l
further developed by constant intercourse with Johnson, ever ready for
argument, and his club, who were all equally desirous to listen when
either spoke. His _Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful_, unfortunately
better known in the present day by its title than by its contents, at
once attracted immense attention, and brought considerable pecuniary
help to the author. But the constant pressure of intellectual labour
soon began to tell upon a constitution always delicate. His health gave
way entirely, and he appeared likely to sink into a state of physical
debility, entirely incompatible with any mental exertion. He applied for
advice to Dr. Nugent; the skilful physician saw at once that something
more was required than medicine or advice. It was one of those cases of
suffering to which the most refined and cultivated minds are especially
subjected--one of those instances which prove, perhaps, more than any
others, that poor humanity has fallen low indeed. The master-mind was
there, the brilliant gems of thought, the acute power of reasoning, that
exquisitely delicate sense of feeling, which has never yet been
accurately defined, and which probably never can be--which waits for
some unseen mystic sympathy to touch it, and decide whether the chord
shall be in minor or major key--which produces a tone of thought, now
sublime, and now brimming over with coruscations of wit from almost the
same incidents; and yet all those faculties of the soul, though not
destroyed, are held in abeyance, because the body casts the dull shadow
of its own inability and degradation over the spirit--because the spirit
is still allied to the flesh, and must suffer with it.

There was something more than perfect rest required in such a case. Rest
would, indeed, recruit the body, worn out by the mind's overaction, but
the mind also needed some healing process. Some gentle hand should
soothe the overstrained chords of thought, and touch them just
sufficiently to stimulate their action with gentlest suasion, while it
carefully avoided all that might irritate or weary. And such help and
healing was found for Burke, or, haply, from bodily debility, mental
weakness might have developed itself into mental malady; and the
irritability of weakness, to which cultivated minds are often most
subjected, might have ended, even for a time, if not wisely treated, in
the violence of lunacy. It was natural that the doctor's daughter should
assist in the doctor's w