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THE

RAMBLER.

NUMBER LXXXV.

LONDON, Tuesday, January 8. 1751.

Otia fi tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus,
Contemptæque jacent, et fine luce, faces.

OVID.

M

Any writers of eminence in phyfic have laid out their diligence upon the confideration of those diftempers to which men are more remarkably expofed by particular ftates of life; and very learned treatises have been produVOL. IV.

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ced

ced upon the maladies of the camp, the sea, and the mines. There is indeed fcarcely any employment which a man accustomed to anatomical inquiries and medical refinements, would not find reafons for declining as dangerous to health, did not his learning and experience inform him, that almost every occupation, however formidable and threatening, is happier and fafer than a life of floth.

The neceffity of action is not only demonftrable from the fabric of the body, but evident from observation on the univerfal practice of mankind; who, for the preservation of health in those whose rank or wealth exempts them from the neceffity of lucrative labour, have invented fports and diverfions, though not of equal ufe to the world with manual trades, yet of equal fatigue to those that practise them; and differing only from the drudgery of the husbandman or manufacturer, as they are the acts of choice, and therefore performed without the painful fenfe of compulfion. The huntfman rifes early, purfues his game through all the dangers and obftructions of the chafe, fwims rivers, and scales precipices; returns home no less harraffed than the foldier, and has, perhaps, fometimes incurred no less hazard of wounds or death; yet he has no motive to incite his ardour; he is neither fubject to the commands of a general, nor the penalties of neglect and disobedience; nor has either profit or honour to expect from his perils and his conquefts. He toils without the hope either of mural or civic garlands, and must content himself without any higher praife than that of his companions.

But fuch indeed is the constitution of man, that labour

labour may be with great juftice styled its own reward; nor will any external incitements be requifite, if it be confidered how much happiness is gained, and how much mifery is escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body.

Eafe is the utmost that can be hoped from a fedentary and unactive habit; ease, a neutral ftate between pain and pleasure. The dance of spirits, the bound of vigour, the readiness of enterprise, and defiance of fatigue, are referved for him that braces his nerves, and hardens his fibres; that keeps his limbs pliant with motion, and, by frequent expofure, fortifies his frame against the common accidents of cold and heat.

With ease, however, if it could be fecured, many would be content; but nothing terrestrial can be kept at a stand. Eafe, if it is not rifing into pleasure, will be falling towards pain: and whatever hope the dreams of fpeculation may fuggeft, of obferving the proportion between nutriment and labour, and keeping the body in a healthy state by fupplies exactly equal to its wafte, we know, that, in effect, the vital powers, unexcited by motion, grow gradually languid; that as their vigour fails, obftructions are generated; and that from obftructions proceed moft of thofe pains that wear us away flowly with periodical tortures, and though they fometimes fuffer life to be long, condemn it to be ufelefs; that chain us down on the couch of mifery, and mock us with the hopes of death.

Exercise indeed cannot fecure us from that diffolution to which we are decreed: but while the foul and body continue united, it can make the affocia

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tion pleafing, and can give probable hopes, that they fhall be disjoined by an eafy separation. It was a principle among the ancients, That acute difeafes are from heaven, and chronical from ourfelves. The dart of death indeed falls from heaven, but we poifon it by our own misconduct. To die, is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish, is generally his folly.

It is indeed neceffary to that perfection of which our present state is capable, that the mind and body fhould both be kept in action; that neither the faculties of the one nor of the other be fuffered to grow lax or torpid for want of ufe; that neither health be purchased by voluntary submission to ignorance, nor knowledge cultivated at the expence of that health, which must enable it either to give pleasure to its poffeffor, or affistance to others. It is too frequently the pride of students, to defpife thofe amusements and recreations which give to the reft of mankind strength of limbs and chearfulness of heart. Solitude and contemplation are indeed feldom confiftent with fuch skill in common exercises or fports, as is neceffary to make them practifed with delight; and no man is willing to do that of which the neceffity is not preffing and immediate, when he knows that his awkwardness must make him ridiculous.

Ludere qui nefcit, campeftribus abftinet armis,
Indoctufque pila, difcive, trochive, quiefcit,
Ne fpiffe rifum tollant impunè corona.

Thus the man of learning is often refigned, almost by his own confent, to languor and to pain ;

and

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