280 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



lively leaping of the living current that we owe all 

 the hounding buoyancy, the elastic light-hearted- 

 ness, which rapid motion and rapid exercise imparts. 

 In one of the volumes of Byron's works is the 

 following note : " A young French renegado con- 

 fessed to Chateaubriand, that he never found him- 

 self alone galloping in the desert without a sensa- 

 tion almost approaching to rapture which was inde- 

 scribable." The circumstance of this man being 

 alone in a desert had little to do with his rapturous 

 sensations : he owed them to the rapid circulation 

 and oxidation of his blood, produced as the joint 

 effects of rapid exercise and rapid motion. The 

 fox-hunter owes his pleasure to the same causes; 

 and also the impunity with which he breakfasts on 

 ale and brandy, and sleeps on half-a-dozen bottles 

 of wine, and rises without a headache. 



Excitement, therefore, my dear John, is neces- 

 sary; we cannot be healthy without it: and you 

 and I only quarrel about the kind of excitement. 

 This natural necessity for, and craving after, ex- 

 citement is evinced in the numberless habits to 

 which we addict ourselves, in order to obtain it. 

 The habits of drinking, snuff- taking, smoking, all 

 owe their favour to the temporary excitement they 

 afford. The reason why we crave after these un- 



