The times., 1898-11-13
A Hook on Health.

Book ON Health.
How to Get Strong and How to Stay
| So" by William Blaikie, is, despite its
| rather awkward title, n book of some
| value TO the general public. The ordinary
man or woman of America does not need
| elaborate treatises on any subject SO
/ much as a book calculated to awaken in
! tense interest in the subject. Given the
enthusiasm and determination we buy
books for ourselves Mr. Blaikies book
will interest his readers and that is all he
aims to do. That he is not exploiting any
particular system of education is shown
in his preface, in which he says:
| 1t matters little whether We get vigor on the
farm, the deck, the river, the athletic field in
the gymnasium; il We only get it. The
aim here has been, not TO write profound treat
Use on gymnastics and point out how 10 even
tually reach great performance in this art but
rather in way plain and untechnlca that
even any intelligent boy or girl readily
derstand il; TO first give the reader nudge TO
take better care of his body. and 50 OF his health;
! and then 10 point out way to do il. That
there are a hundred other ways is cheerfully
conceded II anything said here should stir up
some 20 vigorously take hold OF, and faithfully
follow up, either the pan here indicated or any
Of these Others, it cannot fail TO bring them
marked beDeft.
Now, the English OF this paragraph is
as bad as it can be and be English at
all A little more splitting of infntives
into kindIing-wood and twisting of the
rules of grammar into the letter S, and
it would have been dialect. But the au-
thors honest purpose saves the work;
and after ALL ii is more important to us.
as nation, that we have strong and
healthy young men and women than that
they should all use fine rhetoric. The
bombast and horse-play of Dio Lewis
books on health excited more or less rid
icue in their day; certainly. they seem
absurd enough now: but those who read
and liked them followed the rules of
health, at any rate, for a season; and 1t
is law of nature that when a man be-
gins TO like fresh air vigorous exercise
and wholesome food better than unwhole-
some conditions of living, he is apt to
keep on liking them, even after his en-
thusiasm for the health prophet has
passed away.
Mr.. Blaikie is evidently in earnest. He
begins his book with some chapters on
the present condition of the race, and the
need for gymnastics. Then he gives
some special exercises, which should be
beneficial to almost any one. Then-and
this is the cream of the book from a lit
erary point of view-he gives long list
of great men" and proceeds to discuss
their physical conditions. How he knows
anything about the particular kind of
gymnastics affected by Moses, Plato and
Aristotle will not be quite clear to the
average reader: but on investigation. il
appears that he has found out that Mo
ses lived to be a hundred and twenty
years old; that Plato, like other young
men of his time and race, received train
| ing IN gymnastics, and that Aristotle ac-
cording to authentic portraits. was small
but wiry. Then, We have n most remark
able and miscellaneous list or great
men, including Mohammed, Wallace,
Shakespeare, Columbus. Gladstone, Cor
, nelius Vanderbilt Tennyson, Coils p.
Huntington. Gen Grant Byron. Dante.
Dwight l.. Moody and Edwin Lawrence
Godkin. To be quite up-to-date the list
ends with Admiral Dewey. The quintes
sence of the joke is that there are 50
many people who viii not see il. To
many of Mr.. Blaikie's readers Smut the
stoVe-polish man, is as great though I'm
a different line. as Robert Browning: in
| fact. If they were asked to choose they
would much rather have box of Star
Hght stove polish than a copy of Rabbi
Ben Ezra And that Is all right, until
they can truly understand the poem 1t
is much better to have a real. shining
stove in the kitchen than sham culture
in the parlor. AT any rate here is Mr..
Blaikie's list of heroes, and almost any
one should be able to choose from IL a
model
This hero chapter is followed by
Conclusion" six appendices, another
Conclusion and the index.
In one chapter is an impetuous plea for
an Anglo-Saxon federation, and the au-
thor urges that athletics be used to fur
ther this end
AS for the part of this book which is
devoted strictly TO gymnastics 1t is not
extremely scientific, but no one could
come TO any harm by following its slg
sestons, while it would for many people
result in much good. Deep breathing.
proper attitudes in standing and sitting
the use of the dumbbells and Indian
clubs and various forms of outdoor exer-
clse, are all advocated most earnestly
The book is dedicated to Mr.. Gladstone
and although the rhetoric and grammar
OF 1t would probably have made the great
commoners hair stand on end he couId
not nave denied the worth of its purpose
MI Blaikie is evidently convinced of this
himself, and means us to understand So
Dy the sentences and entire paragraphs
itaIclsed here and there throughout the
pook. The italics do not really add much
TO the value of the work; but that like
MS split infinitives is the authors own
affair. (New York: Harper & Bros