The renowned of any age usually come from humble life, in which character, both physical and mental, has had opportunity for development. Washington was a farmer’s boy; so were Adams, Jefferson, Putnam, Jackson, Webster, Clay, Douglas, Lincoln, and Raymond, of the past; and Grant, Sherman, Trumbull, Emerson, Bryant, Buckingham, and Greeley, of the present; while nine out of every ten of successful lives in any department of labor have come from the fields of country life.
Gymnasiums offer a very good substitute for outdoor exercise; and if practice in them is at all times controlled by a careful judgment, the result is undoubted benefit. Indeed, the lung power of an individual can be more rapidly enlarged here than elsewhere, since exercise is here adapted and may be directed solely to that end. However, one may not require for this purpose anything beyond a simple and inexpensive apparatus, consisting of a cross-bar and a pair of rings attached to some point above, with just room enough to swing the person clear of the floor.
SLEEP
is the “sweet restorer,” and invisible physician, playing an important part in the restoration and maintenance of health. Without this daily dying, as we are constituted, there could be no daily living; and whatever promotes sound, natural, balmy slumber is beyond all price in the economy of life. Chief among these promptings to restful slumber are a clear conscience, proper exercise, a suitable diet, and place. All but the latter have been considered. One-third of the whole time of life is spent in bed. Suppose an individual has attained the age of seventy-five years, twenty-five of this, on the average, have been passed in sleeping! How essential, then, it becomes to understand and to have every help which can be afforded, in securing the required rest our wearing frames demand.