234 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 



exceedingly difficult for him to proceed with his literary 

 labors. His head often feels as though there was a rush 

 of blood upon the brain ; his intellect becomes clouded, 

 and he cannot keep along with the thread of his subject, 

 or pursue his studies, as formerly. Sometimes he throws 

 down his pen in utter despair, and thinks he would wil- 

 lingly change places with any laborer he happens to see 

 in the street. 



736. These are but a few of the feelings, and troubles, 

 and perplexities, which a student suffers, when he allows 

 his nervous, to gain the .ascendency over his muscular sys- 

 tem, and unless some remedy be sought, will most proba- 

 bly end in palsy or apoplexy, or, at least, in such a con- 

 dition of the system as to render it incapable of any 

 useful employment for a length of time, depending more 

 or less on that, during which it has remained in such a 

 condition. 



737. Clergymen not allowed exciting Exercise. The 

 cause of these affections we have said, is an undue pro- 

 portion of mental labor, when compared with that of 

 muscular exercise. 



738. With respect to clergymen, it is well known that 

 there exists an artificial difficulty in their indulging in that 

 kind of exercise which is most congenial to mental and 

 muscular vigor, owing to the habits and opinions of soci- 

 ety. For it is the law of the system, which applies to 

 ministers equally with others, that no exercise is effectual 

 in restoring, or maintaining, the equilibrium between the 

 nervous and muscular systems, unless the brain is at the 

 same time excited. By this we mean, that the exercise 

 must be of that kind in which the mind, for the time, takes 

 a strong interest. This is absolutely necessary, nor is it, 

 we believe, possible, for any one who has lost his muscu- 

 lar energy by studious and sedentary habits, to regain it 

 by any kind of exercise which does not give pleasure, or, 

 to use a more common phrase, " carry the mind along 

 with it." 



739. Nor is it in the power of students generally, to 

 retain their vigor of mind and body, for any considerable 

 length of time, without the use of some such exercise. 



740. The principles we have already drawn, from the fact 



