INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 219 



of the mind and brain to that of their wholesome 

 and regular exercise. 



Keeping the above principle in view, we shall not 

 be surprised to find, that non-exercise of the brain 

 and nervous system, or, in other words, inactivit5 

 of intellect and of feeling, is a very frequent pre- 

 disposing cause of every form of nervous disease. 

 For demonstrative evidence of this position, we 

 have only to look at the numerous victims to be 

 found among females of the middle and higher ranks, 

 who have no call to exertion in gaining the means 

 of subsistence, and no objects of interest on which 

 to exeicise their mental faculties, and who conse- 

 quently sink into a state of mental sloth and nervous 

 weakness, which not only deprives them of much 

 enjoyment, but lays them open to suffering, both 

 of mind and body, from the slightest causes. 



If we look abroad upon society, we shall find in- 

 numerable examples of mental and nervous debility 

 from this cause. When $ person of some mental 

 capacity is confined for a long time to an unvarying 

 round of employment, which affords neither scope 

 nor stimulus for one-half of his faculties, and from 

 want of education or society has no external re- 

 sources, his mental powers, for want of exercise 

 to keep up due vitality in their cerebral organs, be- 

 come blunted, and his perceptions slow and dull, 

 and he feels any unusual subjects of thought as dis- 

 agreeable and painful intrusions. The intellect and 

 feelings, not being provided with interests external 

 to themselves, must either become inactive and 

 weak, or work upon themselves, and become dis- 

 eased. In the former case, the mind becomes apa- 

 thetic, and possesses no ground of sympathy with 

 its fellow- creatures; in the latter, it becomes un- 

 duly sensitive, and shrinks within itself and its 

 own limited circle, as its only protection against 

 every trifling occurrence or mode of action which 

 has not relation to itself, A desire to continue an 



