Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-02-09

w n6fONoF TGCOFuS VI AOhS0NAvJ hdNO |
been kept It has been found to be in
proportion to the advance in civiliza-
tion and cultivation-the rate OF NOR
tality in Paris, for instance, having
decreased one hundred per cent. Id the
last Ave hundred years, and half-bar-
barOus Russia to-day showing in pro-
portion to its population more than
double the mortality of England. Our
insane asylums are largely peopled
with inmates, especially women, from
country districts, whose lives have
been one round of monotonous labor,
knowing little or no mental stimulus or
development. From somewhat the
same cause minds that maintain too
constantly relaxed, as opposed to a
tense, MISUNDERSTANDING greatly, for
instance, in reading to the exclusion Of
study, habitually relying upon written
memoranda instead of exerting them
selves to remember, etc. not only
dwell in bodies necessarily unstrung,
but can never be thoroughly healthy
themselves The reason, too, why in
everyday life and in personal crises
people are too slow In adopting the
right course is largely that, being too
mentally lazy to think, they have
missed the highest soundness and
health OF all-the moral
An able writer, Mr.. T. w. Higgon-
son, says: "If civilization sacrifice the
physical hopelessly to the mental, and
barbarisrn merely sacrifice the mental
to the physical, then barbarism is un-
questionably the better thing, so far as
it goes, because it provides the essen
tial preliminary conditions. Barbar-
ism is a one-story log hut, poor
thing, but better than nothing; while
such a civilization would be simply a
second story, with a first story too
weak to sustain it, magnificent sky
parlor, with all II eaven in view from
the upper windows, but with the whole
family coming down in crash pres
emily, through d fatal neglect Of the
basement. This happily, however, is
not the case. Civilization and intel
lectual culture are good all round, not
ban.
Now comes a highly important pro-
vlso. All that has heretofore been said
in relation to the development aud ex-
ercise of the mind being beneficial to
health must be unqualifiedly condi-
toned by the statement that, when
mind activity is pushed beyond its
proper limit, 1t ceases to be healthful
and becomes q source of disturbance
and danger both to the general health
and to the brain, which is the organ Of
the mind.
A human being possesses a variety oil
powers, as, for instance, the physical,
the intellectual, the emotional, the
volitional, etc, and his well-being de-
pends upon the normal proportion be.
ing preserved in their evolution and
use. This, of course, is not the same
for all persons, some being innately
intellectual rather than physical, some
the opposite, the relative strength o.
others lying in their passions, etc, but
in each case it exists and when it has
been found must be needed or harm
ensues. While the employment of the
intellect up to the limit of its power
contributes to high condition o.
health, and, indeed, is absolutely nee
essary for it, if carried beyond thai
point, it destroys the balance among
the different faculties, and becomes {
dram upon the system, We all know
how common a thing it is for mer
whose brains have been overwOrked il
their business to lose their appetites
be troubled with Indigestion, palpita
tion OF the heart. ETC., and we see wher
they are attacked by disease how easi
ly they often succumb. the brair
having appropriated to itself more
than its proper share of nutrition, ant
left the general powers weak and in
capable OF resistance. A human or
ganism possesses only about so muol
energy; if one faculty uses it all th'
others are defrauded.
Excessive mental exertion is also, a
we should naturally expect, detri
mental to the brain itself The brain
in spite of the marvellous amount ant
variety of work it is capable of doing
is the least organized organ in th
body. 1t consists simply of an aggre
CATION OF tubes and millions of cells
permeated with blood vessels. Ever.
time we think, feel or will, imagine
remember or desire, hundreds OF thes
cells are destroyed, and must be a
once replaced from the blood, or dealt
or insanity ensues. When we remem
Der the varied and often tumultuou
drama which is enacted every day i
the consciousness of every one of us
we obtain some conception of the vast
and supply that go on within tn
brain. Its nutrition consumes one
fifth of all the blood in the body
When once it is injured, its powers o
recuperation are slight.
, Some forms of mind exercise exer
a more invigorating effect upon it tina
} do others. Total inertia results i
/ feebleness. Original or creative men
: tai acts-as those of Judging, plan
/ ming, calculating, inventing, literar
r composition, etc. tend to. increase it
volume, stability and endurance, jus
/ as physical exercise develops an
! hardens the muscles. While this
? true, every original bPain-worker vii
admit that precisely this sort of in
tellectual effort is the most exhaust
r ing, and can safely DO INDUCED in th
q least uninterruptedly, and for tn
I shortest period. 1t is common ri
: mark among students that two hour
o of composing are fully equal to six {