8 



in life was in watching the growth of flowers :" again, after lying 

 awhile still and peaceful, said 



11 1 feel the flowers growing over me." 



He delighted far away to leave 



" All meaner thoughts, and take a sweet reprieve 

 From little cares, to find, with easy quest, 

 A fragrant wild, with nature's beauty drest" 



But our chief object in writing this little book is to induce every 

 one, particularly those of sedentary habits, to take proper exercise. 

 We all know how necessary air and exercise are to our well being, 

 yet how prone we are to neglect it on the most trifling excuse. 

 No matter what the inducement is, whether roaming after plants, 

 or shells, or sea- weeds, so long as the mind is thoroughly and pleas- 

 antly employed ; and to prove this, we cannot do better than 

 insert here a few extracts from the " Journal of Health," shewing 

 how necessary recreation is to keep the brain healthy and unim- 

 paired. 



"It is very generally recognised and admitted that deprivation of air and 

 exercise is a great evil ; but it is not so well known that abstinence from occa- 

 sional recreation or amusement is an evil of no slight magnitude. It is, however, 

 a primary law of the human economy, that no organ can maintain its integrity 

 without regular recurrent periods of activity and rest. In the case of the muscular 

 system, if any muscle, or set of muscles, cease to be used, it wastes and dis- 

 appears; but if it be used too much, it becomes strained, and loses its power. It 

 is the same with the nervous system ; if the brain be never exercised, its energy 

 is impaired ; but if it be over-exercised its energy is exhausted. If, when a person 

 takes a very long walk, he returns home fatigued, and finds that his muscles are 

 temporarily thrown into a wrong or disordered condition; and if he continues this 

 process of fatiguing himself every day, after a certain time he becomes thoroughly 

 knocked up, ill, and incapable of undergoing even a common amount of exertion. 

 So it is with the brain. If an individual keep his attention upon the stretch for 

 an undue number of hours, he experiences, at the expiration of his task, brain- 

 fatigue, loss of mental power, and a sensible necessity of rest ; and if this indi- 

 vidual persevere, day after day, month after month, year after year, in subjecting 

 his brain, without intermission or repose, to extreme fatigue, he will end by 

 setting up a peculiar state, which is, unhappily, excessively common in these 

 limes, and is known by the name of congestion of the brain. The activity of any 

 organ causes a flow of blood towards itself. If a person raise his arm by the action 



