The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-06-09
Thoughts from Hamerton.

man organization. The poet Wordsworth
remarked that poetic excitement, accom-
panied by protracted labor in composition,
always brings on more or less OF bodily
arrangement Whether mental labor can
produce disease, OF only aggravate the con-
sequences of disease which already exist,
the facts remain that the excessive eXer-
else of the mental powers is in furious to
bodily health and that all intellectual Ia
Dor proceeds upon a physical basis. No
man can safely forget this, and act as if he
were pure spirit superior to physical con-
sideration.
We may suffer, not from mental labor
itself but from selentary confinement,
from want of exercise. from insufficient
variety and amusement. Wordsworth COM
posed his poetry in the open air as he
walked George Sand did part OF her
work ut night in order to keep several
hours Of daylight for her walks in the
country. Sir Walter Scott counterbal-
anced the effects of sedentary occupation
by his hearty enjoyment of field sports.
In later life he thought it his duty to aban-
don the active amusements of his happier
wears. and this course was followed by a
stroke of paralysis. >helley's delight was
boating. which at once exercised his mus
cles and relieved his mind. Whenever a
man of much intellectual distinction has
maintained his powers in full activity. it
has been by avoiding the bad effects of an
entirely sedentary life.
When philosopher like Kant rolls him
self up at night and congratulates himself
on the possession of perfect health, we only
think v hat happy man he was to possess
that first of blessings, and what a sensible
man to know the value of it. In his man.
ner of living he did not consult custom,
but the needs of his individual nature.
He tranquilzed his mind before bedtime
by withdrawing it from everything re-
quring effort fifteen minutes before he
went to bed. Whatever may be the au-
thority of custom, a wise man makes HIM
self independent of usages which are i'm
pediments to his best activity.
The intellectual workman requires nour-
ishnent of the best possible quality but
the quantity onght always to be well with
in the capacity of the digestive powers.
Brain workers can not eat like sportsmen
and farmers without losing many hours in
torpor and yet they need nutrition as
much as ii they led active lives. The great
suited to oul use is really the most i'm
portant OF all sciences and the mother of
the arts. Beer drinkers are SLOW and a lit
tie stupid. Wine drinkers are agile and
eXcitable. Some men say that without
stimulants they could not get through
their labor but the stimulants often de-
ers and encourage us to attempt too much,
The ally brings to us an increase of forces,
but he comes with appearances of power
surprising the reality. Moderate smok-
ing acts as a stimulant to the brain and
produces temporary lasstude Of the mus
cular system. Excessive smoking weakens
the will Tea and coffee are as perilous as
tobacco. Activity renews itself and claims
larger and larger satisfaction, till at last
the habit OF it absorbs the whole energy
Of the man.
The fatal law of the Studous tempera-
ment is. that in exercise itself it must
find some intellectual charm: so that we
quit our books in the library only to 60
and read the infinite book of nature. How
easy it is to follow one OF the two lives
the animal OF the intellectual :how difficult
to conciliate the two, In everyone OF Us
there exists an animal which might have
been as vicious as wolves and foxes if it
had been lett to develop itself in freedom.
Scott was both pedestrian and an eques-
tlian traveller. Goethe took wild delight
i'll all sorts OF physical exercises such as
swimming, skating and riding. How much
that is noblest in ancient thinking may be
due to the hardy health Of Socrates 4 per
son is an intelligence served by organs, and
the organs are all doing their duty as faith
fully as postman who brings letters
When the postman becomes too intirm to
do his work he will retire on his little pen
sion. and another will take his place. but
when the human organs become intirnl
they can not be replaced.
How useful the senses are to the high
intellectual life and how wise it is to pre-
serve them as long as possible The whole
imagery of the poet, which gives power
and splendor to his verse, is derived from
nature through one OF the other of these or
binary channels. Some philosophers have
affirmed that the entire intellectual life is
based ultimately upon remembered physi-
cal sensations. Madame de Stael obtain
ed her literary material almost exclusively
by means OF conversation. She made every
body talk who was likely to be of any use
to her and then noted the hints and sug-
gestions. Every thing that is best and
most original in the writings of Ruskin is
an account of what he has seem or else q
criticism of the accurate or defective sight
OF others. The great creative intellects
1 ba va aypI 1lapO RIGHTLY and bna1tbjly SON.