Says she, my brother desires to be alone; I believe he may
have something in his mind that disturbs him. Upon which the neighbours
took their leave and returned home, and his sister shut the door, and
left him alone to his private contemplations.
After the company were withdrawn he fell into a sound sleep, which lasted
from two till six, and his sister, being apprehensive of the return of
his fit, came to the bedside, and, asking softly if he wanted anything,
he turned about to her and spoke to this effect: Dear sister, you see me
not only recovered out of a terrible fit, but likewise that I have the
liberty of speech, a blessing that I have been deprived of almost sixty
years, and I am satisfied you are sincerely joyful to find me in the
state I now am in; but, alas! it is but a mistaken kindness. These are
things but of short duration, and if they were to continue for a hundred
years longer, I can't see how I should be anyways the better.
I know the world too well to be fond of it, and am fully satisfied that
the difference between a long and a short life is insignificant,
especially when I consider the accidents and company I am to encounter.
Do but look seriously and impartially upon the astonishing notion of time
and eternity, what an immense deal has run out already, and how infinite
it is still in the future; do but seriously and deliberately consider
this, and you will find, upon the whole, that three days and three ages
of life come much to the same measure and reckoning.
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