Afflation

At 100 ° F. and in a perfectly damp atmosphere, there occurs an absolute stagnation of the air surrounding the living body: but as air of that temperature is never naturally saturated with moisture. afflation still affords relief by applying air capable of dissolving the animal perspiration, and thus occasioning an absorption of heat from the body.

Stirred by the winds of some unseen afflation, he becomes restless .

Toward the close of those warm, drowsy, Indian-summer afternoons of late September, when the sweet, refreshing air of welcomed evening breathes its cool afflation upon the heated forehead of dull, haggard toil and smoothes caressingly away the furrowed burden from the brow of care, age-worn by many a day;

But there was a new afflation— / An aura zephyring round, / That care infected not: [...]

but on the other side, the frequent testimonies of the Spirit's revealing by way of prophetic afflation, who should be set appart for the offices of the church, are evidences that it was so here.

Ironically, afflation at once diminishes the role of the messenger, who may disclaim being anything more than a conduit, and elevates the status of her message, since it comes from the divine.

And precisely at that moment, at the end of the seventh century, in the depths of conquered Armenia, an Armenian called Constantine from the village of Mananalis near Samosata (1) had an afflation .

These Memoirs are introduced by a Preface written by the Author's brother, with considerable elegance and feeling, though by no means devoid of that afflation of style and display of sentiment, which are the great defects of modern Irish eloquence.·