which it renders us conversant, have furnished the 

 natural theologian with some of his most powerful 

 and impressive arguments. 



It is an additional and a most important recom- 

 mendation to this art, that it does not call upon us to 

 cultivate the mind, at the expense of the body. I 

 have already said that we are a grave, and, I think I 

 may add, a sedentary people. I do not mean to say, 

 that we are not disposed to occasional locomotion, — 

 such an assertion is not lightly to be made, almost 

 within hearing of our rail-road cars. But I speak of 

 the constant habits of our community, compared with 

 those of the people of England, and of most other 

 European countries. A large, and certainly not un- 

 important portion of our citizens, are occupied in 

 professional and literary pursuits, and among these, 

 with one important qualification to be presently 

 noticed, bodily inactivity seems to be a prevailing 

 and an increasing habit. Besides, many of the rising 

 generation, at least in our largest towns, are confined 

 to study, during by far the greater part of their 

 waking; hours. It is not for me to determine how 

 far this confinement is necessary or beneficial, in the 

 decree to which it is now carried. It is for those 

 more interested to decide, whether, in endeavoring 

 to accelerate the march of mind, we have not forgot- 

 ten, that the mind is vitally connected with an asso- 

 ciate of delicate and curious structure indeed, but of 

 grosser elements, whose wants and whose welfare 

 are, nevertheless, not to be overlooked with impunity. 



If there be evils attendant on our present systems 

 of literary discipline, perhaps the greatest is, that 



