LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 301 



his mind undisturbed by the harassing anxieties 

 consequent on ambitious pursuits, and the thou- 

 sand other perturbing causes inseparably con- 

 nected with a highly-cultivated state of society, 

 enjoys almost an entire immunity from disease. 

 But, from the moment he begins to emerge from 

 the primitive simplicity of his habits, and seeks to 

 live by his wits rather than by the sweat of his 

 brow, from that moment his intellectual and phy- 

 sical energies are at perpetual war with each other; 

 since he can only increase the former at the ex- 

 pense of the latter. As he advances in refinement 

 and knowledge, he retrogrades in physical strength. 

 And, to me, I confess, this fact alone would be an 

 unanswerable proof, that a highly intellectualized 

 state of society, like that in which we live, was 

 never designed for man. It seems to me insulting 

 to the wisdom of the Creator, to suppose that it 

 should be so. If it had been intended that man's 

 chief care should be the culture of his mind, it 

 seems to me, I repeat, most insulting to Omniscient 

 Wisdom and Omnipotent Power, to suppose that 

 He would have so constituted him, that the very 

 means which he must use to cultivate his mind are 

 such as he cannot adopt without injury to his phy- 

 sical health, and even considerable risk to life itself. 



