1 62 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[September, 



tion refract so much light in another, 

 that one-idea men would be mummies. 

 Let us banish this one idea. . . . 

 Genus and species are riddles ; at 

 least to some men. In the natural 

 sciences they are made the subject of 

 definition. In certain terms the attri- 

 butes of a genus are laid down. Such 

 species as conform are included within 

 it. Such as do not are excluded. 



" Men who devote their leisure to 

 persistent, more or less systematic, 

 examination, investigation, and eluci- 

 dation of some of the forms of animal 

 or vegetable life." This is the diag- 

 nosis of our genus. Let the name be 

 what you please ; names go for nothing 

 if the thing be well defined. Some 

 say Naturalist, some say Microscopist, 

 some say Student. It matters little, 

 so long as the attributes are present. 

 " Let each be persuaded in his own 

 mind." 



Calcine a specimen of this genus 

 in the crucible of experience, and 

 analyze the ash. By this means we 

 discover improved health. Verily, ro- 

 bust health is not peculiar to the 

 naturalist. Neither is dyspepsia and 

 debility an essential of his nongener. 

 Yet do we contend that active minded 

 man, given a change of thinking, and 

 a necessity to constitutionalize himself 

 in search of spoil, becomes inheritor 

 of more substantial vigor, of conditions 

 consistent with health. Rubbing his 

 ledger with the tip of his nose, week 

 in, week out. Dreaming forever of 

 sum totals, and ten per cent, wearies 

 the flesh and the spirit. Aught that 

 dispels the demons of rebate and dis- 

 count, returned bills and notaries 

 public, is good for the body of man as 

 well as the soul. What matters it 

 whether he runs off his dignity after a 

 dragon fly, or stirs up a muddy puddle 

 with a bottle at the end of a stick, so 

 long as he shakes ofT the dust of his 

 counting-house, and tries to fancy 

 himself a boy again. ... A healthy 

 brain is a vigorous brain. It does 

 not require absolute cessation from 

 action to give repose. " Thinking 

 of nothing at all " is a condition 



which some of us cannot comprehend. 

 It is no evidence, in its possibility, of 

 a healthy mind. The old adage 

 " better to rub than to rust," is true 

 enough in this connection. Food is 

 as necessary for the mind as good 

 food for the body. Generous diet for 

 strong men, but milk for babes. 



What advantage has the naturalist 

 psychologically as well as physio- 

 logically 1 Let no one contend that 

 a change of thought is not beneficial. 

 I cannot believe that an earnest man 

 of business can shake off the thoughts 

 of his shop at a m()ment's notice. 

 That he can rid himself of his last 

 ten hours' occupation without a power- 

 ful stimulant. A new and almighty 

 agent must work in him, in order to 

 dispel the almighty dollar. Give him 

 but a new direction in which his active 

 mind can work, and let it be potent 

 enough, and it will reign supreme. 

 Nothing exhausts, and shatters the 

 mind to fragments, equally Avith one 

 eternal round of the same dull theme. 

 The same brick walls, the same 

 squaring of the circle, the same click- 

 clack of bobbins and spindles, the 

 everlasting £ s. d. Let this dull 

 round go on from year to year, and 

 the product is a mummy. Intellect 

 there is none, soul there is none. 

 Nothing but a perambulating ready 

 reckoner. 



Contrariwise, if he changes his own 

 shop for nature's Avorkshop, and shuts 

 one but to open the other, the change 

 steals like a tonic over his debilitated 

 mind, and rehabilitates him for the 

 work of the morrow. Poor little man, 

 much to be pitied, who can sit down 

 beside an ant-hill, and see the busy 

 little community running hither and 

 thither, and go home with nothing to 

 think about. . . . Happy the choice 

 that selects for recreation activities 

 that become a discipline. If we 

 admit discipline to be good for 

 the schoolboy, the sailor, and the 

 soldier, then why not for our- 

 selves? Did we never see a young 

 man of rare promise flash for a 

 moment, then go out, like a meteor, 



