NATURE REQUIRES EXCITING EXERCISE. 243 



only be cured by muscular motion. You may starve your- 

 selves to skeletons, and, my friends, still your horrid sensa- 

 tions will increase, until you adopt some exciting muscular 

 exercise as a remedy. Let your stomachs take care of 

 themselves, and never think of what you eat or drink, ex- 

 cept at the moment, only taking the precaution k) be tem- 

 perate in both, and by the use of such exercise, repeated 

 every day, and increased according to feelings and circum- 

 stances, of which you are the best judges, you will gradu- 

 ally rid yourselves of all that train of symptoms incident 

 to nervous excitability, which have been brought on by 

 sedentary and mental habits. 



767. It is not denied that there are great differences in 

 the amount of literary labor which different men are capa- 

 ble of performing under the same circumstances. We 

 are perfectly aware that there are Thomas Tophams in 

 the mental as well as in the muscular departments of hu- 

 man exertions. But we write for those who labor under 

 the common laws of the animal economy, those laws 

 which ordinarily govern the actions and powers of human 

 beings ; and not for those, whose iron constitutions are 

 equally unhurt by any amount of cerebral or muscular 

 performances which it is in their power to accomplish. 

 These are exceptions to the general laws which govern 

 our species, and to such we have nothing to say, be- 

 cause, not suffering from their labors, they require no 

 remedies. 







768. Cheerfulness a Remedy. The best tempered men, 

 after long confinement to study, and who take no pains 

 to cultivate a cheerful acquaintance with their friends, 

 are observed to grow more or less morose in their dispo- 

 sitions, until they finally contract such a habit of being 

 out of humor, especially at home, as to become such dis- 

 agreeable companions, that their former friends, if they 

 call upon them at all, do it as a matter of duty, and not 

 for the purpose of having a few moments of enlivening 

 conversation, as formerly. Of this disposition, the subject 

 himself often becomes sensible, which discovery, instead 

 of showing him the necessity of relaxation, and joining 

 in cheerful society as a remedy, too often only proves a 



