The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-12-03
Worry.

| Inc cause, or condition, which
most commonly exposes the reserve
OF mental energy to loss and injury
Is worry. The tone and strength of
mind are seriously impaired by its
wearing influence, and, if it continue
long enough, they will be destroyed.
1t sets the organism of thought
and feeling vibrating with emotions
which are not censOnant with the
natural liberation of energy in work.
The whole machinery is thrown cut
of gear, and exercise, which would
otherwise be pleasurable and innocu-
Gus, becomepainfuland even destruc-
tive. 1t is easy to see how this must
be. The longest note in music, the
most steady and persistent ray of
light-to use an old-fashioned express
sion-the tonic muscular contraction,
are all, we know, produced bya rapid
succession of minute motive i'm.
pulses or acts, like the explosion and
discharge of electricity from alter
nately connected and separated points
in circuit in fact, a series of vibra-
tions. Mental energy doubtless takes
the same form of development. If a
| disturbing element is introduced by
the Obtrusion of some independent
source of anxiety, or if out of the
business in hand the mind makes a
discord, confusion ensues, and for the
time being harmonious action ceases.
Working under these conditions in
obedience to the will, the mental
organism sustains injury which must
be great and may be lasting. The
function of the warning sense is sus-
pended; the reserve is no longer
stock in allegiance, and it ceases to
give stability to the mind; the
rhythm of the mental forces is inter-
rupted a crash is always impending,
and. too often sudden collapse occurs.
The point to be made clear is this:
overwork is barely impossible, and
seldom, if ever, happens, while the
mind is acting in the way prescribed
by its constitution and in normal
modes of mental exercise. The mo-
net, however, the natural rhythm of
work is broken and discord ensues,
the mind is like an engine with the
safety-valve locked, the steam. guage
falsified. the governing apparatus out
of gear; breakdown may occur at
any instant. The state pictured is
one of worry, and the besetting peril
is not depicted in too lurid colors.
The victim of worry is ever on the
verge of catastrophe if he escape,
the marvel is not at his strength of
intellect so much as his good fortune.
Worry is disorder, however induced,
and disorderly work is abh0rred by
the laws of nature, which leave it
wholly without remedy. The energy
employed in industry carried on un-
der this condition is lavished in pro-
ducing small result, and speedily
exhausted. The reserve comes into
play very early in the task, and the
faculty of recuperation is speedily
arrested. Sometimes loss of appetite
announces tie cessation of nutrition
otherwise the sense ofhunger, present
in the system, is for a me prefer
naturally acute, and marks the fact
that the demand is occasioned by
loss of power to appropriate, instead
of any diminution Of supply. The
effort to work becomes daily more
laborious, the task of fixing the at
tention grows increasingly difficult,
thoughts wander, memory fails, the
reasoning power is enfeebled pre-.
judice-the shade of defunct emotion
or some past persuasion-takest the
place Of judgment; physical nerve
or brain disturbance may supervene,
and the crash will then come sudden
~, unexpected by onlookers, upper
ceived by the sufferer himself. This
is the history of worry" or disorder
produced by mental disquietude and
distraction, occasionally by physical
disease. The Nineteenth CenturY.