BEAIN TROUBLES. 309 



a week, and amply justified (in my opinion) all the 

 ill-temper I had displayed beforehand, if at least 

 the disorder of the nervous system before the attack 

 could be measured by the intensity of the pains 

 suffered during its continuance. 



Usually, however, an indefinable feeling of irrita- 

 bility and ill-temper signifies that the mind has been 

 overworked. So also does that state in which, to 

 use a commonplace but convenient expression, every- 

 thing seems to go wrong. In reality, we do everything 

 wrong, though we may be unable to recognise any 

 difference between our way of attending to those 

 slight matters on which the pleasant progress of our 

 work depends and our customary methods. We mis- 

 place this and upset that, tear, smear, blot, and so 

 forth, not because the fates are for the time being 

 against us, but because we are weary and overwrought 

 (though we may not be conscious of it), and our hands 

 and fingers are not under the usual control of the 

 mind and will. 



