NATURE REQUIRES EXCITING EXERCISE. 247 



only be cured by muscular motion. You may starve your- 

 selves to skeletons and my friends, still your horrid sensa- 

 tions will increase, until you adopt some exciting muscular 

 exercise as a remedy. Let your stomachs take care of 

 themselves, and never think of what you eat, or drink 

 except at the moment, only taking the precaution to be 

 temperate in both, and by the use of such exercise, 

 repeated every day and increased according to feelings 

 and circumstances, of which you are the best judges, 

 you will gradually rid yourselves of all that train of 

 symptoms incident to nervous excitability, which have 

 been brought on by sedentary and mental habits. 



It is not denied that there are great differences in the 

 amount of literary labor which different men are capa- 

 ble of performing under the same circumstances. We 

 are perfectly aware that there are Thomas Tophams in 

 the mental as well as in the muscular departments of 

 human exertions. But we write for those who labor 

 under the common laws of the animal economy, those 

 laws which ordinarily govern the actions and powers of 

 human beings ; and not for those, whose iron constitu- 

 tions are equally unhurt by any amount of cerebral, or 

 muscular performances which it is in their power to ac- 

 complish. These are exceptions to the general laws 

 which govern our species and to such we have nothing 

 to say, because, not suffering from their labors they re- 

 quire no remedies. 



Cheerfulness a remedy. The best tempered men, 

 after long confinement to study, and who take no pains 

 to cultivate a cheerful acquaintance with their friends, 

 are observed to grow more or less morose, in their dis- 

 positions, until they finally contract such a habit of being 

 out of humor, especially at home, as to become such 

 disagreeable companions, that their former friends, if 

 they call upon them at all, do it as a matter of duty, and 

 not for the purpose of having a few moments of enli- 

 vening conversation, as formerly. Of this disposition, 

 the subject himself oftens becomes sensible, which dis- 

 covery, instead of showing him the necessity of relaxa- 

 tion, and joining in cheerful society as a remedy, too often 



