I have even
found a change of company
as necessary as a change of air, to promote a vigorous
circulation of the spirits, which is the very essence and
criterion of good health.
Since my last, I have been performing the duties of friendship,
that required a great deal of exercise, from which I hope to
derive some benefit -- Understanding, by the greatest accident in
the world, that Mr Baynard's wife was dangerously ill of a
pleuritic fever, I borrowed Dennison's post-chaise, and went
across the country to his habitation, attended only by Loyd
(quondam Clinker) on horseback. -- As the distance is not above
thirty miles, I arrived about four in the afternoon, and meeting
the physician at the door, was informed that his patient had just
expired. -- I was instantly seized with a violent emotion, but it
was not grief. -- The family being in confusion, I ran up stairs
into the chamber, where, indeed, they were all assembled. -- The
aunt stood wringing her hands in a kind of stupefaction of
sorrow, but my friend acted all the extravagancies of affliction --
He held the body in his arms, and poured forth such a
lamentation, that one would have thought he had lost the most
amiable consort and valuable companion upon earth.
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