LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 243 



If, then, we ate only simple and natural food, 

 plainly cooked, there would be no danger of eating 

 too much ; the loss of relish, and the feeling of 

 disgust, consequent upon satisfied hunger, would 

 make it impossible. And I affirm, that there is just 

 as much reason to believe that this sense of disgust 

 is as much, and as truly, a natural token, intended 

 to warn us that we have eaten enough, as the sense 

 of hunger is a token that we require food. 



Hunger is an instinct; disgust is an instinct. 

 Instinct signifies an inward pricking, an internal 

 sensation, prompting us to some external action. 

 It is by virtue of this, that the infant is enabled, 

 untaught, to perform the complicated action of 

 sucking. Nature has supplied us liberally with 

 these instincts instincts teaching us, not only what 

 to do, but also what to leave undone. These warn- 

 ing sensations may be called Nature's code of in- 

 stinctive laws for the regulation of man's conduct, 

 as it regards the preservation of his health. Thus 

 hunger teaches us when to eat ; thirst, when to 

 drink ; and disgust or disrelish, when we have 

 eaten and drunken enough. Weariness teaches us 

 when to rest : and that feeling (to which I can give 

 no name) which induces the healthy child to 



run, and leap, and toss its arms, and shout which 

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