James Otis, the Pre-RevolutionistRidpath, John Clark
History
James Otis, the Pre-Revolutionist
Ridpath, John Clark
Otis, James, 1725-1783
"'In the next place, I have made a thousand enemies; among whom
are the government of the province and the nation. What do you
think of this item?' 'That is as it may happen,' said Molineux.
"'In the next place, you know, I love pleasure; but I have
renounced all amusement for ten years. What is that worth to a
man of pleasure?' 'No great matter,' said Molineux; 'you have
made politics your amusement.' A hearty laugh.
"'In the next place, I have ruined as fine health, and as good a
constitution of body, as nature ever gave to man.' 'This is
melancholy indeed,' said Molineux; 'there is nothing to be said
on that point.'
"'Once more,' said Otis, holding his head down before Molineux;
'look upon this head!' (Where was a scar in which a man might
bury his finger.) 'What do you think of this? And, what is
worse, my friends think I have a monstrous crack in my skull.'
"This made all the company very grave, and look very solemn. But
Otis, setting up a laugh, and with a gay countenance, said to
Molineux, 'Now, Willy, my advice to you is, to say no more about
your grievances; for you and I had better put up our accounts of
profit and loss in our pockets, and say no more about them, lest
the world should laugh at us.'"
This whimsical dialogue put all the company, including Molineux,
in a good humor, and they passed the rest of the evening very
pleasantly.
One of the few fragments in Otis' handwriting now extant, is a
memorandum made during the two years of transient sanity just
preceding his tragic death. Returning one Sunday from public
worship, he wrote: "I have this day attended divine service, and
heard a sensible discourse; and thanks be to God, I now enjoy the
greatest of all blessings, mens sana in copore sano" (a sound
mind in a sound body). But this gleam of reason was as transient
as others that had preceded, and with Bowen we willingly draw a
veil over the sad record of this most terrible misfortune of our
hero. "To be among men, and yet not of them; to preserve the
outward form and lineaments of a human being, while the spirit
within is wanting, or is transformed into a wreck of what it has
been; is surely one of the most impressive and affecting
instances of the ills to which mortality is exposed. It enforces
with melancholy earnestness the moral lesson, that the only
objects of the affections are the character and the intellect;
and when these are destroyed, we look upon the external shape and
features only as on the tomb in which the mortal remains of a
friend repose. We even long for the closing of the scene, and
think it would be far better if the now tenantless and ruined
house were levelled with the ground."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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