O blessed health! cried my father, making an exclamation, as he turned over the leaves to the next chapter, thou art above all gold and treasure; 'tis thou who enlargest the soul, --and openest all its powers to receive instruction and to relish virtue. --He that has thee, has little more to wish for; --and he that is so wretched as to want thee, --wants everything with thee.
I have concentrated all that can be said upon this important head, said my father, into a very little room, therefore we'll read the chapter quite through.
My father read as follows:
"The whole secret of health depending upon the due contention for mastery betwixt the radical heat and the radical moisture" --You have proved that matter of fact, I suppose, above, said _Yorick_. Sufficiently, replied my father.
In saying this, my father shut the book, --not as if he resolved to read no more of it, for he kept his forefinger in the chapter: ----nor pettishly, --for he shut the book slowly; his thumb resting, when he had done it, upon the upper-side of the cover, as his three fingers supported the lower side of it, without the least compressive violence.----
I have demonstrated the truth of that point, quoth my father, nodding to _Yorick_, most sufficiently in the preceding chapter.
Now could the man in the moon be told, that a man in the earth had wrote a chapter, sufficiently demonstrating, That the secret of all health depended upon the due contention for mastery betwixt the _radical heat_ and the _radical moisture_, --and that he had managed the point so well, that there was not one single word wet or dry upon radical heat or radical moisture, throughout the whole chapter, --or a single syllable in it, _pro_ or _con_, directly or indirectly, upon the contention betwixt these two powers in any part of the animal conomy----
"O thou eternal Maker of all beings!" --he would cry, striking his breast with his right hand (in case he had one)-- "Thou whose power and goodness can enlarge the faculties of thy creatures to this infinite degree of excellence and perfection, --What have we MOONITES done?"
'O blessed health!' exclaimed my father, as he turned to the next chapter, 'thou art above all gold and treasure; 'tis thou who enlargest the soul, ready to receive instruction and to relish virtue. He that has thee, has little more to wish for. I have concentrated all that can be said upon this important matter into a very little room; therefore we'll read the whole chapter.'
He read as follows:
'The whole secret of health depends upon the contention for mastery betwixt the radical heat and the radical moisture-'
'You have proved that fact, I suppose,' said Yorick.
'Sufficiently,' replied my father, shutting the book - but not pettishly; he kept his fore-finger in the chapter, his thumb resting upon the upper-side of the cover, and his three fingers supporting the lower side of it, without the least compressive violence.
'I have demonstrated the truth of that point,' quoth my father, nodding, 'most sufficiently in the preceding chapter.'
Now if the man in the moon could be told that a man on the earth had wrote a chapter demonstrating that the secret of all health depended upon the contention for mastery betwixt the radical heat and the radical moisture, - and that he had managed it so well, that there was not one single word wet or dry upon heat or moisture, throughout the whole chapter-
'O thou eternal Maker of all beings!' he would cry, striking his breast with his hand (if he had one.) 'Thou whose power and goodness can bring thy creatures to this infinite degree of perfection - What have we Moonites done?'
Book 5 - Chapter 33