Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-08-31

Ieso' 1hey VIII also testify that the inn.
proVements made in farming and in the i'm.
plemehts OF agriculture have not bpen made
oy farmers themselves, bnt by outsiders-
mechanics and men of scence-who have
matVeIeu at the brOinless stupidity which
toiied on IN It's old track ofunreasoninp ron.
tine, and looked with suspicion and disconr.
agement upon innovations. The reason
why The farmer has not been foremost in i'm.
proving the instruments and methods of bis
own business, is, that his mind has been nm.
ntted Tor Improvement by the excessive la.
oors OF his body. A man whose whole vi.
tai energy is directed to the support of mus.
Gle mas, OF course, none to direct 10 the sun.
port OF thought. A man whose STRENGTH
is ha0ItualIy exhausted by bodily labor be.
comes at lentgh, incapable Of mental exer.
ton ; and | cannot help feeling that half Of
the farmers of the country establish inspp.
ersole obstacles to their own Improvement
oy thelr excessive toll They are nothing
more than the living machines of a calling
whlch SO far exhausts their vitality that
they have neither the disposition nor the
power to improve either their calling or
themselves
Io student or literary man. it is easy
TO explain the necessity of the proper divi.
sion OIL the nervous energies between the
MIND aud the body. Any student or liter
ary man who has daily mental task to do.
Will do 1t before he exercises his body to
any great extent. If wished to unfit nv
mind Tor day Of literary labor, l would
use the hoe III my garden for an early hour
in the morning. If wished utterly to un.
mt a pupil for his daily task of study, I
would put him through an exans,inr walk
before breakfast. The direction of nll the
nervous energies to the support of the mus.
cular system, and the necessary draft upon
the digestive and nutrtive functions to sup
ply t1e muscular waste, leave the mind TEN
porarly bankrupt | have never seen a
man WHO was really remarkable for acuuir-
ed muscular power, aud, at the same time,
remarkable for mental power. A man may
be born into the world with fine muscu.
lar system and fine brain, and in early
life bis muscular system may have a fine de-
velopment. Such a man may subsequently
have a remarkable mental development, but
this development will never be ACCOMPANIED
10y large and regular expenditures of muscu
lar power. Ii | wished to repress the men.
tai growth aud manifestation Of man, [
would undertake to educate him up TO the
point Of lifting eIghv Ot ten kegs OF nails
There is Danger at first of OVERRIDING our
muscular Christianity danger of getting
more muscle than Christianity and there
is a good deal more danger of overriding
our muscular intellectually. The differ
ence between the kind &amouut Of exercise
necessary TO produce healthy machine and
the kind and amount necessary to produce
q powerful one, is very great We are nev-
er to look for great intellectually in pro.
fessor of gymnastics, nor TO expect that the
time will come when man will not only
walk a thousand miles in thousand hours,
but compose poem of thousand lines at
the same time.
Ifthe temporary diversion of the nervous
energy from the brain have this effect, what
must a permanent diversion accomplish q? 1t
will accomplish precisely what it is indicat-
ed by the look and language of our two
young friends at the station.house. 1t will
develop muscle for the uses of a special call
ing, and make ugly and clumsy men of
those who should be symmetrical and at
the same time it will repress mental develop.
meut, and permanently limit mental growth
AT least, so long as the mind shall be as
sociated with the body | suppose that
every fecundated germ Of human being is
endowed with certain possibility of deveI
opment-a complement Of vital energy
which will be expended in various directions,
according to the circumstances which may
surround it and the will of his possessor
If it shall be expended upon the growth
and sustentation Of muscle,it will not be ex-
pended upon the growth and sustentation
of mind and | have no hesitation in say
ing that it is an absolute impossibility for a
man who engages in hard bodily labor every
day to be brilliant in intellectual manifesto
ton. The tide of such mans life does not
set it in that direction. An hour-glass has
in it definite quantity Of sand and when
[ turn it over, that sand falls from the up
per apartment into the lower and while
it occupies that position it will continue to
fall until the former is exhausted and the
latter is filled Moreover, it will never take
llS DluGG Ut luC OlbCt Suh VI bliC lhett utlCtlVI
until it is turned back 1t is pserecly thus
with q human constitution The grand Vi
tai current moves onlylin one direction, and
when it is moving toward muscle it is not
moving toward mind, and when it is moving
toward mind it is not moving toward muscle.
This fact is illustrated sufficiently by the
phenomena of digestion. After man has
eaten hearty dinner, he becomes dull, even
to drowsiness or perfect sleep. Why
Simply because the tide of nervous energy
sets toward digestion, and there is not
enough left to carry on mental voluntary
muscular operations.
A resident of city riding into the coun'
try, especially if he be an intellectual man,
and en- gagged in intellectual pursuits, will be
triled by what he sees around him. The
life of the farmer, planted in the midst OF
SO much that is beautiful, having to do with
natures marvellous miracles Of termination
and growth, moving under the open heaven
with its glory of sky and metriotc change,
and accompanied 10y the songs Of birds and
all characteristic rural sights and sounds,
will seem to him the sweetest and the most
enviabe that falls to human lot. But the
hard working farmer sees nothing OF this
What cares be for birds, unless they pull
up his corn What cares he for skies, un
less he can make use Of them for drying his