I was alarmed with Miss Young's morning visit, when, as you know, I
lost my speech. The medical people said it was from the stomach, which
might be, but while there is a doubt upon a point so alarming, you
will not wonder that the subject, or to use Hare's _lingo_, the
_shot_, should be a little anxious." He relates how he had followed
all the strict medical _regime_ prescribed to him with scrupulous
regularity, and then begun his work again with as much attention as he
could. "And having taken pains with my story, I find it is not
relished, nor indeed tolerated, by those who have no interest in
condemning it, but a strong interest in putting even a face" (? force)
"upon their consciences. Was not this, in the circumstances, a damper
to an invalid already afraid that the sharp edge might be taken off
his intellect, though he was not himself sensible of that?" In fact,
no more masterly discussion of the question whether his mind were
failing or not, and what he ought to do in the interval of doubt, can
be conceived, than these letters give us.
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