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All In Your Mind
48.
Acclimitization; Weather
It was a very wet day, and I again complained of the disagreeable
effects of such weather. Johnson: "Sir, this is all
imagination, which physicians encourage; for man lives in air,
as a fish lives in water, so that if the atmosphere press heavy
from above, there is an equal resistance from below. To be sure,
weather is hard upon people who are obliged to go abroad; and
men cannot labour so well in the open air in bad weather, as in
good: but, Sir, a smith or taylor, whose work is done within
doors, will surely do as much in rainy weather, as in fair. Some
very delicate frames, indeed, may be affected by wet weather;
but not common constitutions."
Boswell: Life
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162. Acclimitization
I pitied a friend before him, who had a whining wife that found
every thing painful to her, and nothing pleasing -- "He does not
know that she whimpers (says Johnson); when a door has creaked
for a fortnight together, you may observe -- the master will
scarcely give sixpence to get it oiled."
Piozzi: Anecdotes
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667. Acclimitization; Weather
"Surely nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with
reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air,
and live in dependence on the weather and the wind, for the only
blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and
benevolence. To look up to the sky for the nutriment of our
bodies, is the condition of nature; to call upon the sun for
peace and gaiety, or deprecate the clouds lest sorrow should
overwhelm us, is the cowardice of idleness, and the idolatry of
folly."
Johnson: Idler #11 (June 24, 1758)
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1,032. Acclimitization;
Diligence
"Dependence of the soul upon the seasons, those temporary and
periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I suppose, be justly
derided as the fumes of vain imagination. ... While this notion
has possession of the head, it produces the inability which it
supposes. Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes.
When success is attainable, diligence is enforced; but when it
is admitted that the faculties are suppressed by a cross wind or
a cloudy sky the day is given up without resistance; for who can
contend with the course of Nature?"
Johnson: Milton (Lives of the Poets)
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