refreshing night’s rest by having your bed made; should a friend drop in who can give you a game of chess or cribbage be sure to avail yourself of the opportunity, if you feel inclined for such recreation. Do not sit up late, or get into any exciting conversation; but go calmly and quietly to bed, take your basin of gruel, swallow your pills, lay your head on the pillow, and go to sleep. To-morrow it is most probable that you will be well, or only sufficiently indisposed to render it prudent that you should stop at home, when you will indulge in a stronger and more relishing diet; pass the day in a dreamy state of inactivity, or enjoy yourself vivaciously in any reasonable manner you may think proper. Perhaps, gentle reader, you may have endured prolonged and severe attacks of bodily suffering—perhaps you will tell us that we have not been depicting illness at all, but merely indisposition. You would have had us pick out from the pages of the “Lancet” a thrilling account of torture under the knife, and then made us rack our ingenuity to discover, if possible, some pleasure contingent upon that. You might as well expect us to write an article on the pleasure of being hanged. We will, however, say this much as regards every degree of illness: that there is scarcely any that does not admit of some mitigating gratification. The mere circumstance of being watched and most carefully tended by those we love, the kindness with which they bear our peevishness, and the desire they display to do every thing they can either to alleviate our pain or to conduce to our convalescence, are pleasures such as illness alone can afford, and must ever merit the highest appreciation, not only because we either are or ought to be duly impressed with them at the time, but for the farther and more substantial reason that they become delightful reminiscences and bonds of affection forever after. It is an excellent thing, morally and socially, is illness, and only requires that we endeavor to make the best instead of the worst of it; and therein lies the whole serious purport of this paper, which we have thought fit to write in as light a style as possible, knowing that the subject, though interesting to all, is very far from being generally palatable. OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE USE OF THE TELESCOPE.