(Biographies) William Wilberforce — John Piper

The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from desiring. God is available at www .desiringgod .org.

William Wilberforce’s Life and Christian Formation

If you want to understand The life and labor of William Wilberforce, I recommend to you that you read his one big book that he wrote a practical view of Christianity first and then go to biographies and the reason is that That's the way I did it and I am so glad I did because I do not think I would have known Wilberforce from his biography.

I Think I knew him when I finished his book and then could fill in the details With the biography because there are a lot of biographers even Christian ones who just don't understand some of the things that make 18th century evangelicals tick.

They don't get it. And so to read that book you will get it. You cannot not get it I don't think if you read it and have eyes to see and ears to hear so read a Practical view. I'm sorry. It's out of print.

Mine was only published in 96 and it's out of print. Evidently it doesn't sell all that. Well so go find it in a library and read the practical view and then if you want to read a biography read Pollock or McLean or For no or and none of those are in print I think.

Except maybe one I think we might have one paperback out there in the bookstore get whatever you can and read about this life. What made Wilberforce tick Was a profound Allegiance to what he calls the peculiar doctrines of Christianity.

Don't think he means Calvinism. In fact, he said I'm not a Calvinist then I'll tell you a word or two more about why. I think he said that later, but peculiar doctrines simply meant the things that make Christianity Christianity as peculiar and distinct from other religions and he said those are the ones that he loved and lived by.

They were the things that gave rise to true religious affections. That's a term that was common in the 18th century. Jonathan Edwards dissertation Concerning the religious affections and he was born the year after Edwards died.

So Edwards works were influencing a lot of in evangelicals in Britain. So The religious affections grow out of these doctrines these religious affections he believed transformed the manners or the morals of persons and they Transform the political welfare of a nation.

This is what he wrote if a principle of true religion or true Christianity should gain ground. There is no Estimating the effects on public morals and the consequent influence on political welfare. Now He was no ordinary pragmatist however in Simply using Christianity to bring about political ends.

He was practical the name of his book Practical view of Christianity. He was eminently practical. One biographer said he lacked time for half the good deeds in his mind. Another wrote Factories did not spring up more rapidly in Leeds and Manchester than schemes of benevolence beneath his roof.

He himself wrote no man has a right to be idle. There is so much misery to alleviate. If you're an idle person you have your head in the sand or you're an unloving person. There is so much misery in the world to Alleviate.

So he was practical through and through. He was an activist and a doer not a theologian proper or improper. But he was practical with a difference. Pragmatic. With the difference. He believed that new affections Transformed morals which transformed Nations.

So when you read that book to realize that you're. You're reading the book of a man who was elected to Parliament at age 21 had been a politician for 16 years. Would be a politician all his life and never had a day of theological education in his life except what he studied on his own.

Absolutely takes your breath away. What that book reads like it makes you want to go back and live in the 18th century again. Because here was a politician who knew his Doctrine and his theology better than virtually all pastors do today.

It seems to me. And he did it all by himself with no seminary to teach him at all. So take heart by the way. Those of you who feel lamed perhaps because of a lack of institutional training I'll tell you a little bit about his his own self training later.

But don't feel like you can't make a significant mark without that formalized training. Peculiar doctrines like The depravity of the human heart the judgment of God on sin the substitutionary work of Christ Justification by faith alone Regeneration by the Holy Spirit and the necessity of practical fruit in your life worked by the Spirit those are the things that he meant by the peculiar doctrines of true religion.

Christian Doctrine and Moral Transformation

He wrote this book to show that the bulk of Nominal Christians in England in his day had abandoned those doctrines for a system of ethics That had lost its power to change people and to transform the nation here was a key sentence.

The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines. That's a fatal habit. It's a fatal habit to think of Christian morals distinct from Christian Doctrine. Anybody that tries to pull apart ethics or politics from Doctrine he says is doing a fatal thing.

Let me keep reading that sentence. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight and As might naturally have been expected the moral system Itself also began to wither and decay being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and Nutriment.

He didn't think the tree of fruit of righteousness Could survive the severing of the root of doctrine. He didn't believe it and he wrote a whole book in order to show that that's the point of that book.

Now knowing that he is such a pragmatist or practical theologian and a politician who won his first election when he was 21 and never was defeated and was in Politics for 50 years until he died at age 74.

Knowing that might make you think that He's a pragmatist in the sense that well sure he's into Christianity because he thinks Christianity works. So if it works it makes people good and treat each other nice don't steal from each other and be good Patriots then use Christianity and that's exactly what he's not.

He's not that kind of a pragmatist he Said of sin for example. This is just an illustration of what I mean by his kind of pragmatism that the bulk of nominal Christians in England thought of sin as Harming society he said.

They Estimated the guilt of an action not by the proportion in which According to Scripture they are offensive to God. But by which they are injurious to Society. Now you might think that's an excellent definition of sin especially for a pragmatist.

Because that's what you want is to get people to use an understanding of sin to change their lives to make a better Nation where everybody can rise and it can be a better place to live and and he profoundly disagreed with that.

Here's what he says their slight notions of the guilt and evil of sin. Reveal an utter lack of all suitable reverence for the Divine Majesty. This principle of Divine Majesty is justly termed in Scripture the beginning of wisdom fear of God.

Reverence for the Divine Majesty is the beginning of wisdom. And then he drew out you can't build a nation on folly you must have wisdom and To disregard God is what makes sin. Sin is The opposite of wisdom and therefore the opposite of the good of the nation.

That's the kind of pragmatist he was. He was a radically God centered activist. I Could give you many illustrations here. I'll skip over because I have 30 pages and can only do 15. So I'll leave out my dueling illustration.

Wilberforce’s Early Life and Conversion

Let's talk about his early life for a minute, but all these will be in the manuscript. August 24 1759 he was born in Hull England. His father died when he was 9. He was sent by his mother to live with the uncle and aunt they happen to be evangelical.

She didn't realize how Evangelical they sent him to an evangelical boarding school. She saw him becoming a Methodist. Horrors. She pulled him out of that boring school. She was high church Anglican afraid that he was going to get infected by this enthusiasm in England and sent him off to a different school where he Proceeded to become a pagan which he was for the next 20 years.

He said in school that he did nothing at all. He was very bright and therefore he didn't have to do anything at all like like some of the schools My children have gone to didn't have to do anything. Which is why we're killing our kids in the cities.

They said to my son Benjamin Just show up and you'll pass. That's what it had fallen to at Roosevelt High. He went to st. John's College, Cambridge and There he proceeded to do nothing but party. He was very wealthy.

His father had left a lot of money behind. He got an allowance from his mom and therefore he didn't have to do anything and he didn't do anything Significant except make friends with William Pitt. Who was his exact same age?

And at age 21 on a lark They said let's run for Parliament. They had infinite resources. He spent 8 ,000 pounds and won the election at age 21. William Pitt did too and in four years William Pitt was the Prime Minister of England at age 25.

This is incredible. What Providence was up to here. Because these guys did not deserve anything they got they were just a bunch of lechers Partying around thinking cool. Let's run for Parliament. That was 1780.

And he stayed in Parliament until he died. 50 year investment in the politics of of England and he began as a Parliament person his late-night party loving upper-class Unbeliever lifestyle. He was single.

He liked it that way and he stayed that way till he was 37 years old. And then he met Barbara April 15 1797 and he fell in love and Married her two weeks later she was a Believer and by that time he was which means I've skipped over the most important event of his life.

So let's go back and figure out how God did this. How did? William Wilberforce become a Christian. What did God do to take this fella and Turn him into the force for justice. That he was in England for Christ for so many decades.

Well The way Parliament worked is that they took two long recesses. Two or three months each and all these wealthy officeholders just went to the French Riviera or went back home and hobnobbed around and so he usually went with his sister and his mother over to France during the winter holiday and He decided on a lark to invite Isaac Milner alone.

Isaac Milner. He had known in grammar school fun guy. Had gone on was teaching at Queen's College Cambridge thought I'll renew my old friendship with Isaac Milner. Says go with my mom and my sister and me to the French Riviera in October, we'll come back in February and on the boat Across the channel.

He finds out the guy's an evangelical Christian. He'd become a Christian Blew all of his stereotypes. He didn't act like what he thought a typical Methodist or Whitfield Ian or Newtonian was supposed to Be like and they got into endless conversations about biblical doctrine.

Then as though by mistake and nothing is by mistake. They're in his house ready to head home. Several months later on the coffee table in this house is a book Wilberforce picks it up and it is the rise and progress of religion in the soul by Philip Doddridge.

Never heard of it. So he shows it to Milner. He says ever heard of this book. Milner says one of the best books ever written bring it along let's read it to each other in the carriage on the way home across France cross channel and Home, which is what they did.

They read the book to each other. Wilberforce said February 1785 now That when he reached Parliament he had become an intellectually Believing Christian. Not a Christian yet. He did not believe but he affirmed the doctrine.

That's where he'd come. Milner had answered all of his questions. He had seen enough coherence enough Reasonableness as far as he judged reasonableness that he was going to sign on Intellectually, which of course won't change anybody's life, right?

And so he went right back into his lifestyle Except that God had not finished with him so long came the summer Recess and he invited Milner again to be with him and they talked endlessly until The great change that's what he called it the great change Happened and he repented and Put his faith in Jesus and one of the first effects there in France.

They were in France again one of the first effects Was to make him loathe his wealth and What he had done with it all these years says he felt a contempt For his wealth and the luxury in which he had lived on all these trips between parliamentary sessions and in its place came a passion for the poor and the downtrodden and Whoever lacked and seemed to have no access.

He was bemoaning in addition his idleness. He had been Idle. He had just played between parliamentary sessions for those few years. Four of them. He's 25 now. So for four years, he just watched himself fritter his life away and now he was so ashamed and Wanted to make it right and he was terrified.

He uses the word Tormented by whether or not he could stay a politician. So, where did he go for counsel? To find out it's a brand new Christian. He doesn't know what the implications of this are. He went to John Newton.

Now he was afraid to go to Newton. Newton was living in London at the time and Newton had a reputation and his reputation Was he's a flaming evangelical. He's one of those. And he's a holy roller type.

His sense of decorum in the Parliament now is That I'm a young parliamentarian if people see me go to his house or it gets around that I visited this Well-known evangelical. I don't know what it will mean.

So he circled the block twice. Before he got up the courage to knock on his door. Newton is 60 years old and he knocks on the door and goes in and God be praised. Newton told him to stay in politics and Then he wrote him a couple of years later.

It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of his church and for the good of the nation so you document the little turns of providence in this man's life. Isaac Milner and Doddridge's book and visiting Newton.

Any of which could have been so easily missed you would think and the life would have turned in another direction and the slave trade Would not have been abolished perhaps for another century. Instead of when it was under this man's dynamic Leadership, so he's now a Christian.

He's 25 or 6 years old when he settles it. And he begins to use those recesses for the next 11 years until he marries. To make up for time lost by study. Here's brothers where I said, I would say a word.

Self-Education and Growth in Grace

Here's the way he he described it himself he got these months off. And instead of playing and playing on the French Riviera. He would go find somebody's house that would let him live there and since he didn't own one.

And he described it like this. Would spend the days studying about nine or ten hours a day typically breakfasting alone taking walks alone dining with the host family and other guests, but not joining them in the evening until I Came down about three quarters of an hour before bedtime.

For what supper I wanted. End quote. So for 11 years I'm sure he didn't do it exactly like that every day, but that was his described regimen during his Time away. You don't all have that luxury to have those kinds of days away but if you missed seminary.

You didn't get converted to you were 40 or didn't have the money it was a white school and they didn't want you to come or Your white tradition didn't believe in formal education or whatever. Don't throw in the towel on the immense Growth in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus that you can experience in the years you have left.

You know if you were 50 and you came up to me today and you said I Don't know Greek and I don't know Hebrew. And I never had any formal education. What would you think I should do now with the rest of my life, I just might say learn Greek.

I might. I might not to. But why not? Why not take two three four years and then have the last ten or fifteen. To do some digging he'd never done before maybe. The cause of abolition was the main cause of his life.

Wilberforce’s Call to Abolish the Slave Trade

Let's talk about that for just a minute. Here's a Christian now positioned in the House of Commons age 25 26. In 1787 Wilberforce wrote a letter in which he estimated that the annual export of slaves from the west coast of Africa for all nations exceeded 100 ,000 a year in 1804 this is three years before the victory.

He estimated that from Guyana alone Where the British were specializing not the Portuguese and the French and the others who are also involved twelve to fifteen thousand a year human beings being captured put below deck.

Shipped to the West Indies those who made it. One year after his conversion God's apparent Calling fell on him. October 28 1787 he wrote this in his diary. God Almighty Has set before me two great objects the suppression of the slave trade and the Reformation of morals.

And what you hear in the connection of those two is root and branch root and branch beneath that root of a reformation of morals leading to national transformation or cultural revolution in the abolition of this cultural sin.

Is those distinctive peculiar doctrines down here? Christmas 1787 a few years before a few days before the recess began. Will before stood up and served notice to the whole Parliament that he would be bringing to them a motion in the spring For the abolition of the slave trade.

That was the beginning of a 20-year battle. He just served notice. He laid down the gauntlet. I'm in this and I'm not going away. Now this is a main lesson of his life for us. He didn't go away. Because the battle was long the defeats were many the criticism was it?

Unstoppable. But he was not unstoppable. May 1789 He made a speech often his speech were four hours. The hours these men kept in the Commons was Unbelievable, they their their meetings would end three o 'clock four o 'clock in the morning.

He wrote this or he spoke this I confess to you so enormous so dreadful so Irremediable did its wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would.

I? from this time determined that I would never rest until I had Affected its abolition. He spoke of it with great Sensibility about his own guilt just like we often need to do he said Speaking at another time to the Parliament.

I mean not to accuse anyone But to take the shame upon myself In common indeed with the whole Parliament of Great Britain for having suffered this horrid trade To be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty.

We ought to all plead guilty and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others. Ten years go by ten years. Defeat after defeat on the floor of the Commons. He wrote the grand object of my parliamentary existence is the abolition of the trade before this great cause.

All others dwindle in my eyes and I must say that the Certainty that I am right here adds greatly to the complacency. That's an 18th century word for settled peacefulness not indifference. We cannot use the word Complacency today the way they did because it doesn't mean the same thing at all anymore in the 20th century.

I adds greatly to the settled peaceful confidence with which I Exert myself in asserting it if it pleased God to honor me so far. May I be the instrument of stopping such a course of wickedness and cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country then 1807 finally arrived February 24 4 a .m. After 20 years at one point The house it says rose almost to a man and turned toward Wilberforce in a burst of parliamentary cheers suddenly above the roar of here here and quite out of order three hurrahs echoed and echoed and echoed as he sat head bowed and tears streaming down his face eyes 283 nose 16 majority for abolition 267.

February 24 1807 that was the first 20 years of his battle. Because all that had been settled was the legal standing of the trade. Not slavery the new battle begins. He didn't Miss the celebration, however.

Some of you've read the stories about this evening. I mean, it's 4 a .m. In the morning. It's snowing outside. These guys are frolicking like children. He turns to Henry Thornton his best friend slaps him on the back and says well Henry, what shall we abolish next?

By the way, his answer later that night was the lottery the lottery. He didn't make that his life goal, but that's the word that came out of his mouth as a possibility. William Cooper the poet friend of John Newton wrote a sonnet for Wilberforce.

That begins like this to give him tribute for this Thy country wilberforce with just disdain Hears thee by cruel men and impious called fanatic. For thy zeal to loose enthralled from exile public sale and slavery's chain friend of the poor the wrong the fetter galled.

Fear not lest such as thine be vain. William Jay was a pastor in the Sinting Church and a good friend of Wilberforce he wrote his disinterested self-denying laborious undeclining efforts in the cause of justice and humanity will call down blessings of millions and Ages yet to come will glory in his memory and That's true.

I do so today. Now let us analyze together for a few minutes his perseverance. Because this is what has gripped me in reading this man's life. I Want to be like this, don't you? Whatever cause you take up and I hope you take up the one we're about this weekend and others.

I preached on Martin Luther King weekend on racial justice. I preached on the next weekend on justice for the unborn and I argued at root Their personhood issues and therefore one who cares about one oughta come oughta care About the other.

I wanted my people to become coronary Christians not adrenal Christians. Adrenaline gives you a spurt for a moment and then when it retreats you fall exhausted. Coronary Christians are Christians like your heart lub-dub lub-dub Lub-dub morning afternoon night day after day week after week month after month Year after year decade after decade.

It is the most quiet wonderful servant in your life. Never gets bent out of shape by your attitude. Might speed up or slow down but it never takes a day off says I quit change your attitude. I'm not gonna serve you anymore.

Don't like your attitude your heart just it just keeps going on serving you and serving you like Wilberforce served England and served England and served the African-american I know just just African in his day.

They didn't make it to America. Most of them got to West Indies. Let's talk about his perseverance for a minute. In 1804 three years before the victory came for that first phase in the battle. Somebody Pointed out to him that something really encouraging it happened by way of somebody's election and change of vote.

And he said I have been so often disappointed That I rejoice with trembling and shall scarcely dare to be confident Until I see the order in the Gazette. In other words he had been knocked down So many times By hoped for victory that never became victory that he had become an even-keeled.

I'm not gonna get excited about Prospects. I'm just gonna keep on doing what I'm doing here. His adversary saw this in him and trembled. One of them complained. Wilberforce jumped up whenever he was knocked down a more creative adversary said it like this.

It is necessary to watch him as He is blessed with a very sufficient quantity of that enthusiastic spirit Which so far from yielding that it grows more vigorous from blows? In other words you knock him down he gets up stronger.

What are you gonna do with somebody like that? Can't knock him down. He gets up stronger leave him up. He grows stronger. John Wesley Was 87 years old in 1790 right after this battle began. He wrote to Wilberforce Unless God has raised you up for this very thing You will be worn out by the opposition of man and devils.

But if God before you who can be against you two years later. He wrote I Daily become more sensible that my work must be affected by constant and regular exertions Rather than sudden and violent ones.

Are there any Wilberforces in this room? I? Pray hundreds. Let's say that again so you can all pray that God would make you this way. I Came to see That my work And the cause of abolition must be affected by constant regular exertions rather than sudden violent ones.

So when you go home brothers Here we had a sudden violent one. Now the test is will we become the constant? exerting ones. Will we be lub-dub? Lovers of justice or will we be adrenal? Lovers of justice.

Perseverance Through Criticism, Family Burdens, and Illness

On his 41st birthday 1800 you know you do serious things in the year 1800 serious things in when centuries turn don't you you take stock of your life and on your birthday? He wrote Oh Lord Purify my soul from all its stains.

Warm my heart with the love of thee animate my sluggish nature and fix my inconstancy and Volatility that I may not be weary in well-doing now to Make you see the wonder of this man's perseverance in the cause of racial justice.

For those 20 years and then the next 20 he died in 1833. The first victory was won in 1807. The last victory was won in the decisive vote to make slavery illegal three days before he died in 1833 and he got to hear the news before he went to be with Jesus.

What was so remarkable about those 50 years of investment is the obstacles that he overcame. So let me give you some of those. Some of them you are facing and some God-willing. You won't have to face first the massive financial interests of the opposition.

You've heard about that from the other speakers so far if we Unilaterally abolish the trade Portugal won't France won't. And They will simply gobble it up. Make all the profit take over all the plantations benefit from all the finances and it will become massively injurious to the English economy and to the international stability.

A Plausible argument for most for 20 years. That's what he was up against international politics and massive financial Investments. Another thing public criticism and vicious slander. You touch these kinds of things.

You will be publicly maligned. Even by your friends you will be publicly maligned. Age 47 wins the victory. His public achievement. Brought him personal moral authority. Pollack says. Greater than any other living man.

His name in England in 1807 was synonymous with moral and political authority. He was loved and known across the nation as a man who stood for the poor and a man who stood for the disadvantaged at home and elsewhere and as a triumphant lover of justice.

How fickle is public? Approval because Before he was done He took some stands. For example, Queen Caroline had an affair at least Wilberforce Thought she had an affair and he was very indignant about it and made it a public issue.

Which put him out of favor with a lot of people and He was scathingly criticized and he wrote July 20 1820 what a lesson it is to a man. Not to set his heart on low popularity when after 40 years of disinterested public service I Am believed by the bulk to be a hypocritical rascal.

Oh What a comfort it is to have to fly for refuge to a God of unchangeable truth and love. The severest criticism he ever got however was from a slave holding William Corbett in 1823. This shows you how when you're laboring in one direction making some progress and You've done some things over here.

But not as much as you could have done had you done everything over here and not done that. The person who hates what you're doing here because he owned some of them will look at the defect over here and make it a plausible indictment to the nation.

I mean this happens over and over again in politics and churches. Listen to this. This man stands up and publicly says this. I'll read it. You seem to have a great affection for the fat lazy laughing singing dancing Negroes.

But never have you done one single act in favor of the laborers of this country. Now he knew that statement was false. If your interests are at stake, you don't have to tell the truth. You just have to make lies sound plausible.

You make your appeal in Piccadilly London amongst those who are wallowing in luxuries. Proceeding from the labor of the people you should have gone to the gravel pits. And made your appeal to the wretched creatures with bits of sacks around their shoulders and with hay bans around their legs.

You should have gone to the roadside and made your appeal to the emaciated half-dead things who are there. Cracking stones to make the roads as level as a dive or the tax eaters to ride on. What an insult it is and what an unfeeling and what a cold-blooded Hypocrite must he be that can send it forth?

What an insult to call upon the people under the name of the free British laborers to appeal to them in behalf of black slaves when these free British laborers these poor mocked degraded wretches who would be happy to lick the dishes and the bowls out of which the black slaves have Breakfasted dined and sucked if you're good enough with words and You get a fragment of the truth and you appeal to some deep-seated prejudices.

You can ruin a man's life. Wilberforce had seen too much. It didn't faze him in phasing. I love Wilberforce. He walked away from that and when somebody asked him About it. He said He'd never seen below deck.

I could I could document for you all the political schemes that he did for what were called the wage slaves in England. The children the little children that were hired to climb up the chimneys for the chimney sweeps who afraid they might get stuck and Pull all the suit down over them to make the chimneys clean.

I know what Wilberforce did for the children and for the poor. This is a man who in classic form Uses a fragment of what was left undone in order to attack what he didn't want done at any cost because he owned about 1 ,300 slaves.

Family Sorrow and Physical Suffering

So let's learn how to take criticism brothers. There were other obstacles that he had to overcome. All of you who are married and family men know that in the ministry There are many burdens and you know that if the family is whole You can stand almost anything.

But if the family is broken If the pain is big there every other burden is doubled right and so When I see what he endured with regard to several things in his family. And then I saw what he had to do from endure from outside.

I admire him all the more. His wife Barbara was not like him. One witness said while he was always cheerful Barbara was often depressed and pessimistic. She finally worried herself into a very bad health which lasted the rest of her life.

The women who knew her said two of them that I read said. She whined When William was not right beside her. So that's what you get when you court for two weeks or two years and miss it or Not miss it.

It's just what's appointed For you his oldest son William Trinity College, Oxford fell away from the faith January 10 1819. Oh my dear William. Oh My dear William that you might be led by grace. Oh God.

That was his diary. March 11 Pours out his grief in his diary. Oh my poor William. How strange? He can make so miserable those who love him best and whom really he loves. His soft nature makes him the sport of his companions and the wicked and idle Naturally attached themselves to him like dust cleaves to him and burrs.

I Asked could I love my Savior more and serve him. God would hear my prayer and Turn his heart. Henry Venn wrote to him that William was wasting his money buying extra horses playing his father faced a crisis he finally withdrew his allowance and Ostracized him in the sense of not letting him come home until there was some Reformation and he was suspended from from school and We were forced wrote alas My poor William how sad to be compelled to banish my own eldest son.

So that's the kind of burdens. He took to Parliament every day. William did come back by the way. All of his sons were believers three of them were clergy. And before they were done It did break his heart to see them become high church at the end of his life and three of the four became Catholic after he died which would have broken his heart given his own attitude towards Catholic doctrine the way he understood it on top of the burden of family.

His his daughter Barbara daughter Barbara not wife in 1821 aged 32 died of tuberculosis. Oh my dear friend he wrote it is in such seasons as these when the value of the promises of the Word of God are ascertained both by dying and Attendant relatives.

The assured persuasion of Barbara's happiness has taken away the sting of Death now that sounds strong. I know that sounds strong sting of death taken away. But he was so sick at the time already it broke the last bit of strength that he had there in 1822 and he wrote a few days later I am confined with a new malady the gout and when he said new malady It should signal you that he already had some and he did.

He'd tell you about this man's obstacles of health in 1788 He wrote my eyes are so bad. I can scarcely see how to direct my Pin. We don't know what the eye problem was. But a very serious eye problem.

Years later he wrote of his peculiar complaint of His eyes he said he couldn't see well enough To read or write during the first hours of the day. One medically astute commentator wrote this was a symptom of a slow build-up of morphine poisoning.

What does that mean? Morphine poisoning means this. In 1788 he came down with ulcerative colitis Terrible diarrhea unstoppable for months and they had one medicine that worked in those days Opium. He lived on opium the rest of his life.

Three pills after breakfast three pills after lunch three pills in the evening. Now in that culture You could get it over-the-counter and it was regarded as a medicine was highly addictive witness China and Pollock observes this the the biography by John Pollock.

Will before certainly grew more untidy indolent Absent-minded as the years went on Though yet not in old age. It is a proof of the strength of his will That he achieved so much Under a burden which neither he nor his doctors understood.

In other words, it's very likely that his eye problem and His indolent problem and some of his emotional Problems were owing to this heavy dependence on opium to control bowel that would have utterly otherwise incapacitated him the payoffs of medicines fallout.