Page:The international cricket match.djvu/38

20 spark of love in his bosom for our noble game, could be insensible to the deep and absorbing interest that pervaded the vast assembliea we have seen collected during the week, to witness and admire the prowess and the skill of

It has always been conceded that the mind of man must occasionally be unbent by recreation, and our bodies strengthened by some kind of exercise or another; if possible, that kind of exercise of which it may be said, "Labor ipse voluptas."

The labor itself is a pleasure.

If history has writ its annuls true, every one, even "the most potent, grave and reverend" have always had a passion, or preference, perhaps is a better word, for some favorite diversion, and habitually indulged in it.

The recreation of one of the most learned fathers of the Church during the time he was engaged in the composition of his most profound theological work, was to suspend his labors at the end of every second hour, and twirl his chair for five minutes.

Seneca maintained, not exactly in the words, that "all work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy," but in the very spirit of those homespun words, he spoke, when in closing his treatise "On the Tranquility of the Soul," he laid it down as incontrovertible and true, that a continuity of labor deadens the soul, and the mind must unbend itself by some kind of amusement or another, if it would perform efficiently the graver duties of life.

Richelieu amidst all his great occupations, never omitted setting apart a portion of his time for exercise, and he preferred the most violent.

The famous Samuel Clarke was fond of robust sports, and when this profound logician could not go out of doors, he would amuse himself by leaping over the tables and chairs in his room.

Granville Sharp, though a severe student, was notorious as a good oarsman. He owned a boat, and was seen pulling daily on the Thames. He was not the champion of the river, but few professional rowers could glide by him, when in his trim built wherry on his watery way to Putney, to Kew, and to Richmond.

These are only a few of the many hundred instances that might be cited to prove the necessity felt for relaxation of mind and body. Seeing then that mankind will have "pleasure in the way they like it," of all the various expedients resorted to for that purpose, we know of no better mode of accomplishing both objects—namely,