"
I was shocked at his answer. "But can it be possible," said I, "that
the influence of such an excessive use of opium can produce any
alleviation of mental suffering? any real relief to the harassed mind?
Is it not rather an aggravation?"
"I know not," he said, seating himself with considerable calmness,--"I
know not. If it has not removed the evil, it has at least changed its
character. It has diverted my mind from its original grief; and has
broken up and rendered divergent the concentrated agony which oppressed
me. It has, in a measure, substituted imaginary afflictions for real
ones. I cannot but confess, however, that the relief which it has
afforded has been produced by the counteraction of one pain by another;
very much like that of the Russian criminal, who gnaws his own flesh
while undergoing the punishment of the knout.'"
"For Heaven's sake," said I, "try to dispossess your mind of such horrid
images. There are many, very many resources yet left you. Try the
effect of society; and let it call into exercise those fine talents
which all admit are so well calculated to be its ornament and pride.
At least, leave this hypochondriacal atmosphere, and look out more
frequently upon nature. Your opium, if it be an alleviator, is, by your
own confession, a most melancholy one.
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