As things are,
though I am a very moderate wine-drinker (spirits I never touch, and
abhor), alcohol, practically speaking, bears no appreciable part in my
life's economy. I believe that to some people tobacco is downright
poison; to some, life and health; to the vast majority, including
myself, neither one thing nor the other, but simply a comfort or an
instrument, or a mere nothing, according to idiosyncrasy.
My general theory is, that _bodily_ labour and exercise need no
stimulant at all, or at most very little; but that intellectual, and
especially creative, work, when it draws upon the mind beyond a
quickly reached point, requires being a non-natural condition
non-natural means to keep it going. I cannot call to mind a single
case, except that of Goethe, where great mental labour has been
carried on without external support of some sort; which seems to imply
an instinctive knowledge of how to get more out of the brain machine
than is possible under normal conditions. Of course the means must
differ more or less in each individual case; and sometimes the owner
of a creative brain must decide whether he will let it lie fallow for
health's sake, or whether for work's sake he will let life and health
go. I always insist very strongly upon brain work-beyond an uncertain
point-being _non-natural_, and, therefore, requiring non-natural
conditions for its exercise. I can quite believe the feat of the
Hungarian officer [Footnote: The surprising endurance of the Hungarian
officer, who lately swam a lake in Hungary, a distance of eleven
miles, is ascribed to his abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.
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