2032. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 83–85.
[London]
[Postmark: 17 September 1845]
My dearest friend,
I am going to be very impertinent & very meddling, and therefore I do invoke your patience to be the Muse of my letter. Now listen to me.
I understand from all my enquiries of you, that you still are inclined to what I call the iniquity of getting out of bed in the night, & sitting in your chair. That you are easier in the chair & prefer the posture altogether, I understand also,—and yet it is so clear to me that you must ultimately suffer from this habit, that I cannot help entreating you to consider the subject under some particular aspects of it. I might beg you for love of me, to grant my request & remain in bed—I might say that it would be kind of you to relieve the anxiety of such of your friends as cannot bear to think of your sitting up all the night through——but I would rather lay before you the exact reasons which make me anxious.
In the first place, then, .. there is the exposure. The body is more sensitive to cold during the night, and the atmosphere is more inclined towards chilling: and therefore (supposing your pains to be rheumatic) you exchange for momentary ease, many of the probabilities of progress & essential improvement. This is one reason—but I think still more of the next.
In the second place, then, according to the constitution of our bodies, rest is necessary to their well-being: and by rest, I do not mean sleep,—but the repose which is produced by posture & stillness. Anatomists tell us that the horizontal posture relieves the spinal process from its burden,—& that it is necessary, in order to the due relaxation of the muscles & nerves & of the frame in general. In any other position than the horizontal, there are pressures throughout the frame, which if they are perpetual, are likely to produce disease. You see I speak generally. I might say that you have always had the habit of stooping rather too much,—and that therefore, in your case, the general observation acquires a new emphasis,—& the fact grows clearer & clearer, that you will be sure to suffer hereafter from your present disinclination to the horizontal posture. You will suffer in your digestion .. in your chest, .. or wherever you are the weakest in body. The weakest part will feel the fatigue first. Is not this reasonable? And is it not natural that I shd shrink and fear before the pain of seeing you incur new diseases? Forgive me for speaking. You will grant that it is natural for me to fear!—and fear sometimes gives courage, .. which is natural too!—and, so, I speak.
When I speak of the horizontal posture, of course I do not mean it quite literally. If the posture gives you pain, it should be modified to the degree necessary to escaping the pain– But I think that it shd be sufficiently horizontal, to give rest to the body by opposing a new posture to the posture of sitting up in the chair. The legs should be laid up—and the head (above all) laid back– Also, if you should consent to a little propping by pillows, … why should you not allow Jane to make for you a loose flannel bedgown reaching to the hips, or a little below, .. lined with very thick wadding or, as I should prefer, with fur? Coloured flannel lined with fur & made very loosely, would last long,—& you would find it as warm as the blankets, .. or warmer. Will you for my sake, my dearest friend, think of these things, & weigh my reasons well—and be sure that if I did not feel them to be strong reasons, I would not run the risk of teazing you or perhaps of displeasing you. And even with these strong reasons, I might be afraid of running this risk, if I did not hold you in so much affection that I would rather be scolded than see you suffer. May God bless you, dearest Mr Boyd! I will not tire you with too long a note, whatever else I may do .. that is, if you are not tired already.
Your attached & grateful friend
Elibet.
Address: H S Boyd Esqre / 24 (a) Grove End Road / St John’s Wood.
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 277–278.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
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