WHAT A GYMNASIUM MIGHT BE AND DO
les, not of a prize racer or fighter; not of a trick-performer or stage-acrobat, but of a hale, comely, strong, and well-proportioned man; and see how well it would pay. An hour a day put in in the right way, and at the right work, will effect all this in far less time than four years. The hardest-reading-man can readily spare the time for it, especially if he must. What! would it take him from the thin, cadaverous fellow he too often is, and do all that for him? Beyond all doubt it would. Such vigorous work would soon sharpen his appetite; and he would find that, eat all he liked, he could digest it promptly; and would feel all the better for his generous living. The generous living has fed muscles now vigorously used; they have been enlarged and strengthened: the legs, which never used to try to jump a cubit high, even, once in the whole year; now carry their owner safely over a four-rail fence; and perhaps another rail, or even two of them. The lungs, which were scarcely half expanded, now have every air-cell thoroughly filled, for at least one entire hour daily—an excellent thing for weak lungs. Correct positions of standing, sitting, walking, and running, and lying down being now well known and understood; the lungs get more air into them than formerly, even when their owner is at rest. Another effect of it all is shown in a decidedly more vigorous circulation; and the consequent exhilaration and buoyancy of spirits, no matter whether the work in hand is mental or physical.
But will not this hour's work dull him mentally? It may be proper to digress for a moment and see if it will. Of men who have done just this kind and amount of work, this work aimed at every part of the body, we find no record; simply because, as we have already shown, considerable as the increased interest is in phys-
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