Soon, by an unavoidable fatality, the disorder that had affected the body recoils upon the mind; for the Author of nature has ordain’d that most of the operations of the latter should stand in need of the assistance of the former; which has given occasion to the following just observation of PLINY the younger[11], and long before him it was observed by DEMOCRITUS, that the mind is supported by what supports the body. “Augescit mens cum adest sanitas, adeoque huic ut prospiciant, qui recte sentiant consentaneum est: ubi vero corporis habitus dolet nec mens ad virtutis meditationem est alacris.” “The mind acquires new vigour whilst the body is in health; therefore all those who think justly will take care of the latter: but, when the body is in a painful state, the mind is less alert in the meditation of virtue[12].” Should it then seem surprising, if, when the tenor of the brain and nerves is broken by the efforts of the mind, the latter should decline in its turn? First of all it is depriv’d of its fortitude; distrust, terror, and melancholy, seize upon it; and he who would have stood undaunted amidst a falling world a few months before, is every moment fill’d with terror and consternation, as soon as his nerves are affected by a hypochondriac disorder. Relentless tyrants may have condemn’d to death philosophers whom they hated; but it never was in their power to subject them to the dread of death, which they had long shaken off. O how much more cruel would they have been, if they had granted them their lives, and had it in their power to torment their minds with hypochondriacal terrors! Thus render’d unequal to the task of study, the learned are at last under a necessity of quitting their belov’d pursuits; for, as the strength of their nerves diminishes, their attention fails, the memory begins to lose its tenaciousness, the ideas are obscur’d, and an uneasy sensation of heat over the whole head, a dreadful palpitation, the most extraordinary weakness, and a groundless fear of approaching death, oblige them to discontinue their application. Their strength being at last repair’d by rest, nourishing aliments, and exercise, they renew their assiduity in study, but are soon oblig’d to quit their books as before. Thus the whole day is lost; and when evening approaches and they retire to bed, their weakness and anxiety make them pass their nights most dismally, whilst the great mobility of their nerves prevents their sleeping, and sometimes increases to such a degree as totally to deprive them of the power of thinking. I know a young man, upon whom an intense application to study had this extraordinary effect, that, if he read even a few pages, he was torn with convulsions of the muscles of the head and face, which assum’d the appearance of ropes stretch’d very tight.