e to be
the death of me! You have murdered me!" and instantly fell and expired!
Mrs. Byron, the mother of the noble bard, is said to have died in a fit
of passion. Mr. Moore, in his life of Lord Byron, in speaking of Mrs.
Byron's illness, says,--"At the end of July her illness took a new and
fatal turn; and so sadly characteristic was the close of the poor lady's
life, that a fit of ague, brought on, it is said, by reading the
upholsterer's bills, was the ultimate cause of her death." A somewhat
similar circumstance is recorded of Malbranche. The only interview that
Bishop Berkley and Malbranche had was in the latter philosopher's cell,
when the conversation turned upon the non-existence of matter, and
Malbranche is said to have exerted himself so much in the discussion
that he died in consequence. Sanctorius relates an instance of a famous
orator, who so far exerted his mind in delivering an oration that he
became, in a few hours, quite insane.

The effect of a too close application of mind to study on the bodily
health has long been a matter of common observation. The Roman orator,
Cicero, points out forcibly the dangers arising from inordinate exertion
of mind; and he has laid down some rules for guarding against the
effects of study. M. Van Swieten, in alluding to this subject, relates
the case of a man whose health was severely injured, by what he calls
"literary watchings." Whenever he listened with any attention to any
story, or trifling tale, he was seized with giddiness; he was in violent
agonies whenever he wanted to recollect any thing which had slipped his
memory; he oftentimes fainted away gradually, and experienced a
disagreeable sensation of lassitude. Rousseau has very justly remarked,
that excessive application of mind "makes men tender, weakens their
constitutions, and when once the body has lost its powers, those of the
soul are not easily preserved. Application wears out the machine,
exhausts the spirits, destroys the strength, enervates the mind, makes
us pusillanimous, unable either to bear fatigue, or to keep our passions
under."[3]

Shakspeare appears to have formed a just conception of the great injury
which the corporeal frame experiences from a too close application of
mind. The immortal bard observes,--

"----Universal plodding poisons up
The nimble spirits in the arteries
As motion and long-during action tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller."

_Love's Labour Lost._

In th