THE

QUARTERLY REGISTER

1

OF THE

AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY.

VOL. III.

Boston:

PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN,

No. 114, Washington Street.

.....................................................................

1831.

LIBRARY
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

QUARTERLY REGISTER

OF THE

VOL. III.

7.3

AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY.

AUGUST, 1830.

1830-1831

We do not take the present work into our hands with any intention of criticising its literary merits. It contains many things which we might applaud, and some which we might censure. We might applaud the general correctness of its principles, the eloquence with which they are recommended for our adoption, the perspicuity of its style, the simplicity and force of its arguments, and the adaptation of the whole to produce a permanent reform. And we might regret, that the author's delicate health, and pressure of duties, and brevity of time did not allow him to select a more logical arrangement of his thoughts, and invest them more completely in the "toga academica." But this is not the place to scan the literary character of the volume before

us.

Neither do we design to give a regular synopsis of its contents; for we prize so highly its intrinsic merits that we earnestly beg our readers to give it a thorough perusal. We simply intend to give a cursory view of those principles pertaining to the health of the studious, which, from their inherent value, or the infre1

VOL. III.

No 1.

For the Quarterly Register. HEALTH OF LITERARY MEN.

quency with which they are urged we consider peculiarly necessary.

Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted: or Lectures on Diet, Regimen and Em

In presenting to the literati a perfect plan for forestalling and resisting dyspepsia, our author was well apployment; Delivered to the Students of prized of the obstacles which crowdAmherst College, Spring Term, 1830.ed his path, and the difficulty of By Edward Hitchcock, Prof. of Chem. vanquishing them. And perhaps and Natural History in that Instituthere is no obstacle more fearful, tion. pp. 360. than the common idea that a literary life must be a short and sickly one. The path of the scholar, think many, is through a land of poisons, and reptiles, and noxious atmosphere; a land of which none are natives, and over which few can travel without diseased limbs and parched tongues and early death. We will allow that the premature decline of many modern scholars seems to warrant such a description of their mode of life. But such a decline is unnecessary, and results not from literary occupation, but the abuse of it. Literary occupation, prudently conducted, is conducive to health. There must be an equilibrium between the various powers of the human system, or the system cannot be completely sound; and without the exercise of these various powers, the requisite equilibrium cannot be preserved. Mental exercise, therefore, is equally important with muscular, and from the proper union of the two results the perfect health of the whole man. Look at the maniac; his mind, though shattered, is active often to intensity, and he possesses a firm, robust body. The idiot, on the contrary, whose mind is