Wesley Corpus

By this means it is stewed in the moist vapour: It * Thus paraphrastically translated by an anonymous writer in the Arminian Magazine : “Six hours for sleep the human frame requires; IIard students may to seven incline; To eight, the men whom toil or travelling tires; But lazy knaves will all have nine.”-ED 1 r. sucks in again what nature has cast out, and the flesh is, as it were, parboiled therein, and becomes more and more soft and flabby; and the nerves suffer at least as much hereby as any other part of the habit. I cannot therefore but account this, the lying too long in bed, the grand cause of our nervous disorders. 8. And this alone sufficiently answers this question, “Why are we more nervous than our forefathers?” Because we lie longer in bed: They, rich and poor, slept about eight, when they heard the curfew-bell, and rose at four; the bell ringing at that hour (as well as at eight) in every parish in England. We rise (if not obliged to work for our living) at ten, eleven, or twelve. Is it any wonder then, were there no other cause, that we complain of lowness of spirits? 9. Yet something may be allowed to irregular passions. For as long as the soul and body are united, these undoubt edly affect the body; the nerves in particular. Even violent joy, though it raises the spirits for a time, does afterwards sink them greatly. And every one knows what an influence fear has upon our whole frame. Nay, even “hope deferred maketh the heart sick;” puts the mind all out of tune. The same effect have all foolish and hurtful desires. They “pierce us through with many sorrows;” they occasion a deep depression of the spirits: So, above all, does inordinate affection; whereby so many, refusing to be comforted, sorrow even unto death. 10. But is there no cure for this sore evil? Is there no remedy for lowness of spirits? Undoubtedly there is; a most certain cure, if you are willing to pay the price of it. But this price is not silver or gold, nor anything purchasable thereby. If you would give all the substance of your house for it, it would be utterly despised; and all the medicines under the sun avail nothing in this distemper.