Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/347

Rh exercise will keep a person in healthy working order till near the age of forty.

The age of forty to fifty is the period of life during which, according to the best authorities, the need of exercise is the greatest. "At no time of life is the necessity of exercise so imperative. . . . At that time the circulation becomes defective, unless continually quickened by exercise"; there is a tendency to passive congestion and functional derangements of various organs, especially the liver. At this time, though needing less food, we are apt to eat more than in the periods of life immediately adjacent. Consequently, the products of disintegrated food and tissue are not eliminated. Accumulating in the blood, they form the materies morbi, the matter on which death feeds.

Tiding over the period of middle life, by using appropriate exercise, and by care to see that all the excretory organs do their proper work at proper times, we ought to find the following years the best years of life, especially for brain-work. If we lived rightly, the words of the poet ought to be true for us all:

 "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life for which the first was made; Our times are in his hand Who saith, 'A whole I planned,' Youth shows but half: trust God; see all, nor be afraid."

As to kinds of exercise, each person must be thrown on his own judgment with regard to his own case. In McLaren's "Physical Education," and in Blaikie's "How to Get Strong and How to Stay So," most excellent hints will be found for all cases. In beginning a course of systematic exercise, it is wise to err on the side of doing too little rather than too much. Increase the amount of exercise very slowly. No discouragement should be felt if it is hard work at first. It will become easier and easier. It may be a long time before it can be taken joyfully, yet, if any person will persevere, he will be certain to rejoice in the work, and will come to feel that he can not do without it. There is no royal road to health any more than there is to learning. Like all things made precious and to be really enjoyed, health must be earned.

It may be said that, for all persons whose regular occupation is sedentary, exercise in the open air is to be preferred. The oxygen of the air is essential to the life of the blood. It is well also to take exercise as much as possible in company. One person encourages another. A man will often take part in exercise with a companion so as not to disappoint him, even if he would not exercise for his own sake. Hence one valuable feature of games or athletic sports. They must be carried on in company and by system. Another valuable feature of games