ADVICE
To “Look at Home!”
The advice given by a girl to Thales, the Milesian philosopher, was strong and practical. Seeing him gazing at the heavens, as he walked along, and perhaps piqued by his not casting an eye on her attractions, she put a stool in his path, over which he tumbled and broke his shins. The excuse she made was, that she meant to teach him, before he indulged himself in star-gazing, to “look at home.”
Advice for a broken Limb.
In a late translation of Hippocrates, we read the following piece of grave advice, which, notwithstanding the great name of the counsellor, will hardly have many followers.
In a fracture of the thigh, “the extension ought to be particularly great, the muscles being so strong that, notwithstanding the effect of the bandages, their contraction is apt to shorten the limb. This is a deformity so deplorable, that when there is reason to apprehend it, I would advise the patient to suffer the other thigh to be broken also, in order to have them both of one length.”
The founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius Loyola, who, to preserve the shape of his boot, had a considerable part of his leg-bone cut off, would have been a docile patient to the sage Hippocrates. The story is in the Every-Day Book, vol. i. p. 1050.
Sincere Advice.
While Louis XIV. was besieging Lisle, the Spanish governor very handsomely sent him, from the town, every day, fresh ice for the use of his table. M. de Charost, a favourite of the king, happening to be near him when one of these presents arrived, said to the messenger, with a loud voice, “Do you be sure to tell M. de Brouai, your governor, that I advise him not to give up his town like a coward, as the commandant of Douai has done.” “Are you mad, Charost?” said the king, turning to him angrily. “No, sir,” said Charost, “but you must excuse me. The comte de Brouai is my near relation.”