826 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



try, fill both body and brain with a strength that needs no artificial 

 spur, and that can be used without tiring. I speak, of course, only 

 for myself ; many hard workers, wise workers, think otherwise ; to 

 many, very many, life must be lived in London, that wonderful wil- 

 derness of crowded humanity, and what it, and it only, can give is a 

 necessity of existence that neither prudence nor fancy may interfere 

 with. There are others, too, who profess themselves to be, and no 

 doubt are, never so well, so attuned for hard work, as when cabined 

 mid the bricks and mortar of London. Here, again, as in the other 

 case, let each man be a law unto himself. 



One other word I should like to say on the point of exercise. 

 "You do not take enough exercise" is the common reproach made 

 to the complaining patient ; and forthwith off he rushes, to bring 

 into sudden play muscles long disused and limbs that have forgot 

 their cunning, till he finds to his angry astonishment that tired, not 

 refreshed, and aching in every joint and bone, he has but made him- 

 self more incapable of work than he was before. No doubt the longer 

 a man can keep up youth's standard of violent delights the better for 

 him ; but few men can do that with impunity, still fewer can go back 

 to it when once the touch has been lost ; the attempt is generally as 

 dangerous as it is ridiculous. For myself I frankly own that I do not 

 believe that hard exercise of the body is compatible with hard exercise 

 of the brain. Nothing, I am firmly persuaded, brings a man to the 

 end of his tether so soon. The exercise the brain-worker needs is the 

 exercise that rests, not that fatigues. He needs to lull, to soothe his 

 brain ; and this he will do best in the fresh air, by quiet, and the gen- 

 tle employment of the limbs and muscles that have been idle while he 

 worked. It is this need, as it seems to me, that tells most strongly 

 against London. What rest and refreshment is there for him who 

 after a hard spell of work at his desk or in his studio, when 



" All things that love the sun are out-of-doors," 



goes out into the noisy, crowded, reeking street ? No rest comes to 

 him from any beautiful sight, no rest from any beautiful sound ; the 

 air is no fresher than that he has left. Everywhere is a distracting 

 sense of hurry, of the fever and the fret of existence. Like the weary 

 Titan " with labor-dimmed eyes " and ears, alas ! not deaf, he goes 

 staggering on to a goal that daily grows more certain and more near. 

 But here, again, I speak only of my own experience, which I would 

 not for the world essay to make the wisdom of others. 



In all these things, then, I believe a man must be his best physi- 

 cian. And, beyond the reasons mentioned, he must be so because 

 only he can know what system it is possible for him to follow. Go 

 abroad, says one doctor ; get a horse and ride, says another ; put your 

 work away and take a thorough holiday, preaches a third. Golden 

 counsel ! but, alas, wind-dispersed and vain to so many of us ! How 



