290 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



" The pith of nearly all that has been written 

 on HYGIENE," says Dr. J. Johnson, " or the pre- 

 vention of diseases and of the Protean disorder 

 among the rest might be included under two heads, 

 almost in two words TEMPERANCE and EXERCISE." 

 Again : " Disorders of the body, in these days, are 

 engendered and propagated, to a frightful extent, 

 by moral commotions and anxieties of the mind. 

 And if I have proved that CORPORAL EXERTION, 

 especially when aided by any intellectual excite- 

 ment of pursuit, can obviate the evils that ensue 

 to soul and body from these causes, I shall do 

 some service to the community. The principle in 

 question is neither Utopian, nor of difficult appli- 

 cation : it is within the reach of high and low 

 rich and poor the learned and unlettered. Let 

 moral ills overtake any of these, and he is in the 

 high way to physical illness. To prevent the cor- 

 poreal malady, and to diminish, as much as possible, 

 the mental affliction itself, the individual must tread 

 in the steps haud passibus eequis of Xenophon 

 and Byron. He must KEEP THE BODY ACTIVE, AND 



THE STOMACH EMPTY." 



" Exercise," says Hawkesworth, " gives health, 

 vigour and cheerfulness, sound sleep, and a keen 



