I. CURIOSITY CURBED.

OFTEN have I thought with myself, what disease I would be best contented to die of. None please me. The stone, the colic, terrible as expected, intolerable when felt. The palsy is death before death. The consumption a flattering disease, cozening men into hope of long life at the last gasp. Some sicknesses besot, others enrage men, some are too swift, and others too slow.

If I could as easily decline diseases as I could dislike them, I should be immortal. But away with these thoughts. The mark must not choose what arrow shall be shot against it. What God sends I must receive. May I not 86be so curious to know what weapon shall wound me, as careful to provide the plaster of patience against it. Only thus much in general: commonly that sickness seizeth on men which they least suspect. He that expects to be drowned with a dropsy, may be burnt with a fever; and she that fears to be swoln with a tympany may be shrivelled with a consumption.