Health and Longevity. It also mainly contributes to the proper circulation of the blood, and insures its imbibing the wholesome influences of the atmosphere, which, as shown above, form a principal source of our well being. A brisk circulation animates the whole man, whereas deficient exercise, or continued rest, weakens the circulation, relaxes the muscles, diminishes the vital heat, checks perspirations, injures digestion, sickens the whole frame, and thereby renders the individual subject to every attack which disease may make upon him.

Indolencet not only occasions disease, and renders men useless to society, but actually injurious, for

"Satan finds some mischief still,

For idle hands to do.'-WATTS.

To say a man is idle is but little better than to say he is wicked. The mind, if not engaged in some useful pursuit, is constantly in quest of idle pleasure, or impressed with the apprehension of some imaginary evil. From these sources proceed most of the miseries of mankind. This applies particularly to the aged, who by no means ought to give way to a remission of exercise, since Motion is the tenure of life. By degrees, the demand may sink to little more than a bare quit

* Addison says, An idle body is a monster in the creation; all nature is busy about him. A modern poet has beautifully shown

that

Nature lives by toil;

Beasts, birds, air, fire, the heavens and rolling worlds,
All live by action: nothing lies at rest,

But death and ruin. Man is born to care;

Fashion'd, improved by labour.

There are but very few who know how to be idle and innocent

rent; but that quit-rent must be paid, since life is held by the tenure.

The following reasons, in addition to what has been said before, show the value of exercise :

1. Your Life will probably be prolonged by it. It is little less than suicide to neglect that, without doing which you are almost sure to shorten your days. The Creator has not so formed the body, that it can endure to be confined, without exercise, while the mind burns and wears upon its energies and powers every moment.

2. You will enjoy more with, than without exercise. This remark is to be applied only to those who exercise daily; and to such it does apply with great force. Every one who is in this habit will bear ample testimony to this point.

3. You will add to the enjoyment of others. A cheerful companion is a treasure; and all will gather around you as such, if you are faithful to yourself; for exercise will make you cheerful, and cheerfulness will make you friends.

4. Your mind will be strengthened by exercise. The medical poet has justly observed,

""Tis the great art of life to manage well

The restless mind:"

and that by neglecting exercise, and injuring the bodily health, you also

"The most important health,

That of the mind, destroy."

Were you wishing to cultivate a morbid, sickly taste, which will, now and then, breathe out some beautiful poetic images, or thought, like the spirit of some most refined essence, too delicate to be handled or used in this MATTER-OF-FACT WORLD, and too ethereal to be enjoyed, except by

those of like palate, you should shut yourself up in your room for a few years, till your nerves only continue to act, and the world floats before you as a dream. But if you wish for a mind that can fearlessly dive into what is deep, soar to what is high, grasp and hold what is strong, and move and act among minds conscious of its strength, firm, in its resolve, manly in its aims and purposes, BE

SURE TO BE REGULAR IN TAKING EXERCISE.

We shall conclude our remarks on this head, by a few of Dr. E. Johnson's concluding observations, in that invaluable work, " Life, Health and Disease."

If you would preserve your health, therefore, exercise, severe exercise-proportioned, however, to your strength-is the only means which can avail you. Recollect, the body must be disorganized, wasted, sweated, before it can be nourished. With plentiful bodily exertion, you can scarcely be ill-without bodily exertion you cannot possibly be well. By "well," I mean the enjoying as much strength as your system is capable of-But by exertion and exercise, I do not mean the petty affair of a three miles walk: I mean what I say, bodily exertion, to the extent of quickened breathing and sensible perspiration, kept up for three or four hours out of the twenty four ;say, four or five miles before breakfast, four or five before dinner, four or five early in the evening, or to save the evening for other purposes, a healthy man may walk a dozen miles before breakfast, with an advantage to himself which will, in a week or two, perfectly astonish him. Most men, even the operative manufacturers and shopkeepers, may do this, if they will take the trouble to rise early enough;—and fortunately, the exer

cise taken before breakfast is worth all that can be taken afterwards.

But I beg your pardon-I must make another short quotation, which has this moment occurred to me;-one which, though exceedingly short, embodies in itself the truth and wisdom of a hundred volumes: it is the following brief aphorism of the late Mr. Abernethy, with which I shall conclude :-" If you would be well, live upon sixpence a day and earn it."

PART VI.

CHAPTER XI.

WATER, AS A THERAPEUTIC, OR CURATIVE; AND THE VARIOUS MODES OF APPLYING IT.

"Most blessed water! neither tongue can tell
The blessedness thereof, no heart can think,
Save only those to whom it hath been given,
To taste of that divinest gift of Heaven.
I stooped and drank of that divinest well,
Fresh from the rock of ages where it ran;

It had a heavenly quality to quell

All pain I rose a renovated man;

And would not now, when that relief was known,
For worlds that needful sufferings have forgone.
SOUTHEY.

NOTWITHSTANDING the efficacy of the Hydropathic mode of treating diseases, if we consider the contempt in which every thing else is held, which is thought to be new, is it not surprising that many should be found sceptical as to its ultimate