248 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE 



exercise. In whatever light people who are ignorant 

 of this mode of employing their mind, and muscles, 

 may look upon those men who are exhilarated by such 

 " boyish sports," it is certain that those who have enjoyed 

 the fine flow of spirits which such occasions excite, and 

 especially the invigorating consequences thus produced on 

 the animal system, are seldom induced to think that such 

 exercise is incompatible with the gravity of age, or 

 office ; but more generally continue the practice, so long as 

 the eye-sight enables them to see the game distinctly. 



782. To the lovers of the dog and gun, partridge, quail, 

 and woodcock shooting, are considered the most exciting, 

 and healthful of all muscular exercise ; but it is too violent 

 for those whose systems are not prepared to undergo 

 considerable fatigue, though the literary dyspeptic will 

 find, after a few experiments, that he can traverse 

 woods, bogs, and mountains, with a degree of facility 

 and pleasure, which will be a matter of surprise to him- 

 self. Students of athletic constitutions are sometimes 

 compelled to employ exercise of proportionate violence ; 

 the ordinary routine of riding, sawing wood, &c., being 

 insufficient to produce the effects required, even though 

 they might excite the brain. 



783. A gentleman well known to the author, who left 

 an active, for a sedentary and mental employment, found 

 that sawing and splitting all the wood for his family, did 

 very little toward preventing his nervous, from predom- 

 inating over his muscular system. The effect of this ex- 

 ercise was to fatigue the muscles of his arms and fingers, 

 so that it was often difficult for him to resume his pen on 

 this account. He found also that tiring the muscles 

 did nothing toward relieving the mind; nor was there 

 sufficient excitement in the employment, or motive in 

 the end to be accomplished, to induce its continuance 

 until perspiration ensued. Finding therefore, that there 

 would soon be an absolute necessity for his either relin- 

 quishing the profession he had adopted, or of seeking 

 some more exciting and athletic exercise, he returned to 

 his boyish practices, and partook himself to woodcock 

 and partridge-shooting as the most convenient, and at 

 the same time, as that kind of recreation from which 



