EXERCISE AND BATHING. 22J 



regular hours for exercise and relaxation and to be careful 

 in diet. 



Nature's Rewards and Punishments. But nature 

 rewards for obedience by the delight of a healthy body ; 

 and she never forgets and never forgives, nor fails to pun- 

 ish every violation of every one of her laws. Nature makes 

 no threats beforehand. She does not even tell us her 

 rules. But we may find what they are by careful obser- 

 vation. 



Exercise prolongs Life. Many men would live longer, 

 feel vastly better, and do greater good in the world if they 

 would take regular and systematic exercise or recreation 

 (and this should be, literally, re-creation). It is a short- 

 sighted policy to say, " I cannot afford the time." Not to 

 take time for exercise is to mortgage one's future. Lord 

 Derby says, " He who does not take time for exercise will 

 have to take time for illness." The latter half of every 

 person's life ought in many respects to be by far the most 

 productive of good. But many cut off this half, or render 

 it less productive through breaking down in health as a 

 consequence of violating the laws of hygiene. Thus one 

 defeats his own ends in life, and robs the world of the debt 

 he owes it, that of returning to it, in his riper years, some- 

 thing for the help it gave to him in his early years while 

 he had not yet reached the fullest mental maturity. It is 

 sad enough that so magnificent a structure as the human 

 body must perish and become part of the common clay. 

 But it is infinitely more sad to think that it has not fulfilled 

 its purpose when the end comes in what should be mid- 

 career. Each of us should leave the world better than he 

 found it, and our ability and opportunities for doing this 

 increase as we reach middle life. 



