Mandeville (Volume 3); A Tale of the Seventeenth Century in England (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1817. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. Things were nearly in this situation, when an incident occurred that marvellously helped forward the project of my guardian and his kinsman. I have sufficiently painted the disturbed and unhinged condition of my mind. To the man who has a spring of uneasiness in his own bosom, external sources of emotion are often peculiarly grateful. Yet the difficulty is to find those, that a mind diseased can bear. I could not go into the world; I could not bear the intercourse of my species. I could not endure to seek the abodes of distress: for, in doing so, I should be annoyed with the observation of others; and I should have to encounter that, which, perhaps of all things in the world, in my frame of thinking I most irresistibly shrank from, the thanks and the praise of those who witnessed my actions. The emotion I required, was that which should demand no effort on my part, and which no annoying spectator should stand by and observe. One species was brought to my thoughts by accident, which had all these qualities; and I immediately seized on it with eagerness. This was the act of riding; the simply mounting upon my horse, and pushing him along the downs and the forest-paths at a rapid pace. I could not bear to join in the chace, or to make my appearance any where in the resorts of men. But the motion of a horseman was agreeable to me; it communicated a new alacrity to the circulation of the blood; it excited the animal spirits; and the way in which hills and plains and the clouds of heaven fly away and succeed Da each other, to him that travels swiftly, had something in it that brought nameless relief to my wearied spirit. The very fatigue that I felt resulting from this exercise, was grateful; and, while engaged in it, it often happened to me, thoug...