Wesley Corpus

A Letter to a Friend Concerning Tea Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 11 (Zondervan) Year: 1748 Author: John Wesley --- 1. I HAve read your letter with attention, and much approve of the spirit with which it is wrote... You speak in love. I desire to do so too; and then no harm can be done on either side. You appear not to be wedded to your own opinion, but open to further conviction. I would willingly be of the same temper; not obstimately attached to either side of the question. I am clearly satisfied of the necessity of this; a willingness to see what as yet I see not. For I know, an unwillingness to be convinced would utterly blind either you or me; and that if we are resolved to retain our present opinion, reason and argument signify nothing. 2. I shall not therefore think it is time or pains misem ployed, to give the whole cause a second hearing; to recite the occasion of every step I have taken, and the motives inducing me so to do; and then to consider whatsoever either you or others have urged on the contrary side of the question. 3. Twenty-nine years since, when I had spent a few months at Oxford, having, as I apprehended, an exceeding good constitution, and being otherwise in health, I was a little surprised at some symptoms of a paralytic disorder. I could not imagine what should occasion the shaking of my hand; till I observed it was always worst after breakfast; and that if I intermitted drinking tea for two or three days, it did not shake at all. Upon inquiry, I found tea had the same effect upon others also of my acquaintance; and therefore saw that this was one of its natural effects, (as several Physicians have often remarked,) especially when it is largely and fre quently drank; and most of all on persons of weak nerves. Upon "--~" -- this I lessened the quantity, drank it weaker, and added more milk and sugar. But still for above six-and-twenty years I was more or less subject to the same disorder. 4.