R II.

TO A YOUNG MAN OF LETTERS WHO WORKED EXCESSIVELY.

Mental labor rarely compatible with the best physical
conditions--Wordsworth's manner of composition--Mr. W. F. A.
Delane--George Sand working under pressure--Sir Walter Scott's
field-sports--Physical exercise the best tranquillizer of the nervous
system--Eugene Sue--Shelley's love of boating--Nervousness the
affliction of brain-workers--Nature's kindly warning--Working by
spurts--Beckford--Byron--Indolence of men of genius
fortunate--Distressing nature of cerebral fatigue.

It is possible that many of the worst results of intellectual labor may
be nothing more than indirect results. We may suffer, not from the work
itself, but from sedentary confinement, from want of exercise, from
insufficient variety and amusement.

Mental labor is seldom compatible with the best physical conditions; it
is so sometimes, however, or may be made so by an effort of will and
resolution. Wordsworth composed his poetry in the open air, as he
walked, and so preserved himself from the evil of close confinement to
the desk. Mr. W. F. A. Delane, who did so much for the organization of
the _Times_ newspaper when it was under his management, began by doing
law reports for that paper, in London and on circuit. His appearance of
rude health surprised other members of his profession, but he accounted
for it by the care he took to compensate for the bad air and sedentary
labor in the courts of law by travelling between the assize towns on
horseback, and also by a more than commonly temperate way of life, since
he carefully avoided the bar dinners, eating and drinking for health
alone. It is possible to endure the most unhealthy labor when there are
frequent intervals of invigorating exercise, accompanied by habits of
strict sobriety. The plan, so commonly resorted to, of trying to get
health in stock for the rest of the year by a fortnight's hurried
travelling in the autumn, is not so good as Mr. Delane's way of getting
the week's supply of health during the course of the week itself.

It happened once that George Sand was hurried by the proprietor of a
newspaper who wanted one of her novels as a _feuilleton_. She has always
been a careful and deliberate worker, very anxious to give all necessary
labor in preparation, and, like all such conscientious laborers, she can
scarcely endure to be pushed. However, on this occasion she worked
overtime, as they say in Lancashire, a