LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 213 



I have now described to you what I believe to 

 be the actual condition of the body in that sickly 

 state of the health usually denominated " indiges- 

 tion"; a condition from which few persons in the 

 upper and middling ranks of life are wholly and 

 perfectly free. And you will observe, that all the 

 mischief arises from depressed contractility, and 

 heightened sensibility, which are themselves the 

 immediate offspring of excessive refinement. 



I am, my dear John, 



Yours truly, 



E. JOHNSON. 



