The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-02 00:00:00

. _
labour it is difficult to form any idea of the strain
involved in those other kinds of brain-work, in
which, so to speak, the very cerebral matter itself
is wrought out into a tangible result. It is this
coining of the brain which is the most wearing and
arduous of all mental labour ; and it is not the
least of the disadvantages attending it that the
habit of work grows so strong with constant use,
that to leave off and to keep on are almost equallydifficult, if not equally dangerous. To desist frorl
the occupation which has grown into a second
nature will often entail an apathy, a weariness, °
degree of ennui, only second to the utter depressioi,
and despondency which will be the inevitable result
of intense mental application too long sustained. The
mind which has thus become wedded to its Work can
neither exist with it nor without it. To forego the
customary- avocation at the customary hour makes
life appear a blank, and to escape from the wears;
ness thus produced recourse is had to the fatal to
is slowly but surely destroying life. NIL:
time comes when nature is exhausted, and i,
flagging powers are found unequal to the daily t 217
which had grown into a necessity
of existence. In
attempt is made to resume the wonted labour, but
the mind fails. The trains of ideas become vagicle
;
and confused ; their connection cannot be grasPe
all seems incoherent and disconnected, and though
the patient himself may not be conscious of 111'
there are the signs and tokens that the end is nen;
Despondency and depression occur. The body o°o
begins to sympathise with the mind, and both gi r
',
way together. An abnormal condition of the new,,„
will now supervene, which permits the sufferer
or
have no rest. He is alike unable either to sleek' a
to work. The present is a torture, the future The
blank ; the past only harasses the mind with,"
apparition of scenes and remembrances which
lost their charm, or onlyserve to contrast the glo°
and despair of to-day with the hopes and the her,
piness of other years. If in this condition the an
ferer's friends could carry him away where he e°l"`:
see nothing but the rustling of the wind in the trees°
and the song of the birds, but where at the ftt
time he could mix with cheerful company, 00
hss mind would be at once occupied and at
there would be some hope- for him. Indeed, he
would be sure to right himself when the strablwl
taken off. But the difficulty is to accomplish „,
Men of Admiral Fitzßoy's stamp never know when
they have had too much work, any more than mob
of another stamp know when they have had to° r°,lo.
wine and delirium tremens is beginning to Bein
The abstinence, which is as essential in one case as
the other, is always put off until too late. gell,ei;
not be dealt.with like children, and made to do tt,i,
duty to themselves. A man like Admiral FitzlloY 7,d
naturally forms a high estimate of the duty 7sma
the responsibility attaching to his labours. It hp.
characteristic of the higher order of minds t° Sea
pressed with this sense of duty in their work. brain
if we take the case of the literary man—whose 'duty
often gives way from over-work—he has 3 an
though it be not of a public kind. He is uncle,a
engagement which must be completed within a g` his
time ; he has a family who are dependent ontiot
labour. This sense of responsibility—the dependent.
of fulfilling a duty imposed upon him—has the eIS it
of keeping a man to his work, even when he fee not
is killing him by inches. He is told he
work so hard ; he answers that he must—it musts
duty, and he cannot shirk it. The reasoning must—it.
defeat
answerable that the course he is pursuing liot
the object he has in view, that the means wilelt ti3q
merely miss the end, but reverse it ; but againA the
force of habit, the promptings of instinct, 0,-,.„,„a
pressure of necessity, what reasoning was veer
to succeed ? Admiral Fitzßoy is no more. -"ref big
bear at present to touch upon the particulars e,„,,nd
melancholy end, the details of which will be is
Jo
in another column. He will be deeply lament on-
the scientific world as one of its most gifted, 11,1100
bers, by multitudes of those whose lives his ',rata AS
have tended to save, and by the whole coun''e.
one of the most eminently useful men of his tw-