 Although Fechner was making a name for himself, he was still nearly destitute. His lecturing posts were either poorly paid or not paid at all, so he somehow had to make up for the lack of income. To keep the wolf from the door, he engaged in various translation and writing projects. The most questionable of these projects was his editing Breitkopf and Härtel’s Hauslexikon, a household guide (1834). This work consisted in eight volumes, each containing eight to nine hundred pages; a third of the articles had to be written by Fechner himself. So our philosopher found himself writing on the best way to set the table and how to cut meat. Fechner’s motive for undertaking this work was totally financial: previous editions of the Hauslexikon had been very profitable. But, as fortune would have it, this edition proved to be a bust. Fechner’s mighty labors were for very little gain. It was working on such projects that so exhausted him, leading to his breakdown in 1840.