Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / By Amariah Brigham.

  • Amariah Brigham
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the influence of mental cultivation and mental excitement upon health / By Amariah Brigham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    50/98 (page 44)
    of their children much intellectual labour, and great progress in study. It is the tomb of their talents and of their health.” He concludes with this advice : The employments for which your children are destined in after life, should regulate their studies in youth ; not requiring (as is the custom with many parents) the most study io early life, of those who are to be devoted to literary pur¬ suits, but on the contrary, the least.” “ Of ten infants,” says he, “ destined for different vocations, I should prefer that the one who is to study through life, should be the least learned at the age of twelve.”* Let us ascertain what views are entertained respecting early mental culture, in those countries which have pro¬ duced the most learned men. It is probably true, that no other country has ever produced, or now contains, so many profound scholars as Germany. In truth, the Germans have so far surpassed the people of other nations, in whatever relates to the cultivation of the intellect, that Madame De Stael very justly styled their country “ the land of thought.” We may, therefore, derive great advantage in this inquiry from the opinions of the Germans, for the course they have adopted cannot be bad, since we find their scholars and learned men generally healthy, and remarkable for longevity. Besides, the effect of mental cultivation upon the health, the importance of physical education in early life, and the best method of perfecting both the mind and body, have for a long time been subjects of much inquiry, and engaged the attention of the most learned men in that country. Some of their most distinguished medical men have devoted great attention to this subject, and published their views and opinions. From some of their works I will make a few extracts. Upon this subject, perhaps there can be no better authority than that of the distinguished Hufelaud, physician to the King of Prussia, who, by bis learning, and acquaintance with the greatest scholars of the age, is eminently qualified to decide upon this subject. In his valuable work on the A?'f of Prolonging Life, he observes :—“ Intellectual effort in the first years of life is very injurious. All labour of the mind which is required of children before their seventh year, is in opposition to the laws of nature, and will prove injurious to the organi- [* The head of one of our Universities is said to have been ignorant of the alphabet when twelve years old; and before he was twice that age, he presided over the fiist seminary of learning in his native country.—S.]