e middle and
higher ranks, who have no calls to exertion in gaining the means of
subsistence, and no objects of interest on which to exercise their
mental faculties, and who, consequently, sink into a state of mental
sloth and nervousness, which not only deprives them of much enjoyment,
but subjects them to suffering, both of body and mind from the
slightest causes.

805. But let the situation of such persons be changed; bring them, for
instance, from the listlessness of retirement to the business and
bustle of the city; give them a variety of imperative employments, and
so place them in society as to supply to their cerebral organs that
extent of exercise which gives health and vivacity of action, and in a
few months the change produced will be surprising. Health, animation,
and energy, will take the place of former insipidity and dulness.

806. An additional illustration, involving an important principle in
the production of many distressing forms of disease will be found in
the case of a man of mature age, and of active habits, who has devoted
his life to the toils of business, and whose hours of leisure have
been few and short. Suppose such a person to retire to the country in
search of repose, and to have no moral, religious, or philosophical
pursuits to occupy his attention and keep up the active exercise of
his brain; this organ will lose its health, and the inevitable result
will be, weariness of life, despondency, or some other variety of
nervous disease.

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803. What renders solitary confinement so severe a punishment to the
most daring minds? What is a predisposing cause of nervous disease?
804. In what classes do mental and nervous debility prevail? 805. How
can this be counteracted? 806. Give another illustration, showing how
disease of the brain is induced.

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807. One great evil attending the absence of some imperative
employment or object of interest, to exercise the mind and brain, is
the tendency which it generates to waste the mental energies on every
trifling occurrence which presents itself, and to seek relief in the
momentary excitement of any sensation, however unworthy. The best
remedy for these evils is to create occupation to interest the mind,
and give that wholesome exercise to the brain, which its constitution
requires.

808. _The evils arising from excessive or ill-timed exercise of the
brain, or any of its parts, are numerous._