riety, fome of them are treated in a continu'd Difcourfe. If any thing I have faid, prevails upon the Conduct; and proves ferviceable to the Reader, I fhall think my felf oblig'd in the Succefs, and reckon it the beft Reward of the Undertaking.

THE

PAG.

ERRATA:

AG. 72. Line 3. for Spirit, read Spirits. p. 79.1.14. f. on, r. in. p. 103. I. 6. f. Lyfaner, r. Lyfander, p. 149. 1. 27. f. es carpèe, r. escarpeè. p. 182. 1. 29. f. God. r. Gold. p.220. 1. 22. f. quondom, r. quondam. p. 242. 1. 27. f. Meals, r. Means.

A

MORAL ESSAY.

OF

PAIN.

T

O begin with a Description of the Subject. Pain is an unacceptable Notice arifing from fome Disorder in the Body. When the Continuity of the Organ is disjoyn'd, the Nerves discompofed, and the Mufcles forced into a foreign Situation; when there's a stop upon the Spirits, when the Parts don't keep their Ranks, but are beaten out of the Figure which Nature has drawn them up in; then the Mind immediately receives a grating İnformation of what has happen'd: Which Intelligence is more or less troublesome in Proportion to the Disadvantage of the Accident. Now this unwelcome Senfation is what we call Pain. However, we are to observe, that these violent Impreffions are no more than ́occafional Causes of our Uneafinefs:

t

upon them.

There is no Natural Connexion between thefe Damages done to the Body, and the Conscious Disturbances confequent them. Our Pain does not properly grow out of this Disorder, nor proceed from the Operation of these Causes by way of Phyfical Neceffity. For if Pain was the meer refult of Matter and Motion, the whole Creation would in all likelihood be a great Sufferer, and the Elements do terrible Execution upon themselves. The Sea might be frequently troubled without a Metaphor, and a lighted Faggot, it may be, feel as much as the Martyr that was burnt at the Stake. But that Confcioufnefs and Thought are never to be fetch'd out of any Revolutions of Matter and Motion, I have fully proved elsewhere, whither I refer *Moral Ej. the Reader *. But tho' Pain is not profays, part perly ftruck out of any Corporeal Scuffle, 2d. under nor born of the Labour of the Limbs;

AThought.

yet God has pleas'd to make fuch an Alliance between the Soul and Body, that when the latter fuffers any remarkable Inconvenience, the other is generally made fenfible of it, and oblig'd to condole the Misfortune. If we enquire into the Moral End of this Neceffity, why the Soul is forced upon fuch unacceptable Sympathy and tied down to

fuch

fuch rugged Senfations; why the Quiet of Thought is made fo precarious and dependent, fo liable to the Incurfions of Violence, and fo fubject to the Fate of stupid and infenfible Matter?

In answer to this Quettion, it may be returned, that the Soul is made thus unwillingly fenfible and paffive, that her Interest may prompt her to a due Care of the Body's Prefervation, that the may fence off Decays, and guard the better against Injury; befides, the Body is often the worfe for the Negligences and Disorders of the Mind. 'Tis Intemperance and Covetoufnefs, 'tis Pride and Paffion, which oftentimes throws the Constitution off the Hinges, and makes the Sences fuffer. For inftance, a Man of Choler and Conceit takes fire at an infignificant Affront, rushes into a Quarrel, has his Head broke, and it may be his Limbs raked, into the Bargain; now when a Wound is thus impertinently made, ought it not to put the Patient to fome Trouble? He that's thus prodigal of his Perfon, and makes his Limbs ferve in an ill Caufe, ought to meet with a Mortification: The Punishment is but a juft return for the Pride, and the Smart, it may be, the best Cure for the Folly. Indeed, Pain B 2

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