Body and Soul
John Wesley urged the medical profession (and his fellow clergy) to remember that drugs are not the answer to every sickness.
1759
King George II 1727-1760
John Wesley urged the medical profession (and his fellow clergy) to remember that drugs are not the answer to every sickness.
1759
King George II 1727-1760
On Saturday May 12th, 1759, John Wesley was in Whitehaven, on the coast of Cumbria. That evening, he left himself a reminder in his daily Journal never to try to get there via the coast road: the inland trip by Kendal and Keswick was longer but quicker. He then fell to musing on a lady he had spoken to recently, who suffered from a persistent stomach ailment.
REFLECTING to-day on the case of a poor woman who had continual pain in her stomach, I could not but remark the inexcusable negligence of most Physicians in cases of this nature. They prescribe drug upon drug, without knowing a jot of the matter concerning the root of the disorder. And without knowing this, they cannot cure, though they can murder, the patient.
Whence came this woman’s pain? (which she would never have told, had she never been questioned about it:) from fretting for the death of her son. And what availed medicines, while that fretting continued? Why then do not all Physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind; and in those cases, which are utterly out of their sphere, call in the assistance of a Minister; as Ministers, when they find the mind disordered by the body, call in the assistance of a Physician? But why are these cases out of their sphere? Because they know not God. It follows, no man can be a thorough Physician without being an experienced Christian.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.