THE F.ECAL EVACUATIONS.

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beware of dwelling too much on gloomy subjects. That peace andtranquillity of mind, which true religion is calculated to inspire, isa more powerful argument in its favour, than all the terrors thatcan be uttered. Terror may indeed deter men from outward actsof wickedness, but can never inspire them with that love of God,and real goodness of heart, in which alone true religion consists.

To conclude ; the best way to counteract the violence of anypassion, is to keep the mind closely engaged in some useful pur-suit.

I have often heard that the late Lord Kaimes, when he saw anyliterary friend sinking under the pressure of melancholy, or someother corroding passion, always gave this advice in a few emphat-ical words, "Write-a book ;" which he believed to be an infallibleremedy. I also knew the author of a very beautiful elegy curedof his grief for a wife, whom he tenderly loved, by studying howto express the greatness of his loss, and the pungency of his sor-rows in the most plaintive and affecting strains. Indeed, the ear-nest direction of our thoughts to some important object is, as I be-fore hinted, the surest method of subduing passions which maystubbornly resist the control of reason.

I

CHAP. XXX.

THE NATURAL EVACUATIONS.

The principal evacuations from the human body are those bystool, urine, and insensible perspiration. None of these can be longobstructed without impairing the health. When that which oughtto be thrown out of the body is too long retained, it not only occa-sions a plethora, or too great fulness of the vessels, but acquiresqualities which are hurtful to the health, as acrimony, putrescence,&c.

THE FJ3CAL EVACUATION, &C

" Few things conduce more to health than keeping the body regu-lar. When the faces lie too long in the bowels, they vitiate thehumours ; and when they are too soon discharged, the body is notsufficiently nourished. A medium is therefore to be desired whichcan only be obtained by regularity in diet, sleep, and exercise.Whenever the body is not regular, there is reason to suspectafault in one or other of these.

Persons who eat and drink at irregular hours, and who eat va-rious kinds of food, and drink of several different liquors at everymeal, have no reason to expect either that their digestion will begood, or discharges regular. Irregularity in eating and drinkingdisturbs every part of the animal economy, and never fails to oc-casion diseases. Either too much or too little food will have thiseffect. The former, indeed, generally occasions looseness, and thelatter costiveness ; but both have a tendency to hurt the health.