Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1881 — The Value of Mental Tension. [ARTICLE]

The Value of Mental Tension.

A certain degree of tension is 111dm pensable to the easy and healthful discharge of mental functions. Like the nnfcimml instrument of Scotland, the mind drones woefully and will discourse most dolorous music, unless an expansive and resilient from within supplies the basis of quickly responsive action. No good, great, or enduring work cau be safely accomplished by brain-force without a reserve of strength sufficient to give buoyancy to the exercise, and if ] may so say, rhythm to the operations oi the mind. Working at high-p essure may be bad, but working at low-pres-sures is incomparably worse. As a matter of experience, a sense of weariness commonly precedes collapse from • ‘overwork;” not mere bodily or nervous fatigue, but a more or less conscious distaste for the business in band, or perhaps for some other subject of thought oi anxiety which obtrudes itself. It is the offensive or irritatiug burden that breaks the back. Thoroughly agreeable employment, however engrossing, stimulates the recuperative faculty while it taxes the strength, and the supply of nerve force seldom falls short of the demand. When a feeling of disgust or weariness Jb not experienced, this may be because the compelling sense of duty has crushed self out of thought. Nevertheless, i the will # is not pleasurably excited, if il rules like a martinet, without affection or interest, there is no verve, and, like a complex piece of machinery working with friction and heated bearings, the mind wears itself away and a breakdown ensues. Let us look a little closely at this matter. Popular Science Monthly.