Pithy Papers on Singular Subjects (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1799 Excerpt: ... a servant brought a pan of hot coals to warm the bed, wherein I had been put without her knowledge. You may guess what followed. My agonizing screams confused and confounded poor Betty, and the pan of coals was not removed till it had inflicted on me injuries that placed my life in danger. On what a spider's thread our existence seems to hang What is our life? " It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishetb away," James iv. 14. Not long after I had recovered my strength from my accident by the warming-pan, I fell through the cellar window of a half-finished house, by which misfortune my forehead, striking against the sharp edge of the brick-work, was laid open. For some time I lay bleeding, and was taken up for dead. Grey hairs are now growing on my head, but the scar on my brow is visible still. Truly may we say to one another, whether we are old or young, " Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth," Prov. xxvii. 1. When a school-boy, in attempting to descend a high, rocky bank, my toe caught under the root of a tree, and I was pitched down headlong into the bollow way beneath. A sloping heap of sand at the bottom eased my fall, and, most probably, saved my neck from being broken. Surely dangers are ever around us, and "our days upon earth are a shadow," Job viii. 9. Before I could swim I was a good diver, and often amused myself with diving in deep water to a certain point, where, when I rose, I caught hold of the top of the granite stones which formed the side of the basin. On one occasion the water was so low, that, when I arrived at the accustomed point, I could not reach the granite stones. Again and again I struggled desperately to effect my purpose, bu...