direct consequence, because I believe the disordered digestion operates by impairing the general powers of the whole system, thus lessening the vital energy of all the organs, and of course rendering them less able to resist the causes of disease. If then there be any predisposition to phthisis, or if the lungs be subjected to extraordinary irritation from excessive exercise or any other cause; they cannot resist, as in a state of health, but are excited to the actions of disease.'

The habits of literary men in general are certainly far from being such as would seem to conduce to a state of health. In the pursuit of distinction they are apt to consider it as a matter of secondary importance, or are at least unwilling to devote that attention to its preservation, which is necessary; and that blessing, whose loss is most sensibly felt, is least carefully guarded. Of what value to ourselves is extended knowledge or professional fame, if our feelings are deadened and our energies palsied by disease? What do the means of usefulness avail, if in their acquisition the power of being useful is destroyed? Men devoted to study, are not necessarily invalids more than those of any other occupation; yet how few there are who pass through life without suffering more or less from disorders, which may be traced either directly or indirectly to their habits of life. To a certain degree, no doubt, the life of a literary man unavoidably produces a liability to some disordered actions in the system. This is in fact true of the life of civilized man in general. "Considered merely in relation to our physical constitutions, our habits of life in society are artificial and pernicious. The temperature in which we live, our food, our clothing, our hours of rest, our exercise, are all unnatural. As we depart from civilized life we find the quantity of disease becoming regularly less; delicacy of constitution, susceptibility to disease, are the inheritance of civilized society; they are the price we pay for that refinement and elevation of moral feeling, that enlargement and expansion of the mind, that intellectual grandeur, which are only the results of social life." This is more particularly the case with men devoted to study. The engrossing nature of mental occupation begets an indisposition to bodily activity, and that exhaustion, which is the consequence of intellectual exertion, rather inclines us to indulge in simple relaxation of the powers which have become fatigued, than to make those physical exertions which alone afford the appropriate relief. may almost always observe, that hard students are disposed to give themselves up to bodily indolence. The exceptions to this observation are rare; and although many from a sense of duty refuse to indulge this inclination, yet there are few, who do not

We

at some period of their lives suffer from it, and learn wisdom only from the sad lessons of experience.

The nature of the complaints produced by the habits of literary men, and their appropriate remedies, are described at some length in this work, although, perhaps, not so fully as might have been desirable. With this part of the subject, however, which is more strictly medical, we have nothing to do, but confine our attention to such remarks as relate to preachers particularly, and to the peculiar circumstances which should be regarded in the prevention of their complaints.

Two things are to be most scrupulously attended to. 1. To guard against that gradual and insidious deterioration of the ge neral health, which their habits of life have such a tendency to produce, and which creates a general liability to be affected by the exciting causes of particular diseases; and 2. to acquire such habits and use such precautions in the exercise of the lungs, as shall give them strength, enable them to go through their necessary labour without fatigue, and put them in a state to resist any tendency to disease, which may be excited by their habits of life or their professional exertions.

"I am convinced," says the writer," that the evil against which we wish to guard, arises rather from the infrequency and inequality of the exercise of the lungs, than from its essential bad tendency. I have previously stated some reasons for believing that these organs, like all others, are capable of being influenced by habit, and made able to bear by exercise more exertion; and if clergymen could be induced to attend to the formation of such a habit, that they would be no more liable to a pulmonary affection than other men. It should be a first object with one who engages in the clerical profession--especially if he has any of the marks of weak lungs, if he is hereditarily or constitutionally liable to pulmonary complaints, if he is the subject of a disorder of the digestive organs or has a tendency to it--to accustom himself gradually to that kind of exertion which will be required by the duties of his future profession. This is to be attempted by the constant daily practice of loud speaking or reading. This need waste no time, and may be made to answer other good purposes. It will be best to begin gradually, to continue the exertion for a short time at first, to stop always before it becomes fatiguing, but to increase every day until it equal that required for public worship. If this kind of exercise be persevered in, it seems almost certain that all, except those whose lungs are radically infirm, may acquire the habit of going through their professional performances without injury; and as for those who fail, it is far better for them to know at once their incapacity, than to spend the best years of their youth in qualifying themselves for a profession which they must finally relinquish.

Bodily exercise of any kind, besides its general effect on the system, contributes in particular to strengthen the lungs, by increasing the circulation of blood through them and calling forth a more vigorous performance of their function. Exercise of a violent kind, in one unused to it, produces great efforts of respira tion-if carried to excess, pain in the breast, shortness and difficulty of breathing-and it might sometimes possibly prove fatal. But habit soon enables one to bear the same degree of exertion without inconvenience; and this is to be attributed in some measure to an increased power on the part of the lungs, as well as in the muscular system."

Now this certainly appears reasonable and probable; whether the result would be successful upon experiment, it is impossible to decide; but it is surely an experiment well worth the making. Indeed this subject in general is far more worthy the attention of those who are entering upon the study of theology, than it seems to have been considered. It is not an uncommon impression, that preaching is an employment of dangerous tendency, that those who embrace the profession are to make up their minds to perhaps the sacrifice of life and health in the service of the calling which they have chosen. It is a matter of serious enquiry whether there be good foundation for this opinion; whether the evils, which are feared, and those which have been suffered, are the direct and necessary consequences of the duties in which ministers of the gospel are engaged, or whether they are the result of circumstances only incidentally connected with these duties. Whether their liability to disease, be any thing more than the general liability of imprudent students, which is directed with particular force to the lungs, by the peculiarity of their professional labours. We are inclined to the belief, that there are no dangers arising from the life and occupation of a clergyman, which could not be obviated by well-directed and timely attention. We are convinced that much may be, and we know, indeed, of instances in which much has been done, by a resolute and rigid adherence to some judicious system of living, so adapted as to obviate the dangers from which. there is reason to fear.

We are no advocates for overstrained caution, we would not have any one cultivate in himself a sensitive timidity with respect to his health, which shall make him shrink from every wind that blows and from every shower that falls. We would not have him live in perpetual anxiety, watching every change in his pulse, and every flush on his cheek, as the harbinger of disease and death. We would have him fortify himself to resist the influence of external causes, not shrink from their operation. New Series-vol. III.

19

Nothing certainly is to be gained towards enabling a man to perform the duties of a laborious profession, by nursing him and pampering him with delicacies, by shielding him from air and light. This may protract a feeble existence, but it will not restore decaying health, nor preserve that which is already firm. A minister should lead a life of strict temperance. We do not mean merely that he must abstain from any gross violations of its dictates, any great excesses; it would be an insult, and we are happy to say, an undeserved one, to suppose such a caution necessary. But he must go much farther than this-what is moderation in another man must be excess to him-he should be self-denying and abstemious; particularly where his duties are not of a very active nature, and he spends much of his time in reading and in writing; for in this case the quantity of nourishment demanded by the system is less, and the supply should be diminished in proportion.

But as far as is possible he should lead a life of bodily activity; and upon the whole, this is probably the most important circumstance to be attended to. The importance of much exercise to the preservation of health is manifested in the great advantage which ministers in the country have over those in town and over students of theology in this respect. Few of them, in proportion, are the subjects of disease unless predisposed either constitutionally, or in consequence of their habits before becoming settled in their parishes. It is not always enough that he should take his morning and evening walk, and perform his usual out-of-door business for himself; something more is frequently necessary; he must exercise systematically; and since this is irksome where the mind has not some subject of interest on which to employ itself, it is of service to propose some definite purpose to be accomplished, which will operate as a sufficient motive to the necessary exertion; such might be, in the country, an attention to agricultural pursuits, or to the study of Botany.

We have a few words more to say on the subject of public speaking. We agree with the remark quoted above, in thinking much of the evil to be attributed rather to the inequality and irregularity of the exercise, than to its severity, and that this difficulty can be only remedied by acquiring the habit of regularly reciting or reading aloud for as long a time as that usually occupied in the exercises of the pulpit. With some this expedient would no doubt fail, with some it might, if persisted in, even hasten the evil it was intended to remedy. But this affords no reason for despairing of its efficacy in a majority of instances, and with due precautions we feel satisfied it is rea

sonable to expect, upon the whole, very favourable consequences. Exercise must be equal and regular and continued. Excessive fatigue on one day, and total indolence the next, is perhaps worse than no exertion at all. Indeed if we would preserve a state of health, all our habits, of whatever kind, should be equal and steady, and not constantly varying with every whim and caprice-our diet, our clothing, our hours and quantity of study and of exercise, our hours of rising and going to rest, should be on an average, after allowing for circumstances, the same. And here we cannot avoid adverting to a circumstance, which we believe calculated to have a most pernicious effect upon the health of preachers; and that is, their allowing the weight of their mental labour to fall upon a particular portion of the week, instead of being equally divided through the whole of it. It is indeed so common as to be almost proverbial, for them to delay the work of preparation for the sabbath to the day and night preceding, which obliges them to an intensity and constancy of application, which scarcely the firmest health could withstand uninjured. The bad consequence is likely to be the greater from the circumstance, that the position of the body in writing is such as to impede the free motion of the lungs. Few men can be occupied for any length of time in this way without some oppression or stricture in the chest, or some slight obstruction of the respiration. And if a preacher goes into the pulpit on the sabbath, after a day, a night, and perhaps a morning also, spent in the labour of composition, with few and short intervals of relaxation, what are we to expect, but that when the labour of speaking is added to the effects of this constrained position, the lungs should be exhausted, irritated, and enfeebled?

We cannot conclude without again earnestly calling the atten tion of the younger part of the profession particularly to this subject. It is their duty as well as their interest, to take seasonably those precautions, from which they may hope as great a proportion of bodily health as is enjoyed by any class of sedentary men and in order that they may take them, they should understand the nature of the evils against which they are to guard, and the circumstances to which they owe their origin.