222 INSUFFICIENT CEREBRAL EXERCISE. 



brain, having almost no employment, becomes weak, 

 and the mental manifestations are enfeebled in pro- 

 portion ; so that a person of good endowments, thus 

 treated, will often not only exhibit somewhat of the 

 imbecility of a fool, but gradually become irritable, 

 peevish, and discontented, and open to the attack of 

 every form of nervous disease and of derangement 

 from causes which, under different circumstances, 

 would never have disturbed her for a moment. 



That the liability of such persons to melancholy, 

 hysteria, hypochondriasis, and other varieties of 

 mental disease, really depends on a state of irrita- 

 bility of brain, induced by imperfect exercise, is 

 proved by the vast and rapid improvement we often 

 witness from the sudden supervention of occur- 

 rences which excite and employ the mental powers 

 and their cerebral organs. Nothing is more usual 

 than to see a nervous young lady, who for years had 

 been unfit for any thing, while ease and indolence 

 were her portion, deriving the utmost advantage 

 from apparent misfortunes, which throw her upon 

 her own resources, and force her to exert her ut- 

 most energies to maintain a respectable station in 

 society. Where, as in such circumstances, the 

 mental faculties and brain, the intellect and moral 

 and social feelings, are blessed with a stimulus to 

 act, the weakness, the tremors, and the apprehen- 

 sions, which formerly seemed an inborn part of her- 

 self, disappear as if by enchantment, and strength, 

 vigour, and happiness take their place ; solely be- 

 cause now God's law is fulfilled, and the brain with 

 which He has connected the mind is supplied with 

 that healthful stimulus and exercise which He or- 

 dained to be indispensable to its healthy existence. 



An additional illustration, and I venture upon it 

 because the principle is an important one in the pro- 

 duction of many distressing forms of disease, will be 

 found in the case of a man of mature age and of 

 active habits, who has devoted his life to the toila 



