GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 321 



exceed. A man resting from a fit of the stone or gout is, 

 for the time, in possession of feelings which undisturbetl 

 health cannot impart. They may be dearly bought, but 

 still they are to be set against the price. And indeed it 

 depends upon the duration and urgency of the pain, whether 

 they be dearly bought or not. I am far from being sure 

 that a man is not a gainer by suffering a moderate interrup- 

 tion of bodily ease for a couple of hours out of the four and 

 tAventy. Two very common observations favor this opinion : 

 one is, that remissions of pain call forth, from those who 

 experience them, stronger expressions of satisfaction and of 

 gratitude towards both the author and the instruments of 

 their rehef, than are excited by advantages of any other 

 kind ; the second is, that the spirits of sick men do not sink 

 in proportion to the acuteness of their sufferings, but rather 

 appear to be roused and supported, not by pain, but by the 

 high degree of comfort which they derive from its cessation, 

 or even its subsidency, whenever that occurs; and which 

 they taste with a relish that diffuses some portion of mental 

 complacency over the whole of that mixed state of sensa- 

 tions in which disease has placed them. 



In connection with bodily pain may be considered bodily 

 disease, whether painful or not. Few diseases are fatal. I 

 have before me the account of a dispensary in the neighbor- 

 hood, which states six years' experience as follows : 



Admitted, . G,420 



Cured, 5,476 



Dead, 234 



And this I suppose nearly to agree with what other similar 

 institutions exhibit. Now, in all these cases, some disordei 

 must have been felt, or the patients would not have applied 

 for a remedy ; yet we see how large a proportion of the mal- 

 adies which were brought forward, have either yielded to 

 proper treatment, or, what is more probable, ceased of their 

 own accord. We owe these frequent recoveries, and, where 

 14* 



