"When the evil had become universal" (speaking of Florence), "the
hearts of all the inhabitants were closed to feelings of humanity.
They fled from the sick and all that belonged to them, hoping by
these means to save themselves. Others shut themselves up in
their houses, with their wives, their children and households,
living on the most costly food, but carefully avoiding all excess.
None were allowed access to them; no intelligence of death or
sickness was permitted to reach their ears; and they spent their
time in singing and music, and other pastimes. Others, on the
contrary, considered eating and drinking to excess, amusements of
all descriptions, the indulgence of every gratification, and an
indifference to what was passing around them, as the best
medicine, and acted accordingly. They wandered day and night from
one tavern to another, and feasted without moderation or bounds.
In this way they endeavoured to avoid all contact with the sick,
and abandoned their houses and property to chance, like men whose
death-knell had already tolled.
"Amid this general lamentation and woe, the influence and
authority of every law, human and divine, vanished.
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