EMBELLISHED WITH A PORTRAIT OF PRINCE LEOPOLD OF SAXE-COBURG. MONTHLY MAGAZINES have opened a way for every kind of inquiry and information. The intelligence and discussion contained in them are very extensive and various; and they have been the means of diffusing a general habit of reading through the nation, which in a certain degree hath enlarged the public understanding. HERE, too, are preserved a multitude of useful hints, observations, and facts, which otherwise might have never appeared.-Dr. Kippis. Every Art is improved by the emulation of Competitors.---Dr. Johnson. LONDON: Printed by J. Gillet, Crown-court, Fleet-street. PUBLISHED BY H. COLBURN, CONDUIT-STREET, HANOVER-SQUARE; BY WHOM COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE EDITOR (POST PAID) ARE RECEIVED. SOLD ALSO BY BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH; AND JOHN CUMMING, DUBLIN. [Price 12s. Boards; or 14s. Half-bound.] PREFACE TO THE FIFTH VOLUME. IN reviewing the stage of our labours which is here brought to a conclusion, we are disposed to coincide with the general admission, that the farther our Work proceeds the stronger are its claims to public favour; especially as we have the satisfaction to know that the more extensive is the support with which it is honoured. To the consistency of our practice with our professions, and of both with that duty which we owe to our country, we ascribe effects so gratifying to our ambition. Let demagogues found Societies for Preventing War, and at the same time talk of the infatuation of certain courts," which did not choose "to remain at peace with him [Buonaparte] whose chief boast and glory was that of having been the Pacificator of Europe." Let the worthy disciples of Paine print tracts for the avowed purpose of extinguishing national animosities, and at the same time lament the "sacrifice" of the "patriots of Grenoble," and the " proscriptions, imprisonments, and banishments, of the zealous adherents of French liberty and independence"t-that is to say, of those immaculate characters who most cheerfully joined their sanguinary Moloch in overturning a throne which they had but just sworn to defend. Let traitors to the human race, maddened with despair, vent sophistries, contradictions, and political blasphemies like these, which cannot fail to draw upon them the scorn and abhorrence of every virtuous mind, and finally to consign them to neglect and oblivion. Be it ours with steady pace to pursue the course marked out for us by Patriotism and Honour; to warn our countrymen against the insinuating arts of hypocrites who would banish the very name of both from the face of the earth; and to seek in the utility of our labours the surest passport to public esteem. Convinced as we are that nothing can tend more powerfully to the support of the present order of things than the diffusion of the sentiments which animate the numerous associations established on PITT principles throughout the kingdom, we have endeavoured in this Volume to present * Old Monthly Mag. July 1816, p. 558, + Ibid. p. 559. a view of those institutions; and though we have not been enabled to give complete effect to our intentions, still enough, we trust, has been done to show the importance of the subject. We have likewise been desirous of directing the attention of our Correspondents to the state of IRELAND, that long-neglected portion of the British Empire; and we here repeat our solicitation to be .favoured with communications illustrative of its history, antiquities, and local beauties, and of the peculiar habits and moral character of its inhabitants We have every reason to anticipate, from the more extensive diffusion of this kind of information, an increased intercourse between the two countries, which must obviously be attended with great and reciprocal advantages. At the present crisis, when Britain experiences that lassitude, which in nations as in individuals necessarily follows strenuous and protracted exertions, it has been our wish to lead the ingenious to the consideration of the best means of alleviating the distresses under which the work-. ing classes of the community more especially labour. In the confidence that this embarrassment is but of a temporary nature, we most earnestly recommend patience under privation to those who suffer, and to all who are blessed with the gifts of fortune a residence upon their estates, and such an employment of the poor in their respective neighbourhoods as local situation or particular circumstances may render most eligible. This principle, if universally acted upon, would certainly afford material assistance to any plan which may be devised for improving the condition of the industrious poor, if not go a great way towards removing that pressure which at present they so severely feel. On a reference to our pages it will be seen, that though the welfare of our dear native land is naturally the para. mount object of our consideration, still we are far from overlooking whatever may occur of interest to literature, art, or science, in the other regions of the globe. We aspire not to be praised, quoted, or reprinted, by foreigners; and to gain such distinctions we shall never defame our country, lick the feet of a military despot, or fawn with spaniellike servility upon a republican rabble. It was purely BRITISH feelings that prompted the establishment of our Work; it is by a purely BRITISH spirit that we are ambitious of being distinguished; and to the applause of the BRITISH Nation alone we look for our reward. THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 25.] FEBRUARY 1, 1816. [VOL. V. MONTHLY MAGAZINES have opened a way for every kind of inquiry and information. The in telligence and discussion contained in them are very extensive and various; and they have been the means of diffusing a general habit of reading through the nation, which in a certain degree hath enlarged the public understanding. HERE, too, are preserved a multitude of useful hints, observations, and facts, which otherwise might have never appeared.- Dr. Kippis. Every Art is improved by the emulation of Competitors. Dr. Johnson. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. THE GUARDIAN OF HEALTH. No. V. general rules foR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. IS it possible that there can be people in the world to whom health is a burden? It certainly would appear so; for upon what other principle can we account for the conduct of those who without any ailment whatever have recourse to medicine? Far be it from me to find fault with any individual who, perceiving the symptoms of approaching indisposition, takes speedy measures for arresting its progress. But why should such as enjoy the most robust health determine for weeks, nay months beforehand to lose blood, or go through a course of medicine at particular seasons, unless they were tired of that state and considered it expedient to interrupt its longer continuance? How too, can the physician set about pre scribing for a patient who has no disease? He prescribes neither meat nor drink, and these are the only things requisite for a person in health. Physic can neither satisfy the appetite, nor nourish the body; since every medicine is the medium of producing new actions, which are never of benefit but when instituted to subvert those prejudicial ones already existing in the system. Such is the genuine object of the medical art. The effects of medicines are deviations from health as well as the complaints against which they are directed, and they accomplish a cure by substituting a milder disease, and thus interrupting the course of that which previously existed. But what are they when there are no existing disorders for them to oppose?-diseases which thoughtless fools wantonly bring upon themselves, when they are tired of the enjoyment of health. For the healthy there is no other rational way of remaining so than by conforming to the dictates of nature-no NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No, 25. Brodum's pills, no Solomon's Balm of Gilead, no Seltzer water, no cleansing elixirs, no bleeding-nothing of the kind. It is quite enough that the sick should resort to medicines, since they alone can experience utility in so doing. What end can a healthy person who purges or bleeds have in view? Perhaps to prevent some future disease. But who can tell what disease this will be? and what physician can prescribe for a disease of the nature of which he has not the slightest notion ? I shall deem myself most happy, if my readers will attend to this my first admonition to abstain from the use of all medicines till they find that they stand in need of them; and this will be the case, if, notwithstanding a regular mode of life, they should still be unwell. I cheerfully subjoin this limitation; for when indispositions arise from irregularities in the natural functions, they may in general be removed by correcting the latter. For this reason I consider it better to debar persons in health from all preventives and merely to recommend attention to a regular habit of body as the universal preservative against medicines as well as diseases, than unnecessarily to prescribe diet-drinks, mineral waters or decoctions, with the fanciful but fallacious view of purifying the blood. But how are we to obtain that healthy state of the body in which our ancestors grew old without any preventives? It is requisite that we imitate as much as possible their mode of life. They dwelt in forests and fields, where the sky was their shelter, and the earth their couch. They breathed a pure, salubrious, balmy air, such as is not to be found in any close apartment constantly inhabited by several persons. We must, it is true, again become barbarians like them, if we in these respects closely copy their example. But what hinders us from pursuing a VOL. V. B |