Page:Macfadden's Fasting, Hydropathy and Exercise.djvu/148

142 bedridden king; and the only way in which a rich man can avoid the forfeiture of his birth-right to happiness is to live as frugally and laboriously as if he were poor."

Still, strenuous exercise may to a considerable degree atone for dietetic indulgences, and few observers of men and habits can fail to have noticed Epicureans whom a sort of instinct prompts to give themselves the benefit of a movement-cure—stout, florid gormands who decline to become torpid, and walk habitually at a double-quick or go out of their way to join in athletic sports. The net result in happiness may not get them above the average by that method; but they keep disease at bay:

"He would enjoy himself to an excessive degree should likewise try to exceed in vigor; an athlete may take risks that might prove fatal to a weakling."

A considerable help to such endeavors in muscular Christianity is the possession of a little real estate, an orchard or patch of truck-farm, that