. At half past 7 we joined the evening visitors, and at half past 8 I was snug in bed. To be sure I was politely reproached, as I was going away, by the Count De Menou (Secretary of Legation), and since by his principal, for going away so early; but my plea of weak health satisfied their jealousy. This is felt, and shown too, by all here in the highest ranks of fashion. Madame is charity itself. The poor will miss her when she goes away. One of her sayings deserves to be written in letters of gold: `When the rich are sick, they ought to be starved; when the poor are sick, they ought to be fed.' This is no bad medical precept. Just as I mounted my horse on Monday morning at Washington, your truly welcome and friendly letter was put into my hands. I arrived here this evening a little before sunset, after a ride on horseback of thirty-five miles. Pretty well, you'll say, for a man whose lungs are bleeding, and with a church-yard cough, which gives so much pleasure to some of your New York editors of newspapers. But to me, a horse is what a ship is to you. I am never so easy as when in the saddle. Nevertheless, if a gentleman (we are all gentlemen now-a-days) who received upwards of 300 pounds sterling for me, merely to hand it over, had not embezzled it by applying it to his own use, I should be a passenger with you on the 8th. I tried to raise money by the sale of some property, that only twelve months ago I was teased to part with, lots and houses in Farmsville, seventy miles above Petersburgh on the Appomatox, but could not last week get a bid for it. I have known land (part good wood land) sell for one dollar an acre, that ten years ago would have commanded ten dollars, and last year five or six. Four fine negroes sold for three hundred and fifty dollars, and so in proportion. But I must quit this wretched subject. My pay as member of Congress is worth more than my best and most productive property, for which a few years ago I could have got $80,000, exclusive of slaves and stock. I gave a few years ago $27,000 for one estate, without a house or a fence on it. After putting it in fine order, I found that so far from making one per cent., or one half or one quarter of one per cent., it does not clear expenses by about $750 per annum, over and above all the crops. Yet I am to be taxed for the benefit of wool-spinners, &c., to destroy the whole navigating interest of the United States; and we find representatives from New Bedford, Cape Anne, Marblehead, and Salem and Newburyport, voting for this, if they can throw the molasses overboard to lighten the ship tariff. She is a pirate under a black flag.
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3Author:  unknownRequires cookie*
 Title:  The Riverside Chaucer  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
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4Author:  unknownRequires cookie*
 Title:  Dictionary of the History of Ideas  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: The term “abstraction” is the usual expression in medi- eval philosophical terminology for several processes distinguished in Aristotle's writings by different terms, viz., aphairesis (ἄφαιρεσις) and korismos (χωρισμός) described in different ways. In all probability, it was Boethius who introduced the Latin abstractio and abstrahere to translate these Greek nouns and the re- lated verbs.
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5Author:  unknownRequires cookie*
 Title:  Dictionary of the History of Ideas  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
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6Author:  unknownRequires cookie*
 Title:  Dictionary of the History of Ideas  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: The concept of despotism is perhaps the least known of that family which includes tyranny, autocracy, absolutism, dictatorship (in its modern usage), and totalitarianism. Although nearly contemporary with “tyranny,” the concept of despotism has not been as significant in the history of political thought. Never- theless at some times, and in the work of some of the greatest political philosophers, the concept of des- potism has been sharply distinguished from other members of its family, and has attained an unusual prominence, as when Montesquieu made it into one of the three fundamental types of government. It was in the eighteenth century, and particularly in France, that despotism supplanted tyranny as the term most often used to characterize a system of total domination, as distinguished from the exceptional abuse of power by a ruler. The temporary success of the term led to its conflation with tyranny, as in the Declaration of Independence where in successive sentences, “absolute Despotism” and “absolute Tyranny” are used as syno- nyms. In 1835 Tocqueville expressed the opinion that after the French Revolution, modern politics and soci- ety had taken on a character that rendered both con- cepts inadequate. Today their usage suggests archaism: controversies over twentieth-century forms of total domination have centered on the concepts of dictator- ship and totalitarianism.
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7Author:  unknownRequires cookie*
 Title:  Dictionary of the History of Ideas  
 Published:  2008 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text 
 Description: Psychology is a modern term, but its components, psyche and logos, are words whose history goes back to the Indo-European parent language. For the philos- ophers of classical antiquity, giving an “account” (logos) of the psyche was a necessary part of intellectual inquiry. Greek philosophy was vitally concerned with many of the problems which exercise modern psychologists, but did not regard “study of the mind” as an autonomous subject with specific terms of refer- ence. Frequently theories about the psyche were intimately connected with ethical, physical, and meta- physical assumptions.
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