PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. 



The loss of power and health of mind from im- 

 perfect or partial exercise of the faculties, is fre- 

 quently observable in the country clergy, in retired 

 merchants, in annuitants, in the clerks of public 

 offices, and in tradesmen whose professions com- 

 prehend a very limited range of objects. There 

 is no class, however, in whom the evil is more 

 widely observable than in those females who, 

 either from ignorance of the laws of exercise, or 

 from inveterate habit, spend their lives in unbroken 

 seclusion, and in the performance of a limited 

 range of duties. All motive is there wanting. 

 No immediate object of solicitude ever presents 

 itself. Fixing their thoughts entirely on themselves, 

 and constantly brooding over a few narrow and 

 trivial ideas, they at length approach a state little 

 removed from insanity, or are only saved from that, 

 perhaps, by the false and deluding relief afforded 

 by stimulating liquors. In general, the education 

 of such persons has given them only a few accom- 

 plishments, calculated to afford employment to one 

 or two of the minor powers of the mind, while all 

 that could have engaged the reflecting powers has 

 been omitted. Education, if properly conducted, 

 would go far to prevent these evils. 



On the other hand, excessive exercise of the 

 brain, by propelling too much blood to it, and 

 unduly distending the vessels, is equally injurious 

 with its disuse. And not only are fatal effects to 

 be apprehended from undue mental task-work, but 

 also from that constant stretch of the mind which 

 attends an unduly anxious and watchful disposi- 

 tion. The ancients had some notion of the im- 

 propriety of an incessant exertion of the mind, and 

 rebuked it by their well-known proverb Apollo 

 does not keep his bow always bent. But they had 

 comparatively little experience of the oppressive 

 mental labours endured by large portions of 

 modern society. Irrational, and in some respects 

 dangerous, as many of the habits of our ancestors 

 were, it is questionable if they suffered so much 

 from these causes as their successors do from 

 virtuous but overtasking exertion. To maintain 

 what each man conceives to be a creditable place 

 in society, now requires such close and vigorous 

 exertions, that more, we verily believe, perish in 

 the performance of duties in themselves laudable, 

 than formerly sank under fox-hunting, toast-drink- 

 ing, and the gout. 



It is in large cities'that this unintentional kind 

 of self-destruction is most conspicuously exempli- 

 fied. And it is in London, above all other places, 

 that the frenzy is to be observed in its most glaring 

 forms. To spend nine hours at a time in business, 

 without food or relaxation, is not only not uncom- 

 mon, but an almost universal practice, among the 

 citizens of London : from a breakfast at eight to a 

 chop at five, they are never, to use an expressive 

 phrase, off the stretch. Upon a stomach enfeebled 

 by exhaustion, they then lay the load of a full 

 meal, which perfect leisure would hardly enable 

 them to digest. But far from waiting to digest it, 

 they have no sooner laid down knife and fork, than 

 away they must once more rush to business not 

 perhaps willingly, for nature tells them that it 

 would be agreeable to rest ; but then but then 

 business must be attended to. If nature were 

 to punish the daily transgression by the nightly 

 suffering, we should find few who, for the sake of 

 pecuniary gain, would thus expose themselves to 

 misery. But she runs long accounts with her 



children, and, like a cheating attorney, seldom 

 renders her bill till'the whole subject of litigation 

 has been eaten up. Paralysis at fifty comes like 

 the mesne process upon the victim of commercial 

 enthusiasm, and either hurries him off to that 

 prison from which there is no liberation, or leaves 

 him for a few years organically alive to enjoy the 

 fruits of his labours. 



The absurdity of an ignorance or weakness of 

 this kind is perhaps still more striking when it 

 occurs in individuals who make the acquisition of 

 knowledge the chief aim of life. As the world is 

 at present situated, it is possible to acquire learn- 

 ing upon almost every subject, and an infinite 

 amount of knowledge, useful and otherwise, with- 

 out even by chance lighting upon a knowledge of 

 the most indispensable observances necessary for 

 the preservation of a sound mind in a sound body. 

 Half of the multiform languages of Asia may be 

 mastered, while the prodigy who boasts so much 

 learning knows not that to sit a whole day within 

 doors at close study is detrimental to health ; or, 

 if he knows so much, deliberately prefers the 

 course which leads to ruin. 



The premature extinction of early prodigies of 

 genius is generally traceable to the same cause. 

 We read that, while all other children played, they 

 remained at home to study ; and then we learn 

 that they perished in the bud, and balked the 

 hopes of all their admiring friends. The ignorant 

 wonder is of course always the greater when life is 

 broken short in the midst of honourable under- 

 takings. We wonder at the inscrutable decrees 

 which permit the idle and dissolute to live, and 

 remove the ardent benefactor of his kind, the hope 

 of parents, the virtuous, and the self-devoted ; 

 never reflecting that the highest moral and intel- 

 lectual qualities avail nothing in repairing or 

 warding off a decided injury to the physical sys- 

 tem, which is regulated by laws of a different, but 

 of as imperative a nature. The conduct of the 

 Portuguese sailors in a storm, when, instead of 

 working the vessel properly, they employ them- 

 selves in paying vows to their saints, is just as 

 rational as most of the notions which prevail on 

 this subject in the most enlightened circles of 

 British society. 



It ought to be universally known, that the uses 

 of our intellectual nature are not to be properly 

 realised without a just regard to the laws of that 

 perishable frame with which it is connected ; that, 

 in cultivating the mind, we must neither overtask 

 nor undertask the body, neither push it to too great 

 a speed, nor leave it neglected ; and that, notwith- 

 standing this intimate connection and mutual 

 dependence, the highest merits on the part of the 

 mind will not compensate for muscles mistreated, 

 or soothe a nervous system which severe study has 

 tortured into insanity. To come to detail it ought 

 to be impressed on all that to spend more than a 

 moderate number of hours in mental exercise, 

 diminishes insensibly the powers of future applica- 

 tion, and tends to abbreviate life ; that no mental 

 exercise should be attempted immediately after 

 meals, as the processes of thought and of digestion 

 cannot be safely prosecuted together; and that 

 without a due share of exercise to the whole of the 

 mental faculties, there can be no soundness in any, 

 while the whole corporeal system will give way 

 beneath a severe pressure upon any one in par- 

 ticular. These are truths completely established 



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