Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-03-05
Recuperation for Brain 7, orkers

! tlS near 20 uOlH9 LI5eii1iAc 'iI a. oue
who pretends to work can well come.
But those who have had much expert
ence in it know that intellectual work
| is the farthest Of all from child's play.
When Theodore Parker was writing
his :. discourse upon Religion" it is
said that often after lie had laid down
the pen, he had to creep up stairs on
his hands and knees. IthaS been dem
onstrated by exquisite physical expert
ments that every thought, feeling or
perception is accompanied by the liber-
alton of heat in the brain. Attach a
thermo-electric apparatus to the head
Of man, and let there be knock on
the door, word spoken, an argument
reviewed, Or a verse Of emotional poe
try mentally recited, and the telI-tale
needle swings at once over Il large are.
In the thinking brain, then, it is
manifest, carbon is continually oxidiz-
ing or burning nerve force is con-
stantly changing into mental force and
becoming consumed, An hours hard
thinking uses up more physical energy
than would suffice to raise the thinker S
body from the base to the summit of
Bunker Hill Monument. Three hours
Of severe study, according to scientific
estimates, make more Of an inroad up
on a mans vital powers than a whole
day Of heavy, bodily labor.
Now the only complete rest for the
brain. says DIR. Hammond is found in
sleep. That is the great repairing sea-
son for the energies Of the body. Let
the brain-worker make it his first
point, then, to get enough slumbcr.
Let him eschew all alarm-cloc,ls, and
leave 1t to the morning light and the
refreshed system itself to ring the ris-
ing bell; and II, during the day, he
finds the eyes beginning to close, and
the head to nod, let him yield at once
to the suggestions Of Nature, and take
the needed nap, and again at night, by
early seeking Of the couch, secure ali
he requires Of the best elixirs. When
we hear how john Adams and Josiah
Quincy, and SO many other, used to
rise at four or five 0 clock every morn
ing. it makes us, to be sure, wish that
we had the resolution to lengthen out
our scant time in the same heroic man
ner. Tradition, however. tells us that
the man@uyre did 1906 succeed always
in outwitting The jealous God Of sleep,
but ol1ontnnea t@ty S<s- coaReiied TO
pay their tributes to@SJluuGs al very
in-opportune times and in chambers by
no means private. 4 current Harvard
story is to the effect that when once
the venerable president Of TIE college
and the ex-presideut Of the nation
came together TO attend one Of Judge
Story's lectures, tie two dignitaries
soon fell asleep in their chaircs, when
the expounder Of the Constitution,
suddenly pausing and pointing them
out to the STUDENTS, said, " Behold,
young gentlemen, two illustrious monu-
ments of the evils Of early rising. .
While the brain-worker preteuds to be
awake, let him be broad awake
But man cannot sleep all the time,
not even all the time that he does
not work. In these waking hours,
when he has accomplished as much
mental labor as IS wise for him, what
can he do which viii conduce to renew
his power? Children. following theil
instinct, run at once from their books
to the various out-of-door sports, which
are the very best thing that could be
prescribed for them. Let them in the
fields every minute that they can when
school is out and the healthfnl sun still
shines. Every foot-race, and wrestle
and brown-sun kiss, helps them to be
more successful students in the great
school Of life. ''It was there" said
Wellington, looking at the boys on the
playground of Eton. it was there
that the battle of Waterloo was won.
But the adult brain-worker car
hardly, at least in this country, fine
suitable companions to engage with him
in such sports, nor can he join in them
with dignity. His mind, becoms ac-
customed to serious pursuits falling tC
take interests in such games. The
common substitute to which he betakeS
himself, or which is prescribed to hin
is a walk or ride, a row or a fishing
expedition. But taken solitarily. as
these forms Of exercise generally are
by the student, the mind fails to secure
the rest it Graves. The long constitu.
tional is haunted every minute by the
same ideas which the writer has beer
worrying over in his study, which now
that they seethe widely and fruitlessly
in his brain, only harass him the more
Whether or not the fish bite the hook,
the restless mind nibbles ProvokinglJ
at the sermon or article he seeks tC
forget / know, indeed, that not few
advise this thinking over of subjects
while at exercise, but it IS practice,
believe, that neautralizes the greater
part of the good for which the exer
else is taken. Moreover, to the busy
writer. to whomtime is money, and whC
generally has such d scanty store o
the latter that he does not like to waste
any of the former, long hours given t.
walks or sports seem too expensive
luxury. He seeks, therefore, as Frank
lin did, to take his exercise in som'
concentrated form. He buys pair o
big dumb-beils and swings them hal
an hour daily. or he resorts to SOM