WORRY. 



103 



sources, however inexpedient, is not disease, and seldom inflicts per- 

 manent injury. A temporary collapse of the mental powers may he 

 caused by excessive or too continuous exertion, just as a surface-well 

 may he emptied by pumping it out more rapidly than it is refilled, but 

 the apparatus is not thereby disorganized, and time will remedy the 

 defect. When rest is not followed by recovery, the recuperative fac- 

 ulty itself, an integral part of the intellectual organism, must be im- 

 j)aired or disabled. This is not unfrequently the case when the pos- 

 sessor of a worried and weakened brain in vain seeks refuge from the 

 supposed effects of " overwork " in simple idleness. Something more 

 than exhaustion has occurred, and rest alone will not cure the evil. 

 The faculty of repair is not in a condition to restore the equilibrium 

 between potential energy and kinetic force. Divers hypotheses have 

 been suggested to explain this state of matters. The mind has been 

 compared to a muscle overstrained by a too violent effort, or paralyzed 

 by excessive exertion. The two phenomena have little similarity, and 

 no new light is thrown on the nature of mental collapse by the com- 

 parison. Perhaps a closer parallel might be found in the state which 

 ensues when the tension of a muscular contraction is so high that 

 spasm passes into rigidity, and molecular disorganization ensues. 

 Meanwhile, however interesting these speculations may prove to the 

 physiologist, they bring no relief to the sufferer. It is easy to see that 

 a worse evil than simply using up his strength too rapidly has befallen 

 him, but no one knows precisely what has happened. To cover the 

 enigma, without solving it, " overwork " is taken to mean more than 

 work over the normal, in quantity, quality, and time, but no attempt 

 is made to determine how excess, in either or all of these particulars, 

 can bring about the disability and decrepitude we bewail. It is to the 

 investigation of this mystery that attention needs to be directed. If it 

 should be possible to ascertain why a mind previously healthy, and 

 still apparently intact, breaks down instantly and thoroughly under a 

 strain not exceptionally great, and, collapse having once occurred, re- 

 covery follows tardily and is rarely complete, it will probably be with- 

 in the scope of common-sense to draw some practical conclusions as to 

 the prevention, and it may be the cure, of what is in truth becoming a 

 scourge of mental industry already almost decimating the ranks of the 

 army of progress, in every field of intellectual enterprise at home and 

 abroad. 



A certain degree of tension is indispensable to the easy and health- 

 ful discharge of mental functions. Like the national instrument of 

 Scotland, the mind drones wofully and will discourse most dolorous 

 music, unless an expansive and resilient force within supplies the basis 

 of quickly responsive action. No good, great, or enduring work can 

 be safely accomplished by brain-force without a reserve of strength 

 sufficient to give buoyancy to the exercise, and, if I may so say, rhythm 

 to the operations of the mind. Working at high-pressure may be bad, 



