This fortunate indolence of men of genius would in most instances ensure their safety if they were not impelled by necessity to labor beyond the suggestions of inclination. The exhausted brain never of itself seeks the additional exhaustion of hard work. You know very well when you are tired, and at such times the natural man in you asks plainly enough for rest and recreation. The art is so to arrange our lives that the natural man may sometimes have his way, and forget, if only for a time, the labors which lead to weariness--not to that pleasant weariness of the body which promises soundest sleep, but the distressing fatigue of the exhausted spirit which is tortured by the importunity of ideas which it is unable to express, and apprehensions that it cannot dismiss, which fights through the sleepless night the phantoms of unconquerable horror. NOTE.--The bad effect of literary composition on the physical state which was observed by Wordsworth in his own case was also noticed by Shelley during the composition of the "Cenci," which, he said, had been a fine antidote to nervous medicines, and kept, he believed, the pain in his side "as sticks do a fire." These influences are best observed in people whose health is delicate. Although Joubert, for example, had an extremely clear intellect, he could scarcely write at all on account of the physical consequences. I have come to the conclusion that literary work _acts simply as a strong stimulant_. In moderate quantities it is not only innocent, but decidedly beneficial; in excess it acts like poison on the nervous system. What constitutes excess every man has to find out by his own experience. A page was excess to Joubert, a chapter was moderation to Alexandre Dumas. LETTER III. TO A STUDENT IN UNCERTAIN HEALTH. Habits of Kant, the philosopher--Objection to an over-minute regularity of habit--Value of independence of character--Case of an English author--Case of an English resident in Paris--Scott an abundant eater and drinker--Goethe also--An eminent French publisher--Turgot--Importance of good cookery--Wine drinking--Ale--The aid of stimulants treacherous--The various effects of tobacco--Tea and coffee--Case of an English clergyman--Balzac--The Arabia custom of coffee-drinking--Wisdom of occasionally using stimulants. IMMANUEL KANT, who was a master in the art of taking care of himself, had by practice acquired a dexterous mode of folding himself up in the bed-clothes, by passing them over and under his shoulders, so that, when the operation was complete, he was shut up like the silkworm in his cocoon. "When I am thus snugly folded up in my bed," he would say to his friends, "I say to myself, can any man be in better health than I am?"