NATURE REQUIRES EXCITING EXERCISE. 245 



If this is so, and which we are confident that not a 

 man who has made the trial, will deny, then is it not the 

 moral, and even religious duty of every student to so far 

 coincide with the dictates, and laws of nature, as to 

 employ every means, which are not immoral in their 

 tendency, to enable him, by the preservation of his 

 health and life, to do every good in his power for the 

 benefit of his fellow man ? 



Says the pious and learned Dr. Cheyne, " The studi- 

 ous, the contemplative, the valetudinarian, and those of 

 weak nerves, if they aim at health, and long life, must 

 make exercise in a good air, a part of their religion. 



A man who believes himself to be a useful member of 

 community, and who becomes conscious that his occu- 

 pation, whatever it may be, requires relaxation, and 

 that if he does not indulge in it, his health will suffer, 

 and his life will be endangered, would certainly be con- 

 sidered by himself and by others as wanting in a moral 

 duty, if he neglected such relaxation. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, no one would doubt what would be the 

 duty of a mechanic, both with respect to his family and 

 his country ; and if the same moral rule holds with re- 

 spect to literary men and ministers, then they are as 

 much bound to employ brain exciting means to preserve 

 their mental vigor, as the mechanic is to relax from 

 his labor, for it has been shown, we think, that no other 

 means will effectually answer this purpose. 



Effects of incessant mental labor. On this subject, 

 the author of this work speaks from experience, and 

 therefore knows that he tells the truth. For, having tried 

 the ordinary routine of exercise, such as wood sawing, 

 gardening, &c., he has been compelled, against his for- 

 mer prejudices to resort to " field sports," with his poin- 

 ter and gun, not only as the means by which he has been 

 enabled to continue in a sedentary and studious profes- 

 sion, but also to preserve himself from the dreadful con- 

 sequences of nervous excitability, and especially from 

 the most horrid, and appalling of all sensations, that 

 which attends palpitation of the heart, from an accumu- 

 lation of the nervous influence. The most acute pain is 

 a comfort, and even a pleasure, when compared to a feel- 

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