Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 edition. Excerpt: ...is spread over with sensitive nerves. Both these states deviate too much from the line which nature intends. The bodily and mental powers to five and last, should go hand in hand. The lower orders suffer from the want of mental culture. They are all body and no mind. Their thoughts and appetites are little better than those of the animals just below them. On the contrary, the refined of our species run into the other extreme; generating a feebleness of body in which numberless diseases take root, and prove a dire infliction upon mankind. After this speculation upon our origin and wellbeing in the world, I will go to my subject, "The Use of Exercise." My father was remarkable for his lightness of step at the age of ninety-four. He was regular in taking his walking exercise every day--sometimes twice a day. In approaching a similar age I look back upon many of his actions as a guide, and have scrupulously adopted his habits. In summer time I walk before breakfast, as I dine in the middle of the day, and again I enjoy a ramble in the evening, after tea. In the winter, I avail myself of the prime of the day. A little rain-never stops me; if I am caught, I accelerate my pace, and return with a slight perspiration, instantly changing my dress for dinner; hence, I never take cold. The best pace is that which accords with the motion of the pulse--if you hurry beyond that, you are sooner fatigued. My pulse seldom varies from sixty to sixty-four--what Handel terms Tempo Ordinario, or Common Time--that is my natural pace. If you walk slow you may walk all day. I never walk with a stick. Anything carried in the hand destroys the erect position of the body, and interrupts the swing of the arms. The arms are pendulums, which act like the...