than in summer. It differs with the weather; more food is needed in a cold, damp, raw day, than in a cheerful, dry, warm one. Men require more food than women; those who labour, more than those who rest; those who are growing, more than those who have reached maturity. To lay down rules for all these, would require a better memory than would be exercised; and to weigh out the food to each particular case, would be attended with a very great deal of trouble. His opinion is, that in most cases, sedentary men in health eat too much, and that the necessity for so many hours of bodily exercise which many undergo, is a penalty for excessive indulgence of appetite. Doubtless a certain quantity of food is necessary to sustain the physical man in the vigorous use of his bodily functions; so is exercise not less needful for the twofold object, first, to work off and push out from the body all that is foreign, old, and useless; second, to replace these with strong, well-made particles; thus keeping the system clear of all rubbish, and replenishing it with what is new and perfect.

And yet it may be incidentally remarked here-and it contains a great practical truththe less a man eats to a certain limit, the less he has to work off. Hence, those who eat little and work little, can study quite as much, and as advantageously, as those who eat a great deal, and, in order to get rid of their surplusage, have either to spend a large share of their time in working, or in washing or scrubbing it off with hard flesh-brushes-that is to say, for the few minutes pleasure of the passage of food down the throat, hours of otherwise unrequited exercise have to be gone through, or dancing under cool shower-baths, or the purgatorial application of hair-gloves or bristle-brushes. If literary men would drink only water, and eat one-half less, they could well afford to dispense with the fruitless exercises and penances just referred to. Few persons afflicted with despondency are aware how their malady is often aggravated by the occasional irritation of food or drink reacting on their mind by reason of the morbid sensibility of the stomach. Dr. Johnson says, "I have

known many persons that found themselves so irritable after eating certain articles of difficult digestion, that they avoided society till the fit went off." Hence the rule that he gives to enable each person to decide his own case is, "any discomfort of body, any irritability or despondency of mind succeeding food or drink at the distance of an hour, a day, or even two or three days, may be regarded-other evident causes being absent-as a presumptive proof that the quantity has been too much, or the quality injurious." It is said, in the Life of President Edwards, that although of an infirm constitution and indifferent health, yet he was able to spend thirteen hours daily in his study. This surprising power of endurance is explained in the succeeding paragraph, in which we read that he carefully observed the effects of different sorts of food, and selected those which best fitted him for mental labour. Having also ascertained the quantity of food which, while it sustained his bodily strength, left his mind most sprightly and active, he scrupulously confined himself within the prescribed limits.

But not to dwell in details that are so accessible in elaborate treatises on this very subject, and that are deservedly held in the highest repute, we will only add, that the substance of what we have designed to say in the preceding remarks, is comprehended in an old Latin distich, by whom composed we do not recollect:

Si tibi deficiant medici, medici tibi fiant

Hæc tria; mens hilaris, requies, moderata dicta,

which one has paraphrased in the following clumsy couplet:

Employ three physicians; first, Doctor Diet,

Then Doctor Merryman, with Doctor Quiet.

Another counsel to be heeded with special care by the desponding, is to

BE HABITUALLY OCCUPIED.

We refer not to bodily exercise merely, so essential to vigorous health, and to a lively flow of the animal spirits, but we speak of occupation for the mind, in connection with some useful employment, to save it from those morbid actings by which it is made the prey to its own energies. Many diseases of body are

produced, increased, and perpetuated by the attention being directed to the disordered part, but the employment which diverts the attention from the disease, often cures it. It is said that Kant was able to forget the pain of gout by a voluntary effort of thought; and paroxysms of his disease, that would have laid others aside, were scarcely heeded, while his mind was absorbed by some problem in metaphysics. We once knew an enterprising and successful man of business, who had hardly reached the meridian of his life before he had made a handsome fortune. He was now advised to sell his establishment, and live for the future more at his ease. The counsel was well intended; it seemed to be judicious, and was followed; but the sudden abstraction of so much care, by which his mind had been distended, caused a collapse. He soon became unhappy, desponding, and would have sunk into a state of melancholy but for the interposition of friends, who perceived at once his alarming condition, and the obvious cause. Without asking his consent, they re-purchased