WHY MEN SHOULD EXERCISE DAILY
great responsibility; four times Prime-Minister of the richest nation in the world save one; dealing with problems of finance; of foreign policy; of home-interests; indeed of the whole field of statesmanship; and of literature too; problems so mighty that your most intricate and gravest ones would be trifles to him; yet somehow this man has found time through it all, to give a whole precious hour each day to renewing and rebuilding his fine body; and to keeping it a fit companion for the giant intellect and exalted character which have left upon his country and the world an impress which will be inseparably connected with England and her best interests as long as she is a nation.
And if he could do his work; and yet find time to exercise a whole hour each day; so can you. What did he do? More than once the story has come across the sea of his exercising with various gymnastic appliances each morning in his room, just after rising. You can do that in yours. In this, the greatest era of invention which the world has seen, a man can be heard by another a thousand miles away; can send a message to the other end of the world, and get an answer the same day; can ride comfortably 13,000 miles, across the entire length of Europe and Asia, in fifteen days; had Garfield been shot yesterday, could have exactly located the bullet which a decade ago eluded the highest skill of an entire nation; and can do many other marvels, the mere telling of which a few years ago would have been strong proof of his insanity. And, in the boundless range of human ingenuity, in giving man what he wants; sensible exercising-tools for his body have not been overlooked. Instead of, as till recently, a great room, with frames and rails; and bars and ropes; and mighty wooden steeds; and the long list of things thought necessary in a gymnasium;
67
