St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-11-11

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work becomes daily more laborious,
the task of fixing the attention grows
increasingly difficult, thoughts wander,
memory fails, the reasoning power is
enfeebled prejudice-the shade of
defunct emotion or some past persua-
siOn-takes the place of judgment !;
physical nerve or brain disturbance
may supervene, and the crash will
then come suddenly, unexpected by on
lockers, perhaps unperceived by the
sufferer himself. This is the history
of "worry," or disorder produced by
mental disquietude and distraction,
occasionally by physical disease.
The first practical inference to be
deduced from these considerations is
that brain-work in the midst of men
tai worry is carried on in the face of
ceaseless peril. Unfortunately work
and worry are so closely connected in
daily experience that they cannot be
wholly separated. Meanwhile the
worry of wOrk-that which grows out
of the business in hand-is generally a
needless, though not always an avOida-
BILE, evil. In large proportion of in
stances this description of disorder is
due to the lack of education in brain
work. Men and women, with minds
capaciOus and powerful enough, but
unframed, attempt feats for which
training is Indispensable, and, being
unprepared, they fail. The utilitarian
policy of the age is gradually eliminat-
ing from the educatiOnary system
many of the special processes by which
minds used to be developed. This is,
in part at least, why cases of sudden
collapse are more numerous now than
in years gone by. 1t is not, as vanity
suggests, that the FRAMEWORK of to-
day is so much greater than that eX-
acted from our predecessors, but we
are less well prepared for its perform
ance. The treatment of this form of
affection, the breakdown from the
worry of work, must he preventive
the sole remedy is the reversal of a
policy which substitutes results for
processes, knowledge for education.
1t is serious cause of discontinue
and sorrow in work that so much OF
the brain-pOwer expended is necessari-
ly devoted to the removal of eXtraneOus
causes of worry. Labor is so fatal to
life, because it is so difficult to live.
The deadly peril of work in the midst
of worry must be confronted, because
the disturbing cause can only be got
rid of by persistent labor. This is the
cruX of the difficulty, and in the at
tempt to cure the evil the struggling
mind finds its fate involved in a vi
ciOus circle of morbid reactions. Never
theless, it is the fact that work in the
the teeth of worry is fraught with peril
and whenever it can be avoided ii
should be, let the sacrifice cost what il
may.
The second deduction must be, that
there is no excuse for idleness in the
pretense of fear of "Over-wOrk." There
is some reason to apprehend that the
attention recently directed to this al
legged cause of mental unsOundness has
not been free from a mischievOus in
t1uence on minds only too ready to take
refuge in any excuse for inactivity. II
the private asylums of the country
were searched for the victims of "over-
work" they would nearly all be found
to have fallen a prey to "worry," or to
that degeneracy which results from
lack of purpose in life and steady en-
plOyment. This is grave assertion
but it points to an evil it is especially
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into dementia with wondrOus CELEBRITY
when they are not carried forward tC
some goal, it matters little what, by
the impulse of strong motive. The
bugbear of "Over-wOrk" is, it may bt
feared, deterring parents and friend,
from enforcing the need of sedulOus
industry on the young. The perniciou'
system of "cram" Stays its thousands
because uneducated, undevelOped, in
elastic intellects are burdened anC
strained with information adroitly de
, posted in the memory, as an eXper
valet packs portmanteau, with th'
articles likely to be first wanted on tn,
top. DesultOry occupation, mere play
with objects of which the true interests
is not appreciated, ruins a still large
/, number ; while worry, that bane o
brain work and mental energy, counts
its victims by tens of thousands, /;
holocaust of minds sacrificed to tn,
demon of discOrd, the foe of happiness
of morality, of success. The enemy
: takes many shapes and assumes be
J wildering disguises. Sometimes b,
: comes in like flood, hurrying every
, thing before him, with heaps of wOrl
to be done in less than adequate time
/ Now the victim is hurried from task t,
, task with "A CELEBRITY fatal to sanity
Then he is chained like galley -slav
to some uncOngenial labor without re
: spite. Again, buzz of distracting an,
: irritating mental annoyances seem lie
loose to distress and distract him
5 Under each of these guises it is wOrr,
that mOlest, and, unless he be rescued
will ruin him. Meanwhile, the miser
: les of "over- work." comparatively in
: significant. Those who bewail thei
I infiictiOn most loudly are weak q
] mind or torpid of brain. Of such lam
! and MANNED mortals we are not nov
D thinking. Their lot may be humili
ating or pitiable, as their condition i
= due to neglect or misfortune but Ou
b concern is with the multitude of strOn
/. and able-minded workers who fail a
5 their task. These are the victims no
a of work, but of worry, foe NOR
e treacherOus and merciless than all be
4 sides. The mind-cure for the nalad
a to which ''wOrry" gives rise, and froI
o which SO many suffer, is not idlenes.
e or crest" in the ordinary sense of tina
: term, but orderly and persistent work
b, The work by which they have bee
: injured has not been excessive but ba
s of its kind and badly done. TIL
S palsied faculties must be strengthene
= and melted to healthy nutrition b
5 new activity, at first, perhaps, admin
d istered in the form of passive menta
e movement, and then induced by az
e prOpriate stimuli to the mind.-[P n
a Granville in Nineteenth Century.
q LeaVe-Taking.