Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1859-09-08
From the Atlantic Monthly.
TIE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS,


much service Are you like those ihvalids il
CcnJaI Africa, who, when the medicine itscI
is not accessible, straightway swallows tn,
written prescription, inwardIy digest it, anC
recover? No,--l think you have atcstcd tn,
actual materi mcdica recommended, hear o
you from all directions walking up hills in the
mornings and down hills in the afternoons
skimmiug round in vherrcs like rather un
steady water-spidor, blstoriug your hands up
On gymutas.ic bars receiving severe contusiou'
on your nosl from crickct.baih shaking up and
down on ham -trottiog horses md making the
most startling Innovations in respect to eating
sleeping and bathing Like all our country.
men, you are plugging from one extreme to the
other. Undoubtedly, you will soon make your
self sick again; but your present extreme is
the safer Of the two Time works many mir.
acles; it has made Louis Napoleon espouse the
cause Of liberty, aud it may yet make you
reasonable,
After all, that advice of mine, which is
thought to have benefited you so greatly, was
simply that DR.. Aberncthy used to give his pa
TENTS "Dont come to me,-g 90 buy skip.
png-ropc." II you can only guard against eX-
ccsscs, and keep the skpping.rope in operation
there are yet hopes for you, Only remember
that it is equally important to preserve health as
it is to attain ii, and needs much the same rcg-
men. Do not be like that Lord Russell in
Spencc's Anecdotes, who only went hunting for
an appetite, and who, the moment he felt any
sensation of vitality in the epigaStrum, used to
t,trp a.
it," and ride home from the finest chase. 1t
was the same Lord Russell by the way who,
when he met bCggar and was implored to
give him something, because he was almost
Amisbed with hunger, called him happy dog
and onyed him too much to. relieve him, From
some recent remarks Of your clearinghouse
hostess, my friend, am led to suppose that you
are now almost as well off, in point Of appe-
tite as if YOU were beggar and | wish to
keep you SO.
How much the spirits rise with health Al
family of children is very different sight to a
healthy man and to a dyspcptic What plea
sure you now take in your, You are rpinr
TO like more in their manner, and ,for their
sakes, hencerorward Won tell me You are TO
enter upon business ocaip, but in q more moder.
qtc wav ycn aro T., Ike in a peetty r,Aa sub.
uroan cottage, with irrSh air, horSc-@iIroad,
ana good schools for am startled to ind
mat your interest IN your oiisprlngS' IKE that
oil most American parents eliminates IN the
SchooI-rooin' Inns important matter Tol have
hegIec'ed long enough you thnk iooliShIy alb
Sor6ed In making money, Tor them Now they
snail nave money enough 10 be sure, but Wis
uom u, IN P,eh'y, MEe""a |oo' walk III II, SILK at |
llro ana Nmo"'eoSc nave 10 spare 10 "h'ch
school Sna'I you scnd hor you ask me- with
some OF the ola careworh expression, pulling
SIX o'llercnt ProSpoC'ures from your pocket
Iu' men, away DIloFoSuS A"o" Tue needs
OF Angc''na' anu | can answer I"Stan''y,-
SEM 'he Er' Ior 'oc present at IeoS' 10 mat
school whose daly hours OF session are the ;.
shortest and whose recess times and vacations
are Of most Formidable length,
No, anxious parent, | am not Joking. | am
more anxious for your children than you are.
On the faith Of an cX.tcacher and cX-schoo-
committeeman, for what respectable middle
aged American man but has passed through
both these spheres of uncomfortable usefulness ?
Il am terribly in earnest Upon this point
asserted, that the merit Of an American
school, at least so far as Angelina is concerned
is in inverse ratio to to the time given to study, !
i will lay down incontrovcrtible propositions. |
Sir Walter Scott. according to Carlyle, was
the only perfectly healthy literary man who ever
lived in fact the one suitable text, he says. .
for a sermon on health. You may wonder,
Dolorosus. what Sir Walter Scott has to do
with Angelina except to supply her with nov.
,I-readine, and with passages for impassioncd
.ccitation at the light hour from the "Iady
If the Lake" Butthat same Scott has left one
mark on record which may vet save the lives
md reasons Of greater men than himself more
lifted women (f that were possbe) than An
,eTua, and if we can only accept it with the
loIerenoo to which that same hcalthiness of his
entities it. He gave it as his deliberate opinion
n conversation with Basil Hall, that FIVE and a
1a!f hours form the limit of healthrul mental
abor for a mature person. This | rcckonod
very good work for man." he said,-adding,