28 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
money besides hoarding it; that a merchant may be just 
as much Sir Oracle on Change, and that a lawyer may 
hold fully as able an argument before a Supreme Court, 
though he be able to read a French novel, to enjoy 
an Italian Opera, or to have an opinion of his own con- 
cerning the merits of Maud or Hiawatha; that a native 
poet is not, necessarily, an idle fellow, fit for nothing 
rational or useful; nor a profound historian a sad misap- 
plier of his time and talents; though still, be it said with 
all humility, the last-named laborers in the vineyard are 
far from holding the same place in society here, which 
they do, and ought to do, every where else. 
Still, while it must be admitted that some species of 
mental culture and improvement, which were, but a few 
years since, held to disqualify a man for success and 
usefulness in life, are now tolerated, and even admitted, 
if they do not prevent the main end of money-making ; it 
cannot be denied, that all bodily recreations, all athletic 
relaxations of the mind by alternation of physical efforts, 
all tastes and tendencies toward field-sports are as much or 
more discountenanced by the grave men of cities, and less 
practised by the gay young men of society, than they have 
been at any time before. 
With the former, it is regarded as pretty much the 
same, whether the young man, who has his way to make 
in the world by a trade, an art, or a profession, borrow a 
few hours or days from the counter, the studio, or the 
closet, to unbend the overstretched bow of his intellect by 
that needful exercise of the body, without which the mind 
cannot be preserved sound ; or to waste them in morning 
