108 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



to do ; in a word, that the proper relation between 

 ourselves and surrounding objects has been, for 

 the time, destroyed. Man, if he would but be con- 

 tent to be what nature made him, and if it were 

 not for his cat-like pugnacity, need scarcely know 

 what pain is. 



Nature, then, has endowed us with a certain de- 

 gree of SENSIBILITY : and my object is, to shew that 

 we cannot increase this without diminishing our 

 proper amount of pleasure, and augmenting our 

 proper share of pain without enfeebling our CON 

 TRACTILITY; in a word, without injury to our 

 health and strength. 



Pain is invariably the result of impressions too 

 acutely or strongly made : and, as SENSIBILITY is 

 that property by which impressions are felt, it is 

 perfectly manifest, that the more acute SENSIBILITY 

 is, the more acutely impressions will be felt. And 

 thus those impressions, which in a healthy state of 

 the SENSIBILITY afford only pleasure, become pain- 

 ful ; and those which always produce pain become 

 more painful. This is so very clear, as to render 

 amplification wholly unnecessary. 



In order to prove, that wherever there is a high 

 degree of SENSIBILITY, there is always a low degree 

 of CONTRACTILITY, i.e. strength and that, wherever 



