240 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 



with age or sickness^ there exists in the feelings of every 

 person a natural disposition for play, both in the mind 

 and muscles ; and where the restraints of society 

 circumstances are removed, we may everywhere ob- 

 serve illustrations of this law of nature. Hence at 

 watering places, at the seashore, or any other place 

 devoted to public amusement and relaxation, persons of 

 the most erect gravity at home, and even members of the 

 sacred office, throwing off the mantle of restraint, which 

 had, perhaps, for a quarter of a century, hid their natural 

 dispositions, not only from all their associates, but almost 

 from themselves, again become boys and play all sorts 

 of recreative games, with as much interest, and nearly 

 with the same agility, as they did twenty or thirty years 

 before. 



760. Men bound to use Exercise which conduces to 

 Health. Now we do not make the above remarks by way 

 of accusation, or for the purpose of hinting that such in- 

 dulgences involve either hypocrisy or levity. On the 

 contrary, such facts illustrate and confirm the principles 

 of organic life which we have attempted to establish with 

 the best intentions, and for the best of purposes. They 

 show that, nature is averse to the solemn restraints of so- 

 ciety, and that exciting exercise, because it is most agree- 

 able and most natural, is the only kind which relieves 

 the body and mind, when the first has become torpid 

 from too little, and the last from too much exercise. And 

 for the purpose of verifying these principles we would 

 call upon those who now and then yield to the mandates 

 of nature (whatever may be their acquired gravity), 

 and reckless of muscular power, or mental reputation, 

 enjoy for a time some sort of exciting play, to say 

 whether the effects are not only congenial both to body 

 and mind, and whether they do not believe, that under 

 such amusements, frequently repeated, a man would 

 perform a greater amount of mental labor, and continue 

 longer in health and in life, than he would to proceed 

 in the usual manner, of either taking no exercise at 

 at all, or only that in which the muscles are compelled 

 by force to perform their duty, as is the case with most 



