terary and
civil history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but it
was written with the blood of the author, for Macdiarmid died of
over-study and exhaustion.

Among the maladies of poor authors, who procure a precarious existence
by their pen, one, not the least considerable, is their old age; their
flower and maturity of life were shed for no human comforts; and old
age is the withered root. The late THOMAS MORTIMER, the compiler,
among other things, of that useful work, "The Student's Pocket
Dictionary," felt this severely--he himself experienced no abatement
of his ardour, nor deficiency in his intellectual powers, at near the
age of eighty;--but he then would complain "of the paucity of literary
employment, and the preference given to young adventurers." Such is
the _youth_, and such the _old age_ of ordinary authors!

FOOTNOTES:

[58] Hawkesworth, in the second paper of the "Adventurer," has
composed, from his own feelings, an elegant description of
intellectual and corporeal labour, and the sufferings of an
author, with the uncertainty of his labour and his reward.

[59] Dr. Fuller's "Medicina Gymnastica, or, a treatise concerning the
power of Exercise, with respect to the Animal OEconomy, fifth
edition, 1718," is useful to remind the student of what he is
apt to forget; for the object of this volume is to _substitute
exercise for medicine_. He wrote the book before he became a
physician. He considers horse-riding as the best and noblest
of all exercises, it being "a mixed exercise, partly active
and partly passive, while other sorts, such as walking,
running, stooping, or the like, require some labour and more
strength for their performance." Cheyne, in his well-known
treatise of "The English Malady," published about twenty years
after Fuller's work, acknowledges that riding on horseback is
the best of all exercises, for which he details his reasons.
"Walking," he says, "though it will answer the same end, yet
is it more laborious and tiresome;" but amusement ought always
to be combined with the exercise of a student; the mind will
receive no refreshment by a solitary walk or ride, unless it
be agreeably withdrawn from all thoughtfulness and anxiety; if
it continue studying in its recreations, it is the sure means
of