DIVERSITY OF PURSUITS. 59 



and why should they, in all other respects so learned 

 disregard this branch of knowledge, the most mo- 

 mentous of all, because that on which their life, 

 their usefulness in time, and their fitness for eter- 

 nity, depend ? 



Let the subject be viewed according to these tre- 

 mendous realities, and you will subscribe to the 

 necessity of diversifying your pursuits of having 

 for bodily exercise such an object as may withdraw 

 the attention from graver studies, and hold you in 

 sufficient occupation, whilst it keeps you a good 

 portion of every dry day out of doors. Your 

 profession is of a nature that cannot maintain a 

 healthful subsistence without having the body kept 

 in motion from two to four hours a-day and all 

 that time bathed in the free open air of heaven ; 

 and neither will your mind work to good purpose 

 on serious subjects without frequent recourse to 

 such as are light and recreating. Languor, debi- 

 lity, and a quick decay of the digestive organs, are 

 inevitably superinduced by a contrary treatment ; 

 and whoever, on the appearance of such symptoms, 

 has recourse to other stimulants than those of air 

 and exercise, in order to help on the flagging 

 powers of vitality, sows that moment the seeds of 

 some mortal disease, under the suffering of which 

 he cannot say that he is guiltless of his own blood. 



Such unnatural stimulus is to the body what 

 enthusiasm in religion is to the mind ; and they 

 who, forsaking the salutary use of the divine Word, 

 can be pleased only with fanatical excitement, 



