250 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



waste is, consequently, small : they require, there- 

 iore, a correspondent small quantity of food: and 

 if they be not careful to distinguish between true 

 hunger and that feeling of want and languor which 

 arises solely from a distressed state of the nervous 

 system, resulting from the nature of their employ- 

 ment, and from their " cabin'd, cribbed, confined " 

 and sedentary habits, they will be constantly falling 

 into the error of eating too often and too much : 

 because, mistaking this feeling for hunger, they 

 will eat with a view to relieve it ; and for a short, 

 a very short time, the stimulus afforded by the pre- 

 sence of food will relieve it. But if they do this, 

 they will commit the grievous error of perpetually 

 adding to the mischief which they seek to remedy : 

 for this distressed state of the nervous system is 

 peculiarly unfavourable to assimilation ; and if they 

 eat too often, or too much, they will inevitably be- 

 come miserable dyspeptics. What they want is, 

 excitement, not food. And how is this excitement 

 to be procured? and of what nature should it 

 consist ? Be patient, my dear John ; I will tell 

 you presently. 



STIMULANTS. 



Are stimulants by which I mean ardent spirits, 

 wines, and strong ales are stimulants necessary? 

 Are they pernicious? or are they neither the one 



