Hence there are really two
kinds of exercise, and two kinds of hygiene, a physical kind and a
spiritual kind. Which one a man will choose should be left entirely to
himself. It is only a question of approaching the same goal from two
different directions. Smith is welcome to make himself a better man by
exercising his legs three hours a day. But I prefer to sit in an
armchair and exercise my soul. Smith comes in refreshed from a
half-day's sojourn in the open air, and I come away refreshed from a
roomful of old friends talking three at a time amidst clouds of tobacco
smoke.
The trouble with so many of the physical-culture devotees is that they
tire out the soul in trying to serve it. I am inclined to believe that
the beneficent effects of the regular quarter-hour's exercise before
breakfast, is more than offset by the mental wear and tear involved in
getting out of bed fifteen minutes earlier than one otherwise would.
Some one has calculated that the amount of moral resolution expended in
New York City every winter day in getting up to take one's cold bath
would be enough to decide a dozen municipal elections in favour of the
decent candidate, or to send fifty grafting legislators to jail for an
average term of three and a half years.
Pages:
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60