Miscellanies in Prose and Verse

Such a doctrine, accompanied by such an example, while it adds vigor to the efforts of the virtuous, attacks with irresistible force that ignoble opinion of the Epicurean vulgar that the body is a part of the man.

If, also, the author of the following pages may be permitted to add his own testimony regarding the great advantages which may be derived in adversity from such sentiments and such examples, suffice it to say that in a state of general bodily debility—which at present prevents him from any continued exertion and is accompanied by a weakness in his hands that almost totally incapacitates him from writing and unfits him for public employment—he has found them to be a source of the most solid consolation and an incentive to disinterested endurance. They have taught him to submit patiently to the will of Heaven, to follow intrepidly the order of the universe, and to abandon private advantage for the general good. Having, therefore,