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clamorously protest and rebel against the imprudent and unjust exaction 
on their powers: nature will send, sooner or later, a fierce Nemesis, to 
avenge the unreasonable levy that tasks, beyond the limit of endurance the 
forces of mind or body! The peculiar methods of our Age and Country, 
that entail so cruel a tension of brain and brawn—with the long series of 
dire consequences, in nervous prostration, paresis, softening of the brain, 
and worse—are strongly to be reprehended, and should he speedily re¬ 
formed! Proportionate intervals of cessation from labors, mental and 
physical, should be rigidly observed—no matter what seems to press.—with 
rational diversions and full time for needed refreshment and repose both 
of sleep and general resting. Even violent bodily exercise, in the way of 
sports, should be rarely indulged in and never prolonged. 
One may not easily censure certain extraordinary displays of contin¬ 
uous energetic action attempting temporal or spiritual good, when a, sense 
of humanity or the spirit of charity shall call for unusual strains; but then 
the necessity of the case, the thrilling excitement of the moment, and, above 
all, the motive of the act, may excuse the noble workers and exempt them 
from paying the penalty ordinarily enforced for the crime of over-work. 
But outside the occasions for these heroic efforts, let there be no excess in 
activity —Ne quid nimis! 
Perhaps, the homely saws drawn from folk-lore will best accentuate 
this teaching: “Don’t burn the candle at both ends;” “All work and no 
play makes Jaek a dull boy;” “The bow always bent must break;” “The 
longest way round is the shortest way home;” (( Festina lente —Hasten 
slowly!”. 
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