guilt, and despair; hence a virtue which leads to heaven along the roundabout—way of hell: for only then the gloomy propylees of Christian salvation are thrown open, only then the promise of a posthumous second imecence will tell: it is one of the noblest inventions of Christianity.
322
To live without a physician, if possible.—It well-nigh seems to me that an invalid is more careless when he is under the supervision of a physician than when he looks after his own health. In the first instance le is satisfied with strictly obeying all the prescriptions; in the second, we more conscientiously keep our eye upon that which these prescriptions have in view, namely, our health, observing much more, putting ourselves under greater restraint than would be done by the directions of a physician. All precepts have this effect, that they abstract from the purpose implied in then and render us more careless. And to what height of immoderation and destruction would human carelessness have risen if ever men had honestly trusted everything to the Godhead as to their physician, according to the words, "as God may ordain"!
323
Obscuration of the heavens.—Do you know the revenge of timid people who behave in society as though they
