Lambs, kittens, kids, foals,
even young pigs and donkeys, all teach the great lesson of Nature,
that to have a body healthy and strong, the prompt and efficient
vehicle of the mind, we must not infringe on her ordinations by our
study and cramping sedentariness in life's tender years. We must not
throw away or misappropriate her forces destined to the corporeal
architecture of man, by tasks that belong properly to an after-time.
There is no mistake so fatal to the proper development of man and
woman, as to pile on the immature brain, and on the yet unfinished
fabric of the human body, a weight of premature and, therefore,
unnatural study. In most of those cases where Nature has intended to
produce a first-class intellect, she has guarded her embryo genius by
a stubborn slowness of development. Moderate study and plenty of play
and exercise in early youth are the true requisites for a noble growth
of intellectual powers in man, and for its continuance to old age.
My youth, as my boyhood, was spent in the country, and in the active
exercise of its sports and labors. I was fond of shooting, fishing,
riding, and walking, often making long expeditions on foot for
botanical or other purposes. Bathing and swimming I continued each
year till the frost was in the ground and the ice fringed the banks of
the river. As my father farmed his own land, I delighted in all the
occupations of the field, mowing and reaping with the men through the
harvest, looking after sheep and lambs, and finding never-ceasing
pleasure in the cultivation of the garden.
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