The Eulogies of Howard eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 38 pages of information about The Eulogies of Howard.

The Eulogies of Howard eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 38 pages of information about The Eulogies of Howard.
a frame not equal in health, strength, and stature, to the common standard of men.  It is a prudential maxim of the celebrated Raleigh, that ’Whosoever will live altogether out of himself, and study other men’s humours, shall never be unfortunate;’ a maxim, which the example of Howard might almost teach us to convert into a medical aphorism by saying, ’Whosoever will live altogether out of himself, and consult other men’s wants, and calamities, shall never be unhealthy.’  It is delightful to those, who detest the debasing tenets of a selfish philosophy, to see the happy influence of opposite ideas; to observe (what Physicians have frequent opportunities of observing), that as a selfish turn of mind often attracts and encreases the malignity of sickness, so an unselfish, a compassionate spirit has a natural tendency to escape or subdue it.  What can be more pleasing to those, who assert and esteem the dignity of human-nature, than to see, that the having lost all thoughts of self, and having acted in direct opposition to selfish principles, has promoted even the personal advantage of a generous individual?  From such a series of philanthropic labour and peril, as a selfish and timid mind might esteem it frenzy to encounter, Howard derived not only his unrivalled and immortal reputation, but the perfect restoration of enfeebled health; not to mention those high gratifications of the heart and conscience, which are superior to all the enjoyments both of health and glory.  With such temperance in diet, that his daily food would appear to most people not sufficient to support the common functions of life, he chearfully sustained the hardships of long travel, through regions where travelling is most difficult and dangerous.  With a figure, voice, and deportment, that seemed to preclude him from all personal influence and authority; and with no mental acquisitions, except those which are common to every cultivated mind, he secured to himself not only universal admiration, but, I may venture to say, the just and moral idolatry of the world.  So invigorating are projects of extensive Beneficence! so powerful is the energy of Public Virtue!

“Never, indeed, was the astonishing influence of plain and simple goodness more strikingly displayed, than in the deference and respect which this private and meek individual received, not only from foreign and imperious Rulers of the Earth, but from hardened and atrocious wretches, on whom Justice herself could hardly make any mental impression, though armed with all the splendour, and all the violence of power.  Two particular examples of the influence I am speaking of, I shall mention here, not only as honourable to the prime object of our regard, but as they may suggest to contemplative minds some useful ideas, by shewing how far the mere weight of an upright and benevolent character alone may give to the most callous nerves a trembling sensibility, and awaken the most ferocious spirit to self-correction.

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The Eulogies of Howard from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.