INDOLENCE AND LUXURY. "Look round the habitable world, how few MAN was not created weak and distempered; nor do we learn from ancient history that he began to experience the attacks of disease till many centuries after his creation; but, on the contrary, that he attained an age far more advanced than we of the present generation ever attain to, and attained to it in the fullest enjoyment of health and vigour. What, then, is the cause of this unhappy change? And why does such a frightful army of diseases now assail us? To an observant mind the true answer will at once suggest itself; namely, a departure from the simplicity observed by our forefathers, and the adoption of an artificial mode of living in its room. While men lived according to nature, and were strangers to excessive and irregular sensual indulgences, the condition of their health required but little attention they journeyed on to a green old age almost without experiencing any bodily disease. But time and custom have effected a complete revolution in men's habits of living: their natures have become so habituated to ease and luxury, that they easily persuade themselves that so long as glaring mischief does not instantly follow every breach of an organic law, and they do not immediately feel the ill effects of an irregular life, no harm can have been done. They therefore persevere in artificial modes of living, to the gradual destruction of their constitutions, and the inevitable curtailment of their existence, without seeming to be aware that they have rendered themselves liable to the imputation of luxury and indolence, in the strictest meaning of the terms. In the present enlightened age (however incredible it may appear) the evidence of men's own senses seems to add but little weight to argument, and fails to convince them of the dangerous error into which they are daily falling; nor is it till they are in good earnest deprived of health that they begin to think of it as a thing subject to vicissitude, and become really sensible of its worth.* * "Man studies the nature of other animals and adapts his conduct to their constitution: himself alone he continues ignorant of and neglects." COMBE. Does it not almost baffle the power of imagination to conceive it possible, that that which so vitally affects the health and physical well-being of every individual,should be disregarded by the community at large; that an almost total ignorance of the true means of preserving health should pervade all ranks of society; and that, while even the smallest possible degree of health is possessed by them, they should treat as a matter of indifference the only means which ever did, or ever will, conduce to its preservation? A bad state of health generally originates in trifling deviations from nature, too little, singly, to excite our alarm; but, by and by, so powerful is their influence, and deadly their effects, as to set all remedies at defiance. In some degree, therefore, we are the victims of a deception emanating from ourselves. If the art of preserving the health were as difficult as the acquisition of a knowledge of some branch of abstruse learning, the absence of a general knowledge of an art so inestimable would be in a great measure accounted for; but to our shame be it remembered, that the laws which regulate the animal economy are so few and simple, as to be easily remembered and understood even by a child; and yet the tenour of men's conduct, in general, bespeaks utter ignorance of the subject. Some, indeed, affect to regard attention to such matters as the mark of an inferior mind, fixing upon them an imputation of selfishness. and slavery, to which they consider no one ought to subject himself. But does not the dignity of our nature suffer a much greater degradation by the premature deaths and innumerable diseases of martyrs to luxurious habits and popular errors in our modes of living, who pass through life habitual invalids,-than by an undeviating adherence to the paths of dietetic moderation, which would perpetuate health and length of life? It does really appear, then, that health is viewed as a mere ordinary enjoyment, so mechanical in itself, and so subservient to our will, as to right itself again without the slightest attention, how much soever it may have been abused. Happy would it be for men, could they but anticipate the punishment which this glaring and inexcusable neglect of their own well-being is sure to bring upon them. The science of Physiology teaches us that the human body is a machine constructed upon physical, chemical, and vital principles, so intimately combined, that it is impossible to understand the nature of one of these principles without a perfect knowledge of the others. So wonderfully and fearfully are we made, that, at each step of our progress in the knowledge of ourselves, physically considered, our admiration of the skill with which the human frame is put together rises higher; but it is like a piece of complex mechanism, which requires to be managed with a care and attention proportioned to its complexity, since in that proportion it is more liable to derangement than machinery of a simpler construction. By nothing is that marvellous machine, the human body, so liable to be impeded in its movements and finally brought to a stand, as by the relaxation through indolence, or the overstraining through violence, of its springs once let them lose their native elasticity, and it will be well if fatal consequences do not inevitably ensue. All our physical ailments may be traced to some one or more of the following causes : 1stly.-Inactivity, including passive exercise, such as riding in a carriage, no mode of exercise having any title to the name which does not promote universal muscular exertion. 2ndly.-Lying long in bed, living in hot rooms, and that absurd, unnatural, inconvenient, expensive, and suicidal habit, of turning day into night. 3rdly. The habitual respiration of exhausted and impure air. 4thly.-Infrequent ablution of the entire body. |