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