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XLVIII. DIALOGUE WITH THE GOUT.

1. Franklin-Eh! oh! eh! What have I done to merit these cruel sufferings?

Gout-Many things: you have eat and drunk too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence.

Franklin-Who is it that accuses me?

Gout-It is I, even I, the Gout.
Franklin--What! my enemy in person?
Gout-No; not your enemy.

2. Franklin-I repeat it, my enemy; for you would not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good name. You reproach me as a glutton and a tippler: now, all the world that knows me will allow that I am neither one nor the other.

3. Gout-The world may think as it pleases: it is always very complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man, who takes a reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another who never takes any.

4. Franklin-I take-eh! oh!-as much exerciseeh!—as I can, Madam Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not altogether my own fault.

5. Gout-Not a jot. Your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away; your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active. You

ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at something.

6. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast by salutary exercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which commonly are not worth the reading.

7. Yet you eat an inordinate breakfast: four dishes of tea, with cream, one or two buttered toasts, with slices of hung beef-which, I fancy, are not things the most easily digested.

8. Immediately afterward, you sit down to write at your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise.

9. But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary condition; but what is your practice after dinner? Walking in the beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined, would be the choice of men of sense; yours is, to be fixed down to chess, where you are found engaged for two or three hours.

10. This is your perpetual recreation: the least eligible of any for a sedentary man, because, instead of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid attention it requires helps to retard the circulation and obstruct internal secretions. Wrapped in the speculations of this wretched game, you destroy your constitution.

11. What can be expected from such a course of living, but a body replete with stagnant humors, ready to fall a prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the

Gout, did not occasionally bring you relief by agitating those humors, and so purifying or dissipating them?

12. Fie, then, Mr. Franklin! But, amid my instructions, I had almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take that twinge-and that!

Franklin-Oh! eh! oh! oh! As much instruction as you please, Madam Gout, and as many reproaches; but pray, madam, a truce with your corrections!

13. Gout-No, sir-no! I will not abate a particle of what is so much for your good; therefore—

Franklin-Oh! eh! It is not fair to say I take no exercise, when I do very often go out to dine and return in my carriage.

Gout-That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended on springs.

14. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different kinds of motion, we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given by each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in winter with cold feet, in an hour's time you will be in a glow all over; ride on horseback, the same effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours' round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you have mentioned, you may travel all day, and gladly enter the last inn to warm your feet by a fire.

15. Flatter yourself then no longer that half an hour's airing in your carriage deserves the name of exercise. Providence has appointed few to roll in carriages, while He has given to all a pair of legs, which are machines infinitely more commodious and serviceable. Be grateful, then, and make a proper use of yours.

Benjamin Franklin.

FOR PREPARATION.-I. The gout is an inflammation (or swelling) of the parts of the joints to which the ligaments are fastened, and generally attacks the great toe first. It is accompanied by paroxysms of pain in the affected parts.

II. Di'-a-logue (-lög), ae-eüş'-es, en'-e-my, re-proach', com'-plaişant, sěd'-en-ta-ry, rhět'-o-rie (rět'-), păm'-phlets (-flets), in-ôr'-di-nate, buşi'-ness (biz'nes), friendş (frěndz), per-pět'-u-al, ĕl'-i-ġi-ble, ae-çěl'er-a-ting, ob-tained', per-çeived', lõll, serv'-içe-a-ble.

III. Describing-words are sometimes made by adding ble (able, ible, uble) to name- or action-words, as forc(e)ible, terr(or)ible, manageable. Make a list of twenty that you can think of, and opposite each write the meaning that ble gives to the word (e. g., readable—may be read).

IV. Indolence, complaisant, sedentary, rhetoric, salutary, inordinate, converse, perpetual, recreation, eligible, accelerating, internal secretions, stagnant humors, commodious.

V. "I take eh! oh!" (he has twinges of the gout as he begins to speak, and has to interrupt his sentence by exclamations of pain). "Your rhetoric and politeness " (i. e., your persuasive argument and your polite words to me). "Accelerating the motion of the fluids " (10) (hastening the circulation of the blood and the internal secretions). Purifying or dissipating them" (11) (by exercise or the effort of nature in the gout, these stagnant humors are supposed to be thrown off). "A truce" (12) (cessation of hostilities-short quiet from pain).

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XLIX. ABSALOM.

1. The waters slept. Night's silvery vail hung low
On Jordan's bosom, and the eddies curled
Their glassy rings beneath it, like the still,
Unbroken beating of the sleeper's pulse.

The reeds bent down the stream; the willow leaves,

With a soft cheek upon the lulling tide,

Forgot the lifting winds; and the long stems,
Whose flowers the water, like a gentle nurse,
Bears on its bosom, quietly gave way,
And leaned, in graceful attitudes, to rest.

2. How strikingly the course of nature tells, By its light heed of human suffering,

That it was fashioned for a happier world!

3. King David's limbs were weary. He had fled
From far Jerusalem; and now he stood,
With his faint people, for a little rest

Upon the shore of Jordan. The light wind
Of morn was stirring, and he bared his brow
To its refreshing breath; for he had worn
The mourner's covering, and had not felt
That he could see his people until now.
They gathered round him on the fresh green bank,
And spoke their kindly words; and, as the sun
Rose up in heaven, he knelt among them there,
And bowed his head upon his hands to pray.

4. Oh! when the heart is full-when bitter thoughts Come crowding thickly up for utterance,

And the poor, common words of courtesy
Are such a very mockery-how much

The bursting heart may pour itself in prayer!

5. He prayed for Israel; and his voice went up Strongly and fervently. He prayed for those Whose love had been his shield; and his deep tones Grew tremulous. But oh! for Absalom

For his estranged, misguided Absalom—

The proud, bright being, who had burst away,

In all his princely beauty, to defy

The heart that cherished him—for him he poured, In agony that would not be controlled,

Strong supplication, and forgave him there,

Before his God, for his deep sinfulness.

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