SCHOOL-HOUSE GROUNDS. 
233 
ness with which they would, anyhow, enter upon out-door 
sports whenever opportunity offered. But when the conditions 
are furnished, the activities of the play-ground become attrac¬ 
tions to the spirit, as well as necessities to the muscle. Upon 
an ample lawn, with here and there a tree for story-telling 
shade, or the pleasant game; with shrubs for fragrance, and 
evergreens to relieve the golden of the summer day; with 
bordered walks and quiet nooks, and over all the witchery of 
shifting sunlight and shadow, the inertia of the most sluggish 
will be overcome, and all that is frolicsome and joyous in more 
spontaneous natures aroused. 
Remove all this and leave but a bald door-yard, or the mo¬ 
notony of the street, and children will race around, to be sure, 
and though in the swelter and glare of noon, will turn somer¬ 
sets in the dirt, and beat their brains against lamp-post or fence- 
rail, in the headlong chase of some sort of amusement, because 
they don’t know what to do, and must do something. A com¬ 
parison between the health-invogorating effect of the exercise 
taken under these different circumstances, would be as that of 
a mid-day douche of nitric acid, to a bath of pure water. 
Exercise, to be benefiicial in the best sense, must be a refresh¬ 
ment to both soul and body. 
Third, it promotes health by inducing a pleasant state of 
mind. “Delightful scenes,” says Addison, “whether in na¬ 
ture, painting, or poetry, have a kindly influence on the body, 
as well as the mind; and not only serve to clear and brighten 
the imagination, but set the animal spirits in pleasing and 
agreeable motions. For this reason, Sir Francis Bacon, in 
his Essay on Health, prescribes to his readers a poem, or a 
prospect; and advises the pursuit of studies that fill the mind 
with splendid and illustrious objects, histories, fables, and the 
contemplation of nature.” “The body and mind,” says 
Sterne, are like a jerkin and its lining. If you rumple the 
one, you rumple the other.” And Wordsworth, in one of his 
most charming and philosophical poems, represents nature as 
promising to train into beauty, both body and mind, through 
the thoughts given to her favored child: 
