NorthernWind
Paragon
★★★★★
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2021
- Posts
- 15,460
Found this old text from second half of XVIII century. Author sound too dramatic but he does have a point.
"Hideous and frightful is the stamp which Nature affixes on one of this class. He is a faded rose, - a tree withered in the bud, - a wandering corpse. All life and fire are killed by this secret cause, and nothing is left but wediness, inactivity, deadly paleness, wasting of body, and depression of mind. The eye loses its lustre and strenght, the eye-ball sinks, the features become lengthened, the fair appearance of youth departs, and the face acquires a pale, yellow, leaden tint. The whole body cecomes sickly and morbidly sensitive, the muscular power is lost, sleep brings no refreshment, every movement becomes disagreeable, the feet refuse to carrythe body, the hands tremble, pains are felt in all the limbs, the senses lose their power, and all gaiety is destroyed. Such person seldom speak, and only when compelled; all former activity of mind is destroyed. Boys, who before showed wit and genius, sink into mediocrity, or even become blockheads; the mind loses its taste for all good and lofty ideas, and the imagination is utterly vitiated. Every glance of a female form excites desire. Anxiety, repentance, shame, and despair of any remedy for the evil, makes the painful state of such a man complete. His whole life is a series of secret reproaches, distressed feelings, self-deserved weakness, indecision, and weariness of life; and it is no wonder if the inclination to suicide affimately arises, - and inclination to which no man is more prone. The dreadful experience of a living death renders actual death a desirable consummation; for the waste of that which gives life generally produces disgust and weariness of life, and leads to that peculiar kind of self-destruction, per depit, from sheer disgust of existence, which is characteristic of our age. Moreover, the digestive power is destroyed; flatulence and pains in the stomach create constant annoyance, the blood is vitiated, the chest obstructed, eruptions and ulcers break out upon the skin, the whole body become dried and wasted, and in the end come epilepsy, consumption, slow fever, tainting fits, and an early death."
