First, absolute purity in all liquors.
Second, the substitution of beer and light wines for whisky and other strong drinks.
Third, the regeneration of places where wine and beer may be obtained, so that they can be visited by anybody without the sacrifice of respectability.
Certainly these views are reasonable, and since the total abstinence doctrine has met with such signal failure, would it not be worth while to give them a fair trial?
Closely allied to this question of temperance in Hogan’s mind is that of physical culture. He is a thorough believer in the old Latin proverb, “A sound mind and a sound body.” His own opportunities for mental acquirements have been, as we have seen, limited. But if he has never delved much into books, he has picked up a large stock of useful information which the schools do not teach. Observation has taught him that all cultivation of the mind which is made at the expense of the body is to be counted in the end an unprofitable experiment. The Book of books has asked what it shall profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul? It may also be asked, What shall it profit a man to get the wisdom of sages, and lose his health?
This word health means nothing more than a perfect operation of all the functions of the human system. To obtain so desirable an end, is certainly worth time and thought. Ninety-nine parents out of a hundred put their children into school, and are tenacious about their mental growth, while they leave the body to care for itself. Physical culture ought to begin as early as that of the mind. A boy should be taught the laws of health before he is taught the laws of arithmetic or grammar. Yet, while money is freely expended to train the intellect, it is only in rare instances that a child is put through a proper course of physical training.
It is a generally accepted fact that a perfectly healthy condition of the body begets a corresponding state of mind. The mind, in short, is that indefinable something—even the metaphysicians have not determined what—but which relates to the brain, and is largely dependent upon that organ for its operations. Now, the brain, as we know, is matter. It has substance, color, and weight. It is, in short, a part of the body. When the brain becomes disordered, reason loses its control, and the result is insanity. On the other hand, if the body is kept well and strong, the brain performs its work without difficulty, and a person is prepared to grapple with the problems of life successfully.
All this leads up to the argument which Hogan advances in favor of physical culture. Let a man devote a part of his time to the development of his muscles. He will be better and stronger in every way if he does. Proper and persistent exercise is the best medicine in the world. A pair of dumb-bells contain more virtue than a dozen prescriptions. A sand-bag may be made far more efficacious than the biggest box of pills ever compounded. If your spirits are low, if you are subject to fits of despondency, and find yourself looking upon the world with jaundiced eyes; if the color goes out of your cheek, and your digestion is bad; if, in short, you are one of the innumerable stoop-shouldered, sunken-eyed, and sallow-faced army, throw physic to the dogs, and go into a gymnasium. Put up the bells—ten pounders, perhaps, at first, but if you keep at it perseveringly, you will raise a hundred in time. Learn to box, to fence, to swing Indian clubs, to turn on the bar, and to walk. This last accomplishment is really the most difficult of all. Not walking from your house to your office or your shop, but getting over the ground in the true pedestrian style, and counting the distance by miles, not rods. Hogan has frequently made his thirty or forty miles a day, simply for recreation. It is such walking as this that will put the blood into an active circulation, and improve the whole system.
To be of any lasting benefit to a man, physical exercise must be constant and continuous. It must not be practiced by fits and starts. Steady work is the only thing which will bring the desired result. Surely, a man would better devote an hour each day to the preservation of his health, than pay exorbitant doctors’ bills, or be forced to give up work altogether. The Americans, of all people in the world, need this relaxation. They live upon the constant strain. Mind and body alike are even worked. The rest afforded by proper gymnastic exercise would be as grateful as it would be beneficial. If we want to build up a strong and sturdy race of people, we must attend to physical training as one of the most important things in life.
Hogan is free from any hobby in this matter. He has no particular kind of exercise to recommend other than that which may be found in all gymnasiums. His argument simply is, that people shall develop their brawn as well as brain, leaving the method to be adopted to individual choice.