In answer to this mode of reasoning it may be sufficient to observe, that the contractile fibres consist of inert matter, and when the sensorial power is withdrawn, as in death, they possess no power of motion at all, but remain in their last state, whether of contraction or relaxation, and must thence derive the whole of this property from the spirit of animation.  At the same time it is not improbable, that the moving fibres of strong people may possess a capability of receiving or containing a greater quantity of the spirit of animation than those of weak people.

In every contraction of a fibre there is an expenditure of the sensorial power, or spirit of animation; and where the exertion of this sensorial power has been for some time increased, and the muscles or organs of sense have in consequence acted with greater energy, its propensity to activity is proportionally lessened; which is to be ascribed to the exhaustion or diminution of its quantity.  On the contrary, where there has been less fibrous contraction than usual for a certain time, the sensorial power or spirit of animation becomes accumulated in the inactive part of the system.  Hence vigour succeeds rest, and hence the propensity to action of all our organs of sense and muscles is in a state of perpetual fluctuation.  The irritability for instance of the retina, that is, its quantity of sensorial power, varies every moment according to the brightness or obscurity of the object last beheld compared with the present one.  The same occurs to our sense of heat, and to every part of our system, which is capable of being excited into action.

When this variation of the exertion of the sensorial power becomes much and permanently above or beneath the natural quantity, it becomes a disease.  If the irritative motions be too great or too little, it shews that the stimulus of external things affect this sensorial power too violently or too inertly.  If the sensitive motions be too great or too little, the cause arises from the deficient or exuberant quantity of sensation produced in consequence of the motions of the muscular fibres or organs of sense; if the voluntary actions are diseased the cause is to be looked for in the quantity of volition produced in consequence of the desire or aversion occasioned by the painful or pleasurable sensations above mentioned.  And the diseases of associations probably depend on the greater or less quantity of the other three sensorial powers by which they were formed.

From whence it appears that the propensity to action, whether it be called irritability, sensibility, voluntarity, or associability, is only another mode of expression for the quantity of sensorial power residing in the organ to be excited.  And that on the contrary the words inirritability and insensibility, together with inaptitude to voluntary and associate motions, are synonymous with deficiency of the quantity of sensorial power, or of the spirit of animation, residing in the organs to be excited.