Some have maintained that a stable and tranquil state of health is not really a pleasure, on the grounds that the presence of health cannot be felt except through some external stimulus. The Utopians, who have considered the matter thoroughly, long ago rejected this opinion. On the contrary, they nearly all agree that health is crucial to pleasure. Since pain is inherent in disease, they argue, and pain is the bitter enemy of pleasure, just as disease is the enemy of health, then pleasure must be inherent in quiet good health. You may say that pain is not the disease itself, simply an accompanying effect; but they argue that this makes no difference, since the effect is the same either way. For whether health is itself a pleasure, or is merely the cause of pleasure as fire is the cause of heat, the fact remains that those who have stable health must also have pleasure.