them a little vague, but extremely interesting. The
skeleton of his system was unfolded in the essay on the "Overmuch and
the Undermuch." Therein he sought to show in a general way the
advantages of moderation. Nothing overmuch was the key-note of his
theory,--an aphorism which found an analogy in the old Greek motto
~ouden agan~, which he adduced to prove the antiquity of the
virtue, little as it had been practised. He represented moderation as
the great principle upon which the future progress of civilization
depended. Without heed to the restrictions which it imposed, human
nature must despair of perfection. He ventured to predict that rigorous
self-restraint, continued through successive generations, would
appreciably lengthen the average duration of life, and although without
more sufficient data it would be incautious to make extravagant claims,
it seemed to him by no means improbable that death might in the end be
conquered, or at least indefinitely postponed. The science was as yet
embryonic, and until the general interest of the world in its
development had been awakened, investigation in order to be trustworthy
must needs be slow.

Treating the subject in detail, he applied his theory to various
departments of life. His own investigations he alleged to be still very
incomplete, and in this first volume he had only touched upon two
subdivisions,--conversation and love, the presentation of his ideas
regarding which were contained in the essays already spoken of, "The
Economy of Speech," and "The Equipoise of Passion." In the first named
of these he laid down as a broad general statement that some people talk
too much and others too little. Here, as in other functions, either
extreme was disastrous. Prolixity of speech produced avoidance of the
offender, and silence tended to syncope of the language. The causes of
either fault were in his opinion far to seek, and lay less in the nature
of the individual than in the essence of orthography and diction.
Tautology was the blemish of written and vocal speech. Too many symbols
were used to express an idea, and nothing was left to the imagination of
the reader or hearer. Redundancy of expression was the _vade mecum_ of
the bore, and on the other hand there was no reason to believe that the
sound of their own words was the cause why many people were so silent.
It was common to hear that a man was afraid to hear himself talk. By
reducing therefore the signs of speech, a