Exercise* 263 



against the diseases, whicli spring-, more immediately, from a state of 

 inaction. Exercise managed with judgment, and regularity, seems, 

 indeed, to be absolutely indispensable to the stabled Horse, not merely 

 on the score of his health alone, but, to the acquirement of the capacity 

 of enduring fatigue, the attainment of great speed, and the full 

 development of his muscular powers. Hence, the practice of train- 

 ing, as it is called at Newmarket, and other places, where racing 

 stables are kept ; in the extensive meaning of which phrase, how- 

 ever, is included, not merely the article of exercise, but the whole 

 system of treatment, to which tlie animal is subjected, preparatory to 

 his running. And the same phrase is applied to the discipline prac- 

 ticed by prize-fighters, pedestrians and others, who undertake such 

 kinds of performances, where vast exertions of the muscles are made ; 

 in some of which mere strength, in others skill, chiefly, but more 

 commonly in all, a mixture of strength and skill becomes necessary, 

 in order to arrive at perfection. But in all these sorts of cases, the 

 utmost power of the muscles is attained, almost entirely, throu«*h the 

 medium of long continued, regular exercise ; without which, all the 

 other measures that are had recourse to, would prove entirely useless. 

 It is this which gives tone and energy to the whole system, and with- 

 out exercise, the utmost powers of any animal, can never either be 

 arrived at, or calculated upon. The intelligent reader will, I fear, 

 be inclined to smile at all this, and to say, perhaps, with great truth, 

 that so far from there being any thing new in these remarks, they are 

 merely commonplace. In answer to this charge, I shall without he- 

 sitation, plead guilty, throwing myself on the indulgence of my 

 judges. But before sentence be irrevocably passed upon me, let Ui 

 enquire, if the introduction of mere commonplace observations, in 



