Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/203

 the Terror and Conſternation which the Thing put them into.

I got myſelf diſcharg’d of the dangerous Office I was in, as ſoon as I cou’d get another admitted, who I had obtain’d for a little Mony to accept of it; and ſo, inſtead of ſerving the two Months, which was directed, I was not above three Weeks in it; and a great while too, conſidering it was in the Month of Auguſt, at which time the Diſtemper began to rage with great Violence at our end of the Town.

In the execution of this Office, I cou’d not refrain ſpeaking my Opinion among my Neighbours, as to this ſhutting up the People in their Houſes; in which we ſaw moſt evidently the Severities that were uſed tho’ grievous in themſelves, had alſo this particular Objection againſt them, namely, that they did not anſwer the End, as I have ſaid, but that the diſtemper’d People went Day by Day about the Streets; and it was our united Opinion, that a Method to have removed the Sound from the Sick in Caſe of a particular Houſe being viſited, wou’d ha' been much more reaſonable on many Accounts, leaving no Body with the ſick Perſons, but ſuch as ſhou’d on ſuch Occaſion requeſt to ſtay and declare themſelves content to be ſhut up with them. Our Scheme for removing thoſe that were Sound from thoſe that were Sick, was only in ſuch Houſes as were infected, and confining the ſick was no Confinement; thoſe that cou’d not ſtir, wou’d not complain, while they were in their Senſes, and while they had the Power of judging: Indeed, when they came to be Dilirious and Light-headed, then they wou’d cry out of the Cruelty of being confin’d; but for the removal of thoſe that were well, we thought it highly reaſonable and juſt, for their own ſakes, they ſhou’d be remov’d from the Sick, and that, for other People’s Safety, they ſhou’d keep retir’d fora while,