1900.] ESSAYS. 115 



and their road law is the basis of modern highway legislation. 

 Their magnificent consular roads, vvhieh led from the forum in 

 Koine to every important provinec in the empire, with their 

 raised footways, in the middle or alongside, arc worthy of 

 modern imitation. 



Today in England and other highly civilized eonntrics of the 

 Old World, the footpath appears in all important highways, 

 even out into the open eonntry. When in England some years 

 ago I walked in the highway from Chester to Ha warden, from 

 Shrewsbury to the ancient Roman town of W T roxetcr, from 

 Kenilworth to Lcomington and Warwick, and from Hampton 

 Court to Richmond Hill, and to the best of my recollection 

 there was a well-made and well-travelled footpath alongside 

 the carriage road the entire distance. 



We are a practical people, and it may be asked " of what use 

 are these footways?" I answer in the language of St. Paul, 

 "much every way." They invite and encourage people to take 

 walks in the open air, and this habit undoubtedly conduces to 

 health and longevity. The promotion of health is now justly 

 regarded as one of the objects of government. Good drainage 

 and universal vaccination are not the only means available for 

 the promotion of the public health. The health of people can- 

 not be improved more surely and in a better way than by edu- 

 cating them into the habit of taking plenty of exercise in the 

 open air. They also teach people how to use their feet and 

 legs. Those who walk much in the open air are not only more 

 robust and healthy in lung and limb than those who do not walk, 

 but they are superior in their carriage and movements in the 

 home and in the street. In form and in motion a person who 

 knows how to walk well is express and admirable, but the action 

 of a person who docs not know how to walk is laughable and 

 undignitied. In the country towns people walk even less than 

 in the cities, owing no doubt in part to the fact that pedestrians 

 there must either walk in the mud or dust of the carriage way 

 or in the grass and brush by the roadside. Consequently many 

 of our country folks do not know really how to walk, and when 

 they undertake to go afoot they shamble along like their cattle. 



