NATURE REQUIRES EXCITING EXERCISE. 241 



literary men ? If this is so, and which we are confident 

 that not a man who has made the trial will deny, then is 

 it not the moral, and even religious duty of every student 

 to so far coincide with the dictates and laws of nature, 

 as to employ every means which are not immoral in their 

 tendency, to enable him by the preservation of his health 

 and life, to do every good in his power for the benefit of 

 his fellow-man ? 



76 1. Says the pious and learned Dr. Cheyne, " The 

 studious, the contemplative, the valetudinarian, and those 

 of weak nerves, if they aim at health, and long life, must 

 make exercise in a good air, a part of their religion." 



762. A man who believes himself to be a useful member 

 of community, and who becomes conscious that his occu- 

 pation, whatever it may be, requires laxation, and that if 

 he does not indulge in it, his health will suffer, and his 

 life will be endangered, -would certainly be considered 

 by himself and by others, as wanting in a moral duty, 

 if he neglected such relaxation. Under such circumstances, 

 no one would doubt what would be the duty of a mechanic, 

 both with respect to his family and his country ; and if 

 the same moral rule holds with respect to literary men 

 and ministers, then they are as much bound to employ 

 brain-exciting means to preserve their mental vigor, as the 

 mechanic is to relax from his labor, for it has been shown, 

 we think, that no other means will effectually answer this 

 purpose. 



763. Effects of incessant Mental Labor. On this sub- 

 ject, the author of this work speaks from experience, and 

 therefore knows that he tells the truth. For, having tried 

 the ordinary routine of exercise, such as wood-sawing, 

 gardening, &c., he has been compelled, against his form- 

 er prejudices, to resort to " field-sports," with his pointer 

 and gun, not only as the means by which he has been 

 enabled to continue in a sedentary and studious profession, 

 but also to preserve himself from the dreadful con- 

 sequences of nervous excitability, and especially from 

 the most horrid and appalling of all sensations, that 

 which attends palpitation of the heart, from an accumu- 

 lation of the nervous influence. The most acute pain is 



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