458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his enemies. It is not hard work that drives our young men to seek a 

 Lethe in alcohol : we read of Grecian soldiers marching fifty miles a 

 day in heavy armor ; of hunters running down a wild-boar, and of 

 teamsters yoking themselves to a car when their horses had broken 

 down. Many of our New England boys, who go on a whaling cruise 

 rather than die of ennui, would gladly consent to work, in the ancient 

 sense of the word, if they could exchange their Pecksniff-day for a 

 Grecian festival. The Aryan nations, too, had their sacred days and 

 sacred rites, but their Nature-worship was the mist that rises from the 

 woods and meadows, and blends with the ethereal hues of the sky ; the 

 Hebrew priestcraft dogma is a poison-cloud which for centuries has 

 darkened the light of the sun and blighted the fairest flowers. 



In choosing the mode of a child's recreations, it should be borne in 

 mind that their main purpose is to restore the tone of the mind and its 

 harmony with the physical instincts by supplying the chief deficiencies 

 of our ordinary employment. For a hard-working blacksmith, fun, 

 pure and simple, would be a sufficient pastime, while brain-workers 

 need a recreation that combines amusement with physical exercise 

 the unloosenino: of the brain-fiber with the tension of the muscles. 

 Emulation and the presence of relatives and schoolmates impart to 

 competitive gymnastics a charm which a spirited boy would not ex- 

 change for the passive pleasure of witnessing the best circus-perform- 

 ance. AYrestling, lance-throwing, archery, base-ball, and a well-con- 

 tested foot-race, can awaken the enthusiasm of the Grecian ^j>a^(^s^?', 

 and professional gymnasts will take the same delight in the equally 

 healthful though less dramatic trials of strength at the horizontal 

 bar. But, on the play-ground, such exercises should be divested from 

 the least appearance of being a tas/c even children can not be hapj^y 

 on compulsion. 



There is also too much in-door and in-town work about the present 

 life of our schoolboys. Encourage their love of the woods ; let us make 

 holidays a synonym of picnic excursions, and enlarge the definition 

 of camp-meetings ; of all the known modes of inspiration, forest air 

 and the view of a beautiful landscape are the most inexpensive, espe- 

 cially from a moral standpoint, being never followed by a splenetic 

 reaction. A ramble in the depths of a pathless forest, or on the 

 heights of an Alj^enland, between rocks and lonely mountain-mead- 

 ows, opens Avell-springs of life unknown to the prisoners of the city 

 tenements. 



But the chief curse of our in-door life is, after all, its dullness; and 

 its direct antidote merriment, therefore the chief point about all real 

 recreations. Fun and laughter have become the most effective cordials 

 of our materia medica, and their promotion a most important branch of 

 the science of happiness. There is no such thing as genuine frolic in 

 the stifling atmosphere of a stove-room ; the shady lawn in summer and 

 the open hall in winter make a better play-ground than the stuffy nurs- 



