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knowledge as any man need to have , and also for the discharge of every important and useful duty for which such knowledge may qualify him . But if , in any case , a considerable portion of time be wasted in idleness or worse , and then the hours and days that have been lost are attempted to be redeemed by
extraordinary exertions , and the sacrifice of many hours which ought to have been devoted to rest , an injury is inevitably done to the nervous system . which , if the irregularity be often repeated , will produce an effect upon the bodily health equally fatal . with , and often not very different from , the evils arising from pther lands of intemperance .
" What may be thought the due proportion of time allotted in each day to study , rest , and refreshment , will be a subject of some difference . Dr . Doddridge and Mr . Mason allow only six hours' sleep ; Dr . Priestley appears to have taken little more ; but his agreeable way of varying his objects of pursuit , so as to make them , relaxations from one another , enabled him to get
through all the business , which the reader of his life or the peruser of his works cannot contemplate without amazement . A much respected friend , * to whom many besides myself were greatly indebted for the direction of our youthful , studies , used to recommend a three-fold division of the day , into eight hours for rest , eight for study , and eight for meals and recreation . And this I am inclined
to think ( the several portions devoted to study and recreation being properly intermixed , and the whole steadily observed ) will get a man through as much business as he can effectively perform , consistently with the due preservation of his health . The hours of rest should of
course come all together , and I think that a young and active person , before the constitution is fully formed , may benqficiaUy take the full eight houi& But it . appears to me of great importance during what period of the twenty-four Jiouue this rest should be taken . A habit of devoting the hours of night to study is likely to have the effect of still further ex *
haunting the already exhausted body , and will oblige * t to carry with it also an exhausted mind , to seek a repose which it frequently fafcls of finding . The productions of a famous ancient writer were said jto smell of the lamp 5 ibujfc I feajr that most works produced at such unseasonable hours will partake only of its disagreeable odour . Rather than con-. JM » f ft e ^ tfWip H < # > nd .
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surae the midnight oil , I would choose , in cases of necessity , poscere ante dkm librum cum Ivmine : but this would only be necessary , to one who rises at a tolerably early hour , for a small part of the year ; while during the J * est Aurora , musts arnica , would afford him her fair and genial light .
" With regard to recreations , they must depend so much on the taste and habits of each individual , as well as on his constitutional strength and activity , that no general rule can be laid down ; only I should think it would be useful to -adapt them to supply , as much as possible , what , may be wanting in the hours of business : the recreations of the
sedentary should therefore in general be active , as walking , riding , gardening , botanizing , or ( what I hear is a favourite amusement among you ) rowing , which , where moderately and seasonably pursued , is useful , as it brings almost all the bodily organs into action . On the other hand ; for persons engaged in active pursuits , the recreations may
properly be sedentary . To one who is confined during the hours of business to his study , friendly visits and social conversation are very appropriate and profitable recreations ; and by the Christian minister they may also be properly considered as at the same time discharging one of the most useful parts of the duties of his office . But in other respects it seems desirable that relaxation should
be accompanied as much as possible with a relinquishment of those trains of thought in which the mind is usually engaged . Mr . Wakefield used to say , that he locked up his books in his study , and made a point of never thinking of them till he returned to them again .
And Dr . Priestley , when most busily engaged in philosophical investigations , in controversy , and in ministerial duties , was always read y for cheerful society , and preserved his mind so free from anxious thoughts , that he never recollected to have dreamed except in cases of bodily indisposition .
" How far you may think the hints I have given you worthy of your attention , I must leave to yourselves . I am myself persuaded that a course of study thus pursued will auswer all the objects of attaining useful knowledge , and wiU
be at the same time consistent with health , at least in all ordinary cases . May your health be confirmed and your lives preserved , if it please the Giver and the Lord of life : and may the limes wJhich he hath given , so long # s it shall please him . be devoted to bis service , to
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Intelligence . —Manchester College , York , - * 627
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 627, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/75/
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