LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 241 



allayed, how rich, how sweet, how delicious is the 

 draught, though it be but water ! But no sooner 

 has your thirst been quenched, than, behold, in an 

 instant, all its sweetness, all its deliciousness has 

 vanished ! In a moment, how insipid it has be- 

 come ! It is now distasteful to the palate posi- 

 tively disagreeable it has lost its relish. To him, 

 then, who requires drink, water is delicious: for 

 him who does not require drink, water has not only 

 no relish, but impresses the palate disagreeably, by 

 its very insipidity. Carry this a step farther. To 

 a man labouring under the very last degree of 

 thirst, even foul ditch-water would be a delicious 

 draught ; but his thirst having been quenched, he 

 would turn from it with disgust. In this instance 

 of water-drinking, then, it is clear that the relish 

 depends, not on any flavour residing in the water, 

 but on a certain condition of the body. If, there- 

 fore, we only took drink when drink was required, 

 pure water would be sufficiently delicious : but we 

 seek to give to our drink certain exciting and racy 

 flavours, as a substitute for that relish which should, 

 of right, reside in ourselves; and we do this in 

 order to enable ourselves to drink when drink is 

 not required. It is absurd, therefore, to say that 

 you cannot drink water because you do not like it t 



