THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 
273 
totally unconscious of any local uneasiness at the time. 
Some I have heard declare, that whilst they were about 
their employment, neither their situation, nor the state of 
the air was unpleasant. They felt no pain; they suspect¬ 
ed no mischief; till, by the application of warmth, they 
discovered, too late, the fatal injury which some of their ex¬ 
tremities had suffered. I say that this shows the use of pain, 
and that we stand in need of such a monitor. I believe 
also, that the use extends farther than we suppose, or can 
now trace; that to disagreeable sensations we, and all an¬ 
imals, owe, or have owed, many habits of action which are 
salutary, but which are become so familiar, as not easily to 
be referred to their origin. 
Pain also itself is not without its alleviations. It may be 
violent and frequent; but it is seldom both violent and long 
continued: and its pauses and intermissions become posi¬ 
tive pleasures. It has the power of shedding a satisfaction 
over intervals of ease, which I believe few enjoyments ex¬ 
ceed. A man resting from a fit of the stone or gout, is, for 
the time, in possession of feelings which undisturbed 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 interruption of bod¬ 
ily ease for a couple of hours out of the four-and-twenty. 
Two very common observations favor this opinion: one is, 
that remissions of pain call forth, from those who experi¬ 
ence them, stronger expressions of satisfaction and of grati¬ 
tude towards both the author and the instruments of their 
relief, 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 cessa¬ 
tion, 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 
sensations in which disease has placed them. 
In connexion 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 neigh¬ 
bourhood which states six years’ experience as follows: 
“admitted 6,420 —cured 5,476—dead 234.” And this I 
suppose nearly to agree with what other similar institutions 
