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ADVICE TO THE STUDIOUS.

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very defective in the studious. The dropsy is often occasioned bythe retention of those humours which ought to be carried off inthis way. Any person may observe that sitting makes his legsswell, and that this goes off by exercise ; which clearly points outthe method of prevention.

Fever. — Fevers, especially of the nervous kind, are often the effectof intense study ; which in a manner unhinges the whole humanframe, and not only hurts the vital motion, but disorders the minditself. Hence delirium, melancholy, and even madness, are "notunfrequently the effect of close application to study. In fine, thereis no disease which can proceed either from a bad state of the hu-mours, a defect of the usual secretions, or a debility of the nervoussystem, which may not be induced by intense thinking.

Hypochondriasm. — But the most afflicting of all the diseaseswhich attack the studious is hypochondriasis.* This disease sel-dom fails to be the companion of deep thought. It may rather liecalled a complication of maladies than a single one. To what awretched condition are the best of men often reduced by it !Their strength and appetite fail ; a perpetual gloom hangs overtheir minds; they live in the constant dread of death, and are con-tinually iu search of relief from medicine, where, alas ! it is not tobe found. Those who labour under this disorder, though they areoften made the subject of ridicule, justly claim our highest sympa-thy and compassion.

Hardly any thing can be more preposterous than for a personto make study his sole business. A mere student is seldom an use-ful member of society. He often neglects the most important du-ties of life, in order to pursue studies of a very trifling nature.

ADVICE TO STUDIOUS AND INTENSE THINKERS, <&C.

Studious persons, and those who indulge long and frequentlyin intense thought, in order to relieve their minds, must not onlydiscontinue to read and write, but engage in some employmentor diversion that will so far occupy the thought as to make themforget the business of the closet. A solitary ride or walk are sofar from relaxing the mind, that they rather encourage thought.Nothing can divert the mind when it gets into a train of seriousthinking, but attention to subjects of a more trivial nature. Theseprove a kind of play to the mind, and consequently relieve it.

As studious people are necessarily much within doors, theyshould make choice of a large and well-aired place for study.This would not only pre* ent the bad effects which attend confined

* The state of mind peculiar to hypochondriacs is thus described by Cullen: —" Alanguor, listlessness, or want of resolution and activity, with respect to all underta-kings -, a disposition to seriousness, sadness, and timidity, as to all future events, andapprehension of the worst or most unhappy state of them -, and, therefore, often uponslight grounds, an apprehension of great evil. Such peisons are particularly attentiveas to the state of their own health, to every the smallest change of feeling in theirbodies ; and from any unusual sensation, perhaps of the slightest kind, they appre-hend great danger, and even death itself. In respect to these feelings and fears, thereis commonly the most obstinate belief and persuasion/' And it is only, he adds, whenthe state of mind just described is joined with indigestion, in either sex, somewhatadvanced in years, of a melancholic temperament, and a firm and rigid habit, that thedisease takes th^ names of hypochondriasm.