LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 283 



like, unsoothable, spiteful, and sulky temper, you 

 will find it in the Spitalfields 1 weaver the poor, 

 dyspeptic weaver, "cabin'd, cribbed, confined," and 

 cramped at his loom for sixteen hours a day, in a 

 room ten feet square ; whose utmost exertion is, to 

 throw a shuttle, four ounces in weight, backwards 

 and forwards, about the length of his arm; and whose 

 longest peregrination is from his own cabin to the 

 counter of the gin-shop, and from the counter of 

 the gin-shop to the door of his own cabin. 



The fortitude of the Indian at the stake arises 

 from the same circumstances of a highly energetic 

 circulation. From his habits of life, his circulation 

 is always vigorous, and his sensibility obtuse ; but 

 at the moment of torture, its energy is still further 

 augmented, and his sensibility still further blunted, 

 by the enthusiasm and exultation which he feels in 

 maintaining the honour of his tribe, and in disap- 

 pointing his enemies, who, he knows, are eagerly 

 watching for any symptom of wincing. His circu- 

 lation in impetuosity resembles a spring-tide ; and 

 his body becomes almost insensible to pain. 



Again, when the circulation through the brain is 

 highly excited by intense thought, the nerves 

 arising from the brain become almost insensible to 

 the impressions natural to them; the ear hears 



