506 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE 
ance with which their functions are conducted. Myology opens a 
vast field for meditation, both to the researchist in anatomy and 
to the philosopher. Hence it is in an especial manner that the 
thinker admires the work of the Creator ; here it is that he is 
struck with astonishment at divine grandeur and immensity. 
Works all so perfect as those he meets with in the animal eco- 
nomy surpass the powers of his imagination. Research carries 
him to a certain point at which science halts, unable to proceed 
further, and he is forced to confess his inferiority : science is com- 
pelled to acknowledge a power over her, which, ever active, and 
never in need of repose, sets an ensample of activity. It is the 
veritable perpetuum mobile which gives life to the entire creation, 
and at which man must for ever marvel without being able to dis- 
cover the key of action. 
As for man, muscular action may be said to extend its influence 
beyond his mere physiological position : it affects even his social 
relation. Among the ancients, legislators and governors were 
seen regulating the exercises they would have the people practise : 
they judged that activity, exercise of body, was the best means 
that could be taken to have well-constituted and useful members 
of society. The Olympic games were set up with the view of 
keeping in practice a people by nature warriors. With the Greeks 
and Romans, the first quality a man could possess was strength and 
vigour. The principle of the ancients was, that an energetic, great, 
and courageous soul could inhabit none but a well-constituted, 
strong, and powerful body : in such a one they beheld expression of 
mind urging him into action. The vigour of their law in this 
particular smacked even of cruelty. They ordered that mothers 
bringing forth malformed progeny, or such as bore any unequivocal 
sign of physical imperfection rendering him unfit for the usual 
exercises, should put it to death from birth. And so long as 
the people obeyed these too rigorous laws, and led a life of 
activity, labouring with persevering energy towards their develop- 
ment, pl^sical as well as moral, we find them sober, robust, and 
great. Do we of the present day not look with astonishment at the 
traces of courage and devotion of the people of antiquity 1 History 
informs us that their energy and bravery have even gone contrari- 
wise to opulence and vice, luxuty and inaction, by which they have 
been led on to destruction. The general movement, the activity 
and industry, which have given birth to the arts and sciences, it 
is that constitutes the veritable base of the social order and pros- 
perity of nations. The more man exercises his faculties, physical 
as well as moral, the more his well-being prospers; while the 
more he abandons himself to inactivity, the more he hastens his 
destruction. 
