BONES, MUSCLES, EXERCISE AND REST. 297 



tance by incessant toil : the shoemaker, working the whole 

 day upon his bench; the mother, watching over her sick child; 

 the faithful minister, writing for his people ; and the judge, 

 trying the issues of life and death suffer as surely from in- 

 door confinement, and want of daily exercise abroad, as the 

 indolent, who have no occupation and no call for action. 

 These must fall short of that full measure of power of body 

 and of mind to do their present and pressing work, which a 

 proper attention to the wants of the body would have given 

 them. They may think they have no time for recreation 

 abroad, and that an hour a day, spent in mere walking, is so 

 much waste of opportunity of usefulness or of profit. But 

 it is not so; the time required for the repair of the vital ma- 

 chine is not lost, for the body will not work the most easily, 

 and with its fullest energy and most successful effect, if it is 

 not in the best order. None need this daily recreation more 

 than those who are compelled to produce every day the 

 greatest result from mental or physical in-door labor, and who 

 want, for that purpose, the fullest vigor, both of their muscular 

 and nervous systems, and the most complete control of their 

 powers. 



687. The evil consequences of neglect of exercise are 

 not sudden nor immediately perceptible. They are gradual 

 and accumulative. They steal slowly upon, and secretly bind 

 the strong man, and then take away his health. Dyspepsia, 

 defective nutrition, muscular weakness, nervous irritability, 

 and mental dulness, so manifest and oppressive as to compel 

 the sufferer to change his pursuits or his habits, and betake 

 himself to some means of relief, are remote results. But the 

 immediate effects, however small and unnoticed, are none the 

 less sure to come, and diminish the activity and force of life 

 in proportion to the neglect. If this is continued, and vio- 

 lation of thi? law is frequent, weakness necessarily follows, 

 until marked and acknowledged disorder is established. 



688. It must be now considered as established that a cer- 

 tain quantity of muscular exercise is necessary for the main- 

 tenance of health, and for the best performance of the funo 



