THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE UPON HEALTH. 325 



It is true that brain directs all this activity, but muscle is the motive- 

 power. And the muscle of one generation is the source and support 

 of the brain-power of the following generations. " What else accounts 

 for the prodigal activity " * of the descendants of the early settlers of 

 this country, but the fact that obliged, when cast on a land like ours, 

 to battle with the elements and conquer the forests by their own bodily 

 strength, they lived an out-door life in the main, and stored up an im- 

 mense "capital of vitality" which they handed down to their pos- 

 terity ? Some of that posterity are not content to use the interest of 

 that capital, but are spending the principal. What is the consequence ? 

 Not only enfeeblement of body and mind, but sterility ; and thus, 

 many of the old New England families are dying out in the homes of 

 their race, and are giving place to the strong new-comers. 



As to individuals, what kinds of men fight their way to the front 

 ranks in all callings, and hold their places there, as men eminent in 

 their day and generation ? Men of strong body. Consider the pre- 

 miers of England men like Brougham, Palmerston, and Gladstone 

 working at an age when many a weaker man would either be in his 

 grave or be preparing for it ! Some exercise horseback-riding or fell- 

 ing trees keeps up their strength long after threescore and ten. It 

 is only necessary to mention Washington, Jackson, Webster, and 

 Lincoln, to call attention to the fact that among eminent American 

 public men vigor of mind and vigor of body go together. Notice the 

 great pulpit orators of to-day such as Spurgeon, Beecher, John Hall, 

 and Phillips Brooks. Among moneyed men, did not Commodore 

 Yanderbilt owe something of his vast fortune to his strong body ? 

 Could he have endured the strain of building that fortune, and would 

 he have had the vigor to extend it, had it not been for the out-door 

 life of his early manhood ? If you find a really successful man, who 

 builds and keeps either a reputation or a fortune by honest hand work, 

 he is generally a man of vigorous body. " All professional biogra- 

 phy teaches that to win lasting distinction in sedentary in-door occupa- 

 tions, which task the brain and nervous system, extraordinary toughness 

 of body must accompany extraordinary mental power." f Again, " To 

 attain success and length of service in any of the learned professions, 

 including that of teaching, a vigorous body is well-nigh essential." J 



It would be out of place to advise a farmer who is already tired of 

 digging and plowing, or a mason who has had enough of bricklaying, 

 to exercise his body. A little play to limber the stiffened muscles 

 might be a good thing. A little brain-work might be better. But of 

 real hard-working exercise of body each working-man gets enough 

 from his day's labor. If he only get good food and enough of it, and 

 have time for sufficient sleep, and get pure air to breathe, and clean 

 water to drink and to bathe in, he will do well enough, as far as bod- 



* S. Weir Mitchell, in " Wear and Tear." 



f President Eliot, in "Annual Report for 1877-"78. n % President Eliot. 



