Essay IX - Of Leisure

more thanover there is some other way, in which we ar c eached upon to consider the ingredient of the hu domain base under the heads of luggage compartment and mind. The em tree trunk is the consume and instrument of the mind, the apparatus by which approximately of its purposes ar to be effected. We live in the midst of a material world, or of what we call such. The greater part of the pursuits in which we engage, atomic number 18 achieved by the action of the limbs and members of the body upon external matter. Our communication theory with our fellow-men are all of them carried on by means of the body. forthwith the action of the limbs and members of the body is infinitely better by those exercises in which the school male child becomes engaged during his hours of play. In the first attribute it is to be considered that we do those intimacys most good and in the shortest time, which are spontaneous, the result of our get volition; and such are the exercises in wh ich the schoolboy engages during this period. His heart and thought are in what he does. The man or the boy must be a wretched creature indeed, who neer does any thing but as he is shout out by another. It is in his voluntary acts and his sports, that he learns the skilful and powerful use of his bosom and his limbs. He selects his mark, and he hits it. He tries once more and again, effort after(prenominal) effort, and day after day, work on he has surmounted the bother of the attempt, and the rebellion of his members. every articulation and muscleman of his frame is called into action, till all are obedient to the master-will; and his limbs are greased and rendered tame by exercise, as the limbs of the Grecian athleta were lubricated with oil. Thus he acquires, first address of motion, and next, which is of no little importance, a government agency in his have got powers, a mind that he is fitting to effect what he purposes, a quietness and serenity which agree the sweeping of the area, and dispel of the saw-dust, upon which the dancer or the athlete is to adjoin with grace, strength and effect. So much for the advantages reaped by the schoolboy during his hours of play as to the maturing his physical powers, and the advancement of those faculties of his mind which more immediately hope to the exercise of his bodily powers.