Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-10-02
oyERwRoUaHT A

AL the instruments in scientific pur-
suits and in the useful arts, from the SIM
pie anvil or piercer up to the achromAtic
telescope or locomotive, are carefully at
tended to and kept in order and ready for
service at any moment. They are pro-
tec,ed from rust, made clean and bright,
and are only used on fitting occasions by
skilled hands, and then with care, so that
they may be saved from needless re'iS-
lance and attrition. There is no waste Of
power by unnecessary strain or misap-
plieation. How differen. is the treatment
by its possessor OF that great material in
strument Of thought and sentiment the
human brain, which is made to do ser
vice at all times and seasons, whether It
be duly prepared or not! It is worked
often without definite object, and put to
. strain beyond its powers, frequently for
purposes unworthy, If not criminal. It.
self q microcosm, or little world, made up
Of q ~congeries Of organs, each the seat OF
Q particular faculty, it is at once the house
OF the appe,ites, sentiments and social al
fnities Of human nature, and the intelli-
gent laboratory in which are worked out
the problems Of mans duties and high
des,inie,. The brain, in its waking hours,
is constantly engaged in receiving and dis
pensing with equal fullness and dispatch.
In the FIRST Of these duties it is the recipi-
EN-. Of impressions Of all kinds made in it
by objects Of the external world through
the avenues Of the senses. In the second,
these impressions are now become sensa-
tiors it makes them the material for
thought and the sentiments and passions,
which find their utterance and expression
through some Of the same avenues, but in
an outward direction, and also by voice,
speech, action and the voluntary muscles,
to crafty mans longing,, his wants and
his infinite imaginings.
Such q mechanism as the brain, thus
continually engaged in movements so va
ried and complicated, ought, we might
suppose, to be watched with untring care,
and protected against needless swear and
tear" But, as we have said above, the
very reverse is prscticed. In childhood.
when the brain is tender and growing, and
mos, impossible, with, at the same time,
little retsnsiveness Of impression, and when
thoughts chase each other through il in
rapid succession, instead Of being left free
10 store itself with q knowledge Of the eS-
ternal world, Of Nature and her beauteous
imagery, it is put in durance. 1t is shut
out, in a great measure, from such inter-
course and acquisitions, and tasked daily
at school for many wearisome and profit
less hours beyond its strength, with a
load Of words, conveying few distinct ideas
and leaving behind no ~pleaSurable remin-
iscenees. While the intellectual organs
are thus overweight, those Of the pro-
pensities and sentiments are left without
due exercise, and certainly without due
training. The brain becomes one-sided in
its operations, and is poorly prepared, by
q persistence in the same faulty course
during the period Of youth, to resist the
daily and hourly strains to which it is sub
jected in adult life. The thoughts, emo
tons and passions are now in ceaseless
activity in the eager desire to acquire for
tune and to win position and Office. Dis
putations in politics and polemics are
constantly carried on, with too often Bit
tsrness and rancor. There is an Unsuitable
craving for excitement, which books,
papers, popular lectures, and even the
pulpit itself are made to crafty.
Excess and exsggeration are demanded
in everything. Truth is not listened to in
q homely garb, but requires a high color
ing to make it impressive. Everything
for the moment is concentrated on n
idea, which gets such entire possession Of
the minds Of those who adopt it that they
believe, at last, there is no hope for man
kind beyond the pale Of their little ism or
oiosy. The delusion increases until it be-
comes a real epidemic monomanis, the
victims Of which are deranged enough,
u too numerous, to be sent to an asylum.
In what used to be the regular pursuits of
business in its various branches, what
keennsss OF competition, what laborious
calculations, what anxious moments, wha,
slsepless nights are the lot Of those who
are thus engaged! Division of mental
labor is becoming obsolete. "Ii every man
is not precisely his W doctor, lawyer or
minister, yet he enters with the zeal Of a
partisan into every contest between rival
systems Of medicine, law or divinity"
Can we marvel that the brain in the
ceaseless strain and discordant action Of its
functions should become weakened and
give way-frst showing its changed con-
dition in feelings Of fatigue, growing irri-
liability Of temper, loss Of sleep and Of ap-
petite, pain in the head and sure confusion
Of thought and inability to carry on the
undertaking in hand with the customary
readiness? Persistence in overwork Of the
brain is followed eventually by softening
Of its structure, with paralysis, or some
other incurable malady.
--
Mn. THEopoRE TILroS, of the New
York Independent, denies the story tha, he