218 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



means which nature has contrived to keep up the 

 activity of the machine to prevent its going- to 

 sleep, like a lazy horse, when he no longer hears 

 the whip, or feels the spur. These discomforts, as 

 they are called, are to be considered as so many 

 incentives to exertion ; for by exertion they not 

 only (at least, many of them) cease to be discom- 

 forts, but become real pleasures. What, for instance, 

 can be more delicious than the bright and frosty 

 freshness of the air to the active skater? What 

 more luxurious than water to the athletic swimmer? 

 These discomforts are component parts of the 

 system of this world : and man was made, and ex- 

 pressly fitted, to inhabit this world. In his con- 

 struction, nature intended that his system should be 

 adapted to the system of the world, and not that 

 the system of the world should be altered in order 

 to be adapted to his own. Yet this is what we are 

 perpetually labouring to do, in surrounding our- 

 selves with these same comforts : for every com- 

 fort is, in fact, no more than the absence of some 

 supposed discomfort. But, as I have shewn, these 

 discomforts form a component part of the general 

 system of the world : and, therefore, to get rid of 

 them, is to alter that system from its original order. 

 But, as the system of man was adapted to the system 



