IN FULL CAREER. 171 



this after-dinner sleep may be taken as a sign 

 of physical weakness. A young man of thirty 

 ought not to want an hour's sleep in the middle 

 of the day. At three o'clock he awoke, and 

 went for another walk, coming home at half- 

 past four. He thus walked for three hours 

 every day, which, for a quick walker, gives a 

 distance of twelve miles a very good allow- 

 ance of fresh air. Men of all kinds, who have 

 to keep the brain in constant activity, have 

 found that the active exercise of walking is 

 more valuable than any other way of recreation 

 in promoting a healthy activity of the brain. 

 To talk with children is a rest ; to visit picture- 

 galleries changes the current of thought ; to 

 play lawn tennis diverts the brain ; but to 

 walk both rests the brain and stimulates it. 

 Jefferies acquired the habit of noting down in 

 his walks, and storing away, those thousands 

 of little things which make his writings the 

 despair of people who think themselves minute 

 observers. He took tea at five, and then 

 worked again in his study till half-past eight, 

 when he commonly finished work for the day. 

 In other words, he gave up five hours of the 



