LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 307 



then, a nervous temperament, a MORBID SENSIBI- 

 LITY, pervades the whole frame of society, more 

 or less a super-sensitiveness, that inflicts pains and 

 penalties on trifling and occasional indiscretions." 



Now, if it be true, that civilization and intellec- 

 tual cultivation have the effect of raising- the sensi- 

 bility of man beyond the natural standard, then 

 it cannot be denied that they are also prejudicial 

 to his health and strength; since I have proved 

 that energetic contractility, which is but another 

 term for health and strength, cannot exist in con- 

 junction with a high degree of sensibility. 



Thus, then, it appears, that the present super- 

 latively-intellectualized state of refinement is an 

 unnatural condition; inasmuch as it is one, which 

 a right exercise of sound reason, end the autho- 

 rity of experience, unite to prove to be neither 

 in conformity with the moral or physical or struc- 

 tural nature of man. And I have already shewn 

 you, that whatever is unnatural, is also impro- 

 per. His present condition, therefore, is not his 

 proper one. 



But if the present condition of man be unnatural 

 and improper, what state is that, to which right 

 reason and experience would point as the natural 

 and proper one ; that is to say, as the one most in 



