GYMNASTIC EXERCISES. 225 



muscular power, not one twentieth of which is called into 

 use in the ordinal y occupations of life. It is quite as- 

 tonishing to see how rapidly, and how much of this dor- 

 mant power is awakened, by the various exercises of 

 climbing, jumping, pulling, leaping, &tc. which are per- 

 formed at these places. 



Emily. But I really do not comprehend what great 

 object is obtained after all, by having every muscle in 

 the body carried to its maximum of developement. 

 People are not going to get their living by clirribiug, or 

 running for a wager, and if exercise be the only object 

 in view, it appears to me, that sufficient for all necessary 

 purposes, may be obtained with less trouble and in less 

 time. 



Dr. B. Gymnastic exercises will not indeed give a 

 man a livelihood, nor does any one suppose that they 

 are absolutely necessary to keep him in existence, for 

 many men enjoy excellent health and live to a good old 

 age, without ever having entered a gymnasium. Behold 

 the light in which these exercises are to be viewed in order 

 to perceive their utility ; the human constitution is con- 

 tinually subjected to the operation of a multitude of caus- 

 es, the effects of which are, to weaken its powers, en- 

 gender disease, and shorten its duration. It is impossi- 

 ble to avoid these causes for they exist in the air that we 

 breathe, in the soil that we tread on, and the substances 

 that we take into our bodies, and our only recourse is to 

 make use of the means proper for withstanding their ef- 

 fects. The most obvious means the only one which 

 reason dictates, is to strengthen and develope to the ut- 

 most those very powers with which nature endowed our 

 bodies, to enable them to resist the influence of the nox- 

 ious agents by which they are encompased. The body 

 that is made strong and robust by habits of temperance 

 and exercise, is the best adapted to withstand the effects 

 of those exposures to which every person is more or less 

 liable. This is the tendency of gymnastic exercises, and 

 this is their utility. 



