[Footnote: Curtis, I think, says
that whenever Emerson has a "happy thought," he writes it down, be it
dawn or midnight, and when Mrs. Emerson, startled in the night by some
unusual sound, cries, "What is the matter? Are you ill?" the
philosopher's soft voice answers, "No, my dear, only an idea."--
_Appleton's New York Journal, Nov., 1873.] I write these notes
in obscurity, and decipher and develop them in the morning, pen in
hand. This is the reply I can make to your interesting enquiry. I
shall be happy to know the conclusion to which you will be conducted
by the information which you will have been able to collect.
GASTON PLANTE.
THE REV. A. PLUMMER,
HEAD MASTER OF THE DURHAM COLLEGE. University Tutor and Lecturer, and
University Proctor.
I am a firm believer in the value of a moderate use of tobacco and
alcohol for the brain worker. I generally smoke one pipe in the
morning, _before_ work, and one at night, _after_ work (or
the equivalents of a pipe). I seldom smoke _while_ I work, and do
not find it helpful. I drink two glasses of sherry (or their
equivalents), as a rule daily, and take them at late dinner--not at
lunch. If troubled with sleeplessness, I find a glass of sherry, and a
few biscuits, followed by smoking, a tolerably safe cure, but not
always to be relied upon. I should be very sorry to attempt to do
without these two helps. Of the two I believe the smoking to be the
more valuable, especially when (what is far worse than heavy work)
_worry_ is pressing upon one.
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