St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-03-30

WV "oihOu SiuuouIS suggest, lnStedu
OF being presented as an example in
anywise fit to be followed. A sad list
has been made up within a few days,
EN- bracing no less than four student
all driven to death under the
hard grind of too incessant and earnest
to study. These were Wal
ter p. Thompson, recent graduate of
Phillips Academy, Emil Schwerdtfager,
OF Cornell University, a son of Professor
COlvin, of the Ohio Agricultural Col
lege, but sixteen years of age, and Geo.
c. Wheeler, of Dundee, Mich, aged
twenty-five years, who became insane
from hard study, and manufactured one
of the most internal of machines where
with to destroy his life, that he might
have the glory of raising himself from
the dead by the application of some
chemical he had invented.
These cases remind me of how near
the world came to being beIeft of the
that is-of the great
life work of
JOHN STUART MILL.
The amount of intellectual labor he
performed in the first twenty years OF
his life is astonishing to men of ordi-
nary capacities and of less favorable
opportunities. The result of it is seen
i'll the dark and sad shadings of his
reasoning and thinking relating to ma
ture and life, and came very near being
even more disastrous than this in de-
priving the world of his work altogeth-
er. | will let him tell the reader about
it in few brief quotations from his
autobiography, published in 1874. He
was born May Goth, 1906. He says
at was in the autumn of 1926. was
in dull state of nerves, such as every
one is occasionally liable to; unsus-
ceptible to enjoyment or pleasurable
excitement one of those moods when
what is enjoyment at other times be-
comes insipid or indifferent; the state
| should think, in which converts tO
MethOdism usually are, when smitteu
by their first convictions of sin
For some months the clouds
seemed to grow thicker and thicker
The lines in Coleridge's 'DeJectiOn'-l
was not then acquainted with them
exactly describe my case:
"A grief without pang, void, dark and drear,
A drOwsy, stifed, unimpassiOned grief,
Which finds natural outlet relief
In word, or sigh or tear.
| felt, too, that mine was
not an interesting or in any way re-
spectacle Distress"
Three or four pages further on, iu the
description of his melancholy condition
he says he chad no delight in virtue oil
the general good, but also just as little
in anything else. The fountains o
vanity and ambition seemed to have
dried up within me as completely IA,
those of benevOlence.n And detailing
further his sombre reflections he con
tinues: ''These were the thoughts tha
mingled with the dry, heavy detection
of the melancholy winter of 1867
l frequently asked myself i
| was bound to go OH living, when lif,
must be passed in this manner. l gen
orally answered to myself, that die
not think l could possibly bear it be
yond year."
Bat before half the year had elapsed
he found some relief, and gradually re
covered so far that life again became
tolerable, though "A trace of this gloon
runs through much of his work, and i
hung in dark clouds on his mind Will,
composing his three great essays ol
religion.
One of the most brilliant student
ever graduated from an American col
lege has been in a much sadder cOndi
ton than this almost ever since tn
essay of honor was recited twenty on
months ago, and much of the time
precious life has been despaired Of b,
physicians and friends-and from tn
same Over-study. And hOy
many are going or have gone out of tn
world under like shadows, have n
means of knowing. But the know
cases are numerous enough to warn pa
rents and teachers to be on their guar
against the hurry and worry so oftel
attending the course of study prescrib
ed in these days. If the brightest an,
best of our children are driven to dealt
by our high pressure modes of instruc
ton, it is IA serious question whether W
shall find compensation for so costly
sacrifice in what these methods accom-
plish for the less delicate minds whic
are able to endure the hard drive OF tn
drill.
But here is something more cheerful
1t is
BRET HARTE's THANKFUL BLOSSOM,
The story of New Jersey damsel VIII
lived in the time when George Wash
ington's soldiers were quartered in tina
State by the sea. She fell in love wit
Connecticut captain and talked c
treason with him, but when he was al
rested, he cast suspicious on her father
and this brought her into the presenc
of the ''father of his country" who's
wisdom and magnanimity she 500
learned to admire, and i'll turn fell i
love with more faithful captain, an
| ~. f.nth IL L. told in tho nuaint ST VI