air, every part whereof seems
replete with seeds of one kind or other. The whole atmosphere seems
alive. There is everywhere acid to corrode, and seed to engender. Iron
will rust, and mold will grow, in all places. Virgin earth becomes
fertile, crops of new plants ever and anon show themselves, all which
demonstrate the air to be a common seminary and receptacle of all
vivifying principles....

The eye by long use comes to see, even in the darkest cavern; and there
is no subject so obscure, but we may discern some glimpse of truth by
long poring on it. Truth is the cry of all, but the game of a few.
Certainly where it is the chief passion, it doth not give way to vulgar
cares and views; nor is it contented with a little ardor in the early
time of life; active, perhaps, to pursue, but not so fit to weigh and
revise. He that would make a real progress in knowledge, must dedicate
his age as well as youth, the later growth as well as first fruits, at
the altar of truth....

As the nerves are instruments of sensation, it follows that spasms in
the nerves may produce all symptoms, and therefore a disorder in the
nervous system shall imitate all distempers, and occasion, in
appearance, an asthma for instance, a pleurisy, or a fit of the stone.
Now, whatever is good for the nerves in general is good against all such
symptoms. But tar-water, as it includes in an eminent degree the virtues
of warm gums and resins, is of great use for comforting and
strengthening the nerves, curing twitches in the nervous fibres, cramps
also, and numbness in the limbs, removing anxieties and promoting sleep,
in all which cases I have known it very successful.

This safe and cheap medicine suits all circumstances and all
constitutions, operating easily, curing without disturbing, raising the
spirits without depressing them, a circumstance that deserves repeated
attention, especially in these climates, where strong liquors so fatally
and so frequently produce those very distresses they are designed to
remedy; and if I am not misinformed, even among the ladies themselves,
who are truly much to be pitied. Their condition of life makes them a
prey to imaginary woes, which never fail to grow up in minds unexercised
and unemployed. To get rid of these, it is said, there are who betake
themselves to distilled spirits. And it is not improbable they are led
gradually to the use of those poisons by a certain complaisant pharmacy,
too much used in the mode