The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1854-05-26
From the Mobile Morning News.
How 70 be Healthy.

1t was well said, by one who had thoroughly
studied the subject, that the highest ambition Of an
ancient Greek was TO be healthy, beautiful and
rich. We cannot help thinking, SAYS the Phadcl.
pha Bulletin, that the old Athculams, in this re-
spcct, were wiser than ourselves. Much as we
boast of our wonderful intelligence, we have not
yet practically attained to ii method of life SO COM
prehensive as that pursued not only by the phil
osophers, but by the men Of fashion about town
10 Africa and the Peloponesus, They placed
health first, and money making last, while we H.
vert this order. Yet they were Pagans, and we
Christians. Surely we should cry .'shame" 10
ourselves.
In reality, the two principal objects sought by
the ancient Greek, health and beauty, were but
one and the same, For beauty cannot exist with
out health. The man who is constantly confined
at the counting desk, soon acquires and hablluaI
stoop; the one who devoies his whole soul TO
money making becomes wrnkled before his time.
On the contrary, he who INDUCES in proper eXer-
else and recreation, as, for example, well-to-do
farmer in healthy districts carries an erect frame
10 the verge OF seventy, and has rudy cheek
even when octngenarian The first by neg
Letting the laws Of nature, not only destroys his
own manly bearing, but transmits Puny form
and weakly constitution TO his children The last
perpetuaes a race Of hardy sons and majestic
daug hters.
L mere Is out one way ~ pItScIFc MS hCu''"'
and that is TO live moderately, take proper eXer.
else, and be in the fresh air as much as possible.
The man who is always shut up in close room,
whether the apartment be minister's study, a
LAWYERS office, professors laboratory, mer
chants gas light store, is deiying nature, and must
sooner later, pay the penalty. If his avocatlon
renders such confinement necessary during a por-
ton OF the year, he can avold premature break
ing down of the constitution only by taking due
exercise during the long vacations of the summer
and winter months. She waste of stamina must
be restored by frequent and full draughts OF noun
tain and sea beach air, by the pursuits OF the
SCOTSMAN, by travel, other similar menus
Every man who has felt the rrcuperatve effects
Of a month or two of relaxation, knows from his
own experience how general is influence is how
! it SENDS him back to business with a new flow o!
spirits how it almost creates hun, TO speak.
/ }etw cen the lad brought up TO physical exercises
| in the invigOratIng open air, and one kept con-
tnually at school, or in the factory, there is an
abyss of difference, which becomes more percep-
tible every year, manhood approached, the one
expanding INTO saIwarl, full chesed health, while
! the other is never more than half completed
/ man,
The advantages Of exercise are as great to
! females also. All that we have said about preser-
wing health in the man, is true of tie opposite
! sex. But this is not the whole. The true foun-
dalton of beauty women is exercise i'll fresh air.
! No cosmetics equal 10 these. The famous
Diana OF Poicteers, who maintained her loveliness
until she was sixty, owed this extraordinary
result, in her OPINION to her daily bath, earl
rising, and her exercise in the saddle. English
ladies OF rank are celebrated, the world over, for
their splendid persons and brilliant compilations
and they proverbial for their attention to walk
ing and riding, end the hours spent daily gu; oil
doors. The saIlOw checks, STOPPING figures suS,
ceptbility 10 cold, and almost constant i'll health,
which prevail among the American wives and
| daughters generally, 10 be attributed almost
entirely their excessive Sedentary lie and to the
inGrmity caused by the same lie on the part o
! their parent A woman can no more become
beautiful, in the true sense OF the term remain
so, without healthu exercise in the open air than
! Il plant can thrive without light. If we put tn"
latter INTO cellar it either dies out right, or re-
/ fuses to bloom. Shall we wilt our sisters, wives
or daughters, by a similar deprivation of what is
/ as necessary 10 their harmonious development!
! In another aspect, the care of health is a more
| important thing than is usually supposed. There
Is no doubt that, as between city and country the
population OF the former suffers most from want Of
exercise and fresh air, and that consequently the
stamina, so to speak, of city population, is infe-
rOr to that Of rural one. 1t is even said that in
some cities Paris for instance, few strictly town.
bred iamlhes last over century, and that, If the
population was not continually recruited from the
country, it would die out. 1t is equally striking
fact end one that lies within the observation Of all
OF us, that the most energetic merchants generally
In New York, Boston and Philadelphia have been
originally lads from the rural towns or counties,
hose wclI-balanced health has not only produced
well balanced, vigorous, enerprisng minds, but
enabled them to endure amount of fatigue which
the average of their city bred competitors could
not rival.
The public veal, therefore, as well as the happ-
ness o! the individual, concerned IN this question
OF health. Yet, we Americans almost ignore it,
and practically neglect it entirely. The old Greeks
had their gymnasIums for physics exercise, which
were much state institutions as common schools
are now. Were not the Greeks wiser, after all,
that we are, at least in this particular!
The Atmospheric Telegraph, it is said. is pro-
crossing rapidly between Boston and Worcester
Mass