322 MEMOIRS OP . PERIOD XI. henfion about the honeft man. So he is a jealous God, with .whom we have to do. But I cannot but admire the wifdom of that kind Providence, which, after I had complained in that houfe to the matter of it, touching the mifreprefentation that had been made of my ilinefs in it, as above Paid, brought him to my houfe : where being juft to fit down tò meat with him, I was feized with another fit of the gravel, and obliged to retire, and groan under it leaving him and the table. I reckon myfelf debtor to my God for this beautifully-timed fit, which ferved to .confirm, that I had been injured in the matter of the former. On March 25. I finifhed the work on the firft twenty chap.. ters ofGenets ; that MS. cónfifting of272 pages in folio, App. No 5. - That winter my frailty was great, being quite unable to bear the cold, the blood and fpirits deferting my fingers : fo that the parifh was but once examined for that year, and that after the vernal equinox, fave one diet only in the beginning Of the winter, and I had feveral thoughts, that there would be a neceffity of my demitting, as unable for the charge. Having read DT Cheyne's book on health, I had fet myfelfto regulate my .manner of living accordingly, for the cure of the fcurvy : fo I ate very fparingly at dinner,and tookno fupper. Thiscourfe I ufed, I think, more than a year about this time; going to bed withal about nine; and rifing early about four or five ; making the time of dinner late in the afternoon, and thereafter doing nothing, until I went to bed again. Thus my work indeed went on, but my body was brought to that low pafs. And whereasmy head has now fhaken, for feveral years, paralytically; The firft time I obferved that fhaking thereof, was on the Sa- turday's, afternoons, when I fhaved myfelf, in the time I was mployed in writing the faid manufcript. Afterwards I return= d again to my ordinary way of living ; feldom fucceeding in nay proje&s for health by art, whether with or without the phyfician's advice. About this time began my wife's confiant confinement to her bed : for whereas formerly the was 'wont to have Tome rèfpite in the winter, fo as to rife out of her bed, in that feafon of the year ; the hath, fine the month of March 1726, lain conftantly, all the year over, in winter as well as fummer, unto this day. Having carried on the work - afórefaid with a molt ftrictly literal verfion only, I did thereafter make a more fmooth verfion of there chapters, confifting of twenty-two pages in folio ; but which, upon a review, I do not judge fmooth enough as yet. This I finifhed April '12. and, by the 21fí had all read over, corredted, and laid up. Withal I had written the preface to the Marrow with notes, which was publifhed about that time. It pleated the Lord, while I was.engaged in the forefald work, to let me in fomewhat into the reafon of double accentuation. And it is truly wondrous in my eyes, that I have been helped
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