Coleridge, in the _Literary Remains_, vol. i. p. 233., says--

"In a stitch in the side, every one must have heaved
a sigh that hurts by easing."

Dr. Johnson saw its true meaning:

"It is," he says, "a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair
the strength, and wear out the animal powers."

In allusion to this popular notion, by no means yet extinct, Herbert
says, p. 71.:

"Or if some years with it (a sigh) escape
The sigh then only is
A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss."

D.S.


"_Crede quod habes_," &c.--The celebrated answer to a Protestant about
the real presence, by the borrower of his horse, is supposed to be made
since the Reformation, by whom I forget:--

"Quod nuper dixisti
De corpore Christi
Crede quod edis et edis;
Sic tibi rescribo
De tuo palfrido
Crede quod habes et habes."