The Dickinson press., 1889-01-05
SOUND MINDS AND BODIES.
Tho Old Maxim Called in Oucstion-whl
HIealthy InyaIidv NAV Do

Tho Old Maxim Called in Oucstion-what
q Healthy Invalid" May Do.
1t is u serious question whether, in these
day of health lifts, rowing machines, chest
weights and bean bags, rather exaggerated
ideas are not held out to tho public as to tho
spiritual benefits to be confidently relied on
from the diligent use of these. Tho old
maxim, "a sound mind in sound body" is
pretty severely put to its trumps when it has
to maintain its dignity against practical
illustrations.
or course, tho old Greeks and Romans, or
whoever invented tho saw originally merely
meant that, if a man only had a sound mind,
no could do great deal more with it if it
were i'll Il sound body Tho modern bean
bag professors, however, can never content
themselves with so moderate statement as
this. Tone up your muscular system, they
insist. and forthwith tho whole Sermon on
the Mount will enter i'll and take possession of
the soul. Their favorite Illustration is taken
from tho gongs on of tho baby. Who ever
knew baby, they say, that nurses we'll and
sleeps we'll, to fret and cry' Well, that is
simply because he is n baby, Il little animal,
with few physical wants. Once satisfy
these, and the baby does not know enough to
ask LOT any lnlnp more.
But grown man Is not baby lie may
DO strong enough to digest food that would
distress an ostrich, to sleep like Il alternating
bear and to tramp forty miles on Il stretch,
and still bo n moody, morosc, discontentcd
and querulous fellow His mind canuot di-
gcst tho tough experiences of life, and his
irritable spirit never gets tho mental sleep
and rcfrcsliment OF trust and peace in Il
higher power. Ono good healthy invalid
like Robert Louis Stevenson. with IL sound
mind i'll IL crazy rattletrap of IL body, has
more brace and invigoration in him than
scores of athletes who have sought their solo
spiritual instruction from dumb bells and
rowing machines With n quarter of lung
he breathes in moro tonic mountain air than
they with lungs likc the bellows of n forging
shop. No man can abolish his ancestors. III
they bequeathed him dyspepsia, consump
ton or nervous exhaustion ho will havo to
tight it out on that line. But let him only
say: VI mean to mako small capital win
n big fortune" and ten to ono lie will get
more genuine satisfaction and profit out Of
life than thousands who contemptuousy dis
miss him rs not having body enough to set
up peanut stand on.
The naked fact is that sound men and
.i"i 'e' ttio tioout e'lul!ly TaTc. HOW 10 MAKO
the spawned and wind CALLED capable of
prancing and caracoling to tho best advant-
age, is the practical question:; and just hero
is whero the healthy invalids hnvc their
blessed mission in tho world A mere physi-
cal thread Of man like Robert Louis
Stevenson, with his admiration for stout, old
English admirals and heroes of every type,
and who, while perfectly entitled to swathe
himself in flannels and drink catnip ten,
hates tho whole race of winners and self cod
dlers, touches the viking nerve in every
reader of his books who has sense of shame
enough i'll him to blush where he ought to
blush. All over the land is tho same story
repeated. If half tho great, hulking fellows,
who estimate tho health OF their minds by
tho vigor of their bodies, would now and
then desert their rowing machines and put
themselves under the spell Of tho sweetness,
cheer and faith of some frnil woman tied up
IN hard knot with rheumatism, they would
feel that, with half tho samo amount of
spirit to the square inch of ncsll, they ought
to he able to shoulder whole Alps of obsta-
cls, instead of whining over nolo hills
Boston Herald