"Behold that fragile form of delicate, transparent beauty,
Whose light blue eye and hectic cheek are lit by the bale-fires of
decline;
All droopingly she lieth, as a dew-laden lily,
Her flaxen tresses rashly luxuriant, dank with unhealthy moisture;
Hath not thy heart said of her, 'Alas! poor child of weakness'?"
Yes, the monster "Decline" seeks particularly the fair-skinned, of
"transparent beauty," and those of the "light blue eye and flaxen hair,"
for his victims. Nor are the illiterate alone his subjects, but men of the
most talented minds, men versed in arts, sciences, and _belles-lettres_,
professors of hygiene and physiology, and the very practitioners of the
art of medicine themselves, are often the shining marks of the insidious
monster whom they by erudition diligently seek to repel.
Because of the too prevalent belief of the invincibleness of consumption,
it has been neglected more than any other disease. The victims to its
wiles have hoped against hope, while the enemy has woven his web quietly
and flatteringly around them.
You must first be warned of his earliest aggression.