about four in the afternoon
Your objection to my passing this season of the year at such a distance from home , would have more weight if I did not find myself perfectly at my ease where I am ; and my health so much improved , that I am disposed to bid defiance to gout and rheumatism -- I begin to think I have put myself on the superannuated list too soon , and absurdly sought for health in the retreats of laziness -- I am persuaded that all valetudinarians are too sedentary , too regular , and too cautious -- We should sometimes increase the motion of the machine , to unclog the wheels of life ; and now and then take a plunge amidst the waves of excess , in order to caseharden the constitution . I have even found a change of company as necessary as a change of air , to promote a vigorous circulation of the spirits , which is the very essence and criterion of good health . Since my last , I have been performing the duties of friendship , that required a great deal of exercise , from which I hope to derive some benefit -- Understanding , by the greatest accident in the world , that Mr Baynard 's wife was dangerously ill of a pleuritic fever , I borrowed Dennison 's post-chaise , and went across the country to his habitation , attended only by Loyd -LRB- quondam Clinker -RRB- on horseback . -- As the distance is not above thirty miles , I arrived about four in the afternoon , and meeting the physician at the door , was informed that his patient had just expired . -- I was instantly seized with a violent emotion , but it was not grief . -- The family being in confusion , I ran up stairs into the chamber , where , indeed , they were all assembled . -- The aunt stood wringing her hands in a kind of stupefaction of sorrow , but my friend acted all the extravagancies of affliction -- He held the body in his arms , and poured forth such a lamentation , that one would have thought he had lost the most amiable consort and valuable companion upon earth .