MUSCULAR EXERCISE OP LITERARY MEN. 241 



bors more than two fold. At the same time, as their fa- 

 thers required no extra exercise no relaxation from their 

 parochial duties, the public appear to have grown up in 

 the belief that their sons do not ; and that it would be 

 derogatory to clerical sobriety and dignity, for them to 

 indulge in any sort of pleasant unbending of their minds. 



Different effects of Exercise. Sawing and splitting 

 wood, with perhaps a little work in the garden, and rid- 

 ing on horseback a few miles, or walking the streets for 

 an hour or two, form the chief amusements, and the 

 chief muscular exercise of the most laborious, and, in 

 the estimation of the great majority of the people, the 

 most useful body of men in community. Even this 

 small amount of exercise is seldom taken regularly, and 

 if so, is of very little use to the subject, as there is no oth- 

 er object in view, but merely to perform a duty. The 

 thread of the next discourse frequently remains unbro- 

 ken, and often the individual hurries home, while the 

 ink of his last paragraph is hardly dry, to record some 

 new idea, or write down what he has made ready in his 

 mind during his absence. 



To one whose body and mind begins to suffer, in con- 

 sequence of confinement to his study, and perpetual 

 mental exertions, nearly all who have experienced its 

 effects, will allow that such exercise is of little or no use. 

 Such an one wants a motive ; he wants cerebral excite- 

 ment to co-operate with, and invigorate muscular ac- 

 tion ; and it will astonish those, who, for the first time no- 

 tice the different effects on their own feelings, of forced 

 muscular exertions, and that sanitive exercise which is 

 produced when the mind is intensely fixed on an object, 

 the attainment of which requires the strongest corporeal 

 exertions. The one induces fatigue of the body, without 

 at all relieving the mind ; while the other, so far from 

 producing fatigue, brings the whole system into a highly 

 pleasant state of freedom, and elasticity ; while the mind, 

 sympathising with these pleasant sensations, becomes 

 invigorated, and is again ready for the performance of 

 its proper functions. 



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