Add to all this the Vivacity, the Gayety which does alwayes more or less result from brisk Motion, whether it is caus’d by the spirits expanding themselves, or the Fibres dilating themselves to take in a greater quantity of the Spirits, it is hard to determine, and perhaps of no great consequence if we could; but that I may represent the Sense we may conceive of this, I think I have no reason to be asham’d to borrow for once more an Illustration from that Noble Beast, to which this Exercise I am treating of is owing; It is a known Case then, that if you take a Horse of the best Spirit, and of the best Keeping, provided he is not Vicious, as they call it; if you mount this Horse, and walk him or keep him to a pretty slow pace, you’ll find him quiet enough, but if you once put him on to a larger Pace, he can’t contain himself, but will grow troublesome, and press for a swifter Career, than perhaps his Rider would desire; which plainly shews, that there is something in the Animal Oeconomy, which crescit eundo, which gathers by Motion, and which can’t perhaps be made to display it self so well any other way; for this must not be thought to be wholly owing to high Feeding, but to the degree of the Motion; for the same Sprightliness or Courage will appear proportionally in any sort of Motion: And but a slow Motion in some Cases does not want its good Effects; those who are Judges of the Art of War, tell us that it is not best for a Body of Men to stand still and expect the Enemy, but to keep in Motion while they are drawing to the Battle; and in the time of a Siege, they make it a Rule, to remove their Men from one Post to another; that their Spirits may be kept up by their being in a continual Diversion. We are as subject to the Impressions of Motion, as to those of Sound and Harmony, and both are able sometimes to inspire a Flash of Courage into the Mind, that is not to be despis’d; and as one was of Use to drive away the Evil Spirit of Old, so the other may be of Service, to dispel the Hypochondriack Cloud, the desponding imaginations of Sick Persons; a Man may be able by this means to rouze himself, and shake off that Incubus of the Brain, that lies brooding of Causeless Fears and Doubts, to the great hindrance of all his Endeavours after Health; it is no small matter for a Person to hope and believe that he shall do well, it is some Advance towards a Cure to have so much Courage, Ἤν φόβος καὶ δυθυμὶη, &c. Si Metus & Tristitia multo tempopore perseverent, Melancholicum hoc ipsum; As Hippocrates observes in one of his Aphorisms of his fifth Section, Fear and Sadness are sufficient to create a Distemper, and therefore may be very well thought to obstruct greatly the Cure of one; those Passions cause the Motion of the Heart, and the Beat of the Artery to be weaker and consequently must proportionably lessen insensible Perspiration, which depends so much upon the Vigour of that Motion: We see a more than usual Application to Business and Intensness of Thought for but a few Days, shall cause an Alteration in the Countenance of a Healthful Man, and make him begin to look Pale and Wan; how much more then must it prejudice a Sick Man, to be always musing on his Distemper, which he can hardly well forbear neither, when he knows there is real Danger in this Case? but all this Anxiety will be very much prevented and interrupted by Riding, and a Man will naturally come to take heart and think well of his Case, when he finds he can procure such Temporary or Periodical Relief, if I may so call it, such intervals of Ease, as in the time of Riding, he is sure more or less to enjoy.
These things are so agreeable to Nature and Reason, that I am confident they can’t but gain reception with those who are acquainted with this Exercise; no Man can be an Enemy to Riding, but he who is ignorant of it; and the generality of Men are by their Employments and Affairs kept so much from the Practice of it, that they for the most part judge of it by what they have experienc’d on a Journey, where an indifferent Horse, bad Ways, and other Inconveniencies, make Riding rather a Toil than a Pleasure: Whereas he who designs to make his Riding turn to account, must make it a Pleasure; he must retire to some Place, where he can have the open Field for his Range, he must find out a Horse that entirely suits his Humour, and then it will not be easie for him not to delight in a Creature which will perform all he expects from him, that takes Pleasure in what he is put upon, and delights in his Rider; a Creature, which (considering the many other Beasts that are Serviceable for Draught or Burden) seems to be made almost only for the Defence, the Pleasure and Health of his Master; and which has so many excellent Qualities above all other Beasts, that there is no Man upon Earth, whose Gravity or Dignity is so great, as not to allow him with some Pleasure to take Notice of ’em, if the Exercise alone will not satisfie; there is Variety of the Pleasures of the Field, some of which any Man may make agreeable to his Humour; there is variety of Chace, both Violent and Moderate, a variety so great, that Providence seems to have appointed it to be subservient to this Exercise, that Men may divert themselves with Pleasures, that will keep up the Vigour of the Mind, instead of those soft Effeminate ones, which generally take place more or less, where this is laid aside; add to all this the pleasure a Man conceives when he finds his Health returning, which will make him delight in the means of his Recovery, and persue with Cheerfulness that which before perhaps seem’d indifferent to him; so that an Active Life, when a Man has laid aside his timorous Prejudices, and is let into the tast of it, will be found not only to have its Advantages, but its Charms too; and he who indulges himself long in it, will think it not a Paradox, that there should be an Active Luxury, which may exceed all the Passive Enjoyments of Sloth and Indolence. I have insisted the more on the Pleasure as well as the Benefit of this Exercise, because there are some Constitutions of so fine a Make, or else so impair’d by some Hereditary Stain, that it must be slow and gentle means that can Act upon ’em to any purpose, and the taking Pleasure in those Means must greatly contribute to the Relief they are intended to give.
Tho’ what I have said, may I hope carry weight enough with if, to convince any that will give themselves leave to enquire into the Causes of things; yet because Examples have so great a sway with some I shall add a few instances of the Effects of this Exercise, and I shall first relate the History of the Cure of Dr. Seth Ward, then Bishop of Salisbury, which I have Translated from Dr. Sydenham.
Nostrorum quidem in Sacris Antistes, Vir Prudentia, &c. “One of our Prelates, a Man Eminent for Wisdom and Learning, after that he had for a long time given himself intemperately to his Studies, and with the whole Stress of his Mind, which in him is very great, apply’d himself too much to close Thinking; he fell at length into the Hypochondriacal Distemper, which continuing a good while, all the Ferments of his Body were vitiated, and all the Digestions quite subverted. He had more than once gone thro’ the Chalybeate Course, He had try’d almost all the Mineral Waters, with Purgings often repeated; as likewise Antiscorbuticks of all kinds, and Testaceous Powders, in order to the Sweetning of his Blood. Thus what with the Disease, and what with the Cure, continu’d for so many Years together, being just not quite destroy’d, he was seiz’d with the Colliquative Diarrhœa, which in the Consumption, and other Chronical Distempers, when all the Digestions are quite spoil’d, is wont to be the Forerunner of Death: When he at length consulted me, I presently consider’d, that there was no more place left for Medicines, since he had taken so many, and those so efficacious to so little purpose; I advis’d him therefore for the Reasons above-mention’d, to commit himself wholly to Riding for a Cure, beginning first with small Stages, such as were most suitable with so weak a Condition; in so much, that if he had not been of a piercing Judgment, that could discern the Reason of things, he would not have been induc’d, to try that sort of Exercise. I desir’d him to persist daily in that Practice, till in his own Opinion he was well, encreasing his Stages gradually every day, till he could come to Ride as many Miles in a Day, as the more Prudent and Moderate Travellers usually do in one day, when upon the account of their Affairs, they set out on a long Journey; that he should not be sollicitous as to what he Eat or Drank, or have any regard to the Weather; but that he should like a Traveller, take up with whatsoever he met with. To be short, he set upon this Course gradually, Augmenting the Distance of his Ridings, till at length he came to ride twenty, nay thirty Miles a Day and as soon as he perceiv’d himself better after a few days tryal, he was Animated with the wonderfulness of the Event, and persever’d in the same Course for some Months; in which space of Time, he rode several Thousand Miles, as he told me himself, until he was not only well, but had acquired a strong and robust Habit of Body.”
And Dr. Sydenham, tells us in the same place, that he Cur’d some of his Relations of Consumptions, by putting ’em upon Riding much, of whom he says, that it was altogether out of the Power of Medicine to help ’em. Cum certò sciam me, vel Medicamentis quantivis pretii, aut aliâ Methodo, quæcunque demum ea fuerit, nihil magis iisdem proficere potuisse, quam si multis verbis hortatus fueram ut recte valerent.
A Clergyman, with whom I am acquainted, living in the Country, happen’d some years ago, to fall into a lingring Diarrhœa, which hung upon him some Years, and eluded the force of the best Medicines of all sorts, and brought him so low, that he had no hopes of Recovery left; when he was in this Condition, a Physician of the City advis’d him to try what Riding would do, not a slight tryal or two, but a close application to it; and his Physician told me himself, that he charg’d him to keep to a brisk Motion, and gallop as much as he could, enjoyning withal a very strict Diet, that if the Disease should be check’d by the Exercise, it might not by any improper Food, have occasion to break out again. He set upon this Course in his own Grounds, which are very large and spatious, and by these means was restor’d to perfect Health again. ’Tis manifest, this Case was a Colliquative Diarrhœa, which at long run had sunk all the Digestions and brought Nature into a kind of Universal Gleet, so that it came to be properly and solely the Object of Exercise; whereas a New Diarrhœa or Dysentery, when the Humours are Turgid and Acrimonious, is solely the Object of Medicine, and so far from being to be Cur’d this way, that nothing would be more absurd than to attempt it; for ’tis the debilitated Fibres that Exercise restores, and immediately affects; and whenever Exercise makes an Alteration in the Fluids, it does so by the frequent Working and Constriction of the Fibres, which in a fresh Diarrhœa, before the Genuine Acrimony that occasions it is spent, would be to no purpose.
A Northamptonshire Gentleman, who about two Years and a half ago, came up to Town, and liv’d in Hogsdon Square, was taken Ill and sent for me; I found the chief thing he complain’d of was a Colick, but he had other Symptoms, which made me suspect he was beginning to be Cachectick. He was averse to much Physick, and took nothing but the Elixir Salutis, which gave him Ease, but he continued indispos’d; and seeing he was unwilling to take any more things, I advis’d him to ride out a little, he having a good Pad of his own breeding in the Town; he told me, if he rode at all, he would ride Forty Mile; I reply’d, I thought a much less distance would serve, and indeed as much as I was for that Exercise, I thought five or six Miles would have tyr’d him; for he was much weakned, and his Arms trembled exceedingly, when he lifted ’em up, which was caus’d purely by the Distemper, for he was not given to drink. However, after I had started that Advice, he persisted in his Design, and in two or three days set out and rode I think to Bedford, or thereabouts, Forty Mile in a Day, which, as he told me afterwards, made him so stiff, that he was laid up for five or six days; but it stav’d off all those Cachectick Symptoms that appear’d before, and in about a Month he return’d well to Town, and with so Florid a Countenance, that it could be owing to nothing but that Exercise; and he continu’d so for near a Twelvemonth, when these Symptoms of an ill Habit of Body, which I clearly discern’d was begun, broke out again, and continue upon him still. This Example may suffice to shew, that the Weakness which People commonly alledge for a Reason against Riding, is no Reason at all; it being, in some Sense, their Weakness which makes it requisite.
I will here likewise mention an Instance of the good Effects of Walking, the most common and unpromising Exercise; which I had from Dr. Baynard. About Twenty Years agoe a certain Gentleman came from the West-Indies for the sake of our Hot Bath, for the Cure of a Sort of Palsie, which was occasion’d by the Dry-Gripes of that Countrey, kind of Colica Pictonum, which if not cur’d in time, usually terminates in a Palsie; This Gentleman got a Calash to carry him to the Bath; but it came into his Head, that he would by the way try to walk as much as he could, and when he found himself tir’d would get into his Calash; upon this Attempt he found his Limbs come to him more and more every day; and before he quite reach’d the Bath, he was perfectly well. And here it is remarkable, that Bontius, as great an Admirer as he was of fragrant Exoticks, in his Medicina Indorum, treating of a Sort of Palsie which some of the Indians call Beriberii, not much unlike to, if not the same with that I have lately mention’d, he makes it his first Rule in the Cure of that Distemper, That the Sick shouldn’t give way to it, but set upon vigorous Exercise, Sed hoc imprimis curandum est, ne (si ullo modo fieri possit) te lecto affigas decumbendo; sed vel ambulando, vel equitando, vel simili aliquo motu validiore omni conatu te exerceas.
Dr. Baynard has likewise given me, in the following Letter, an Account of his Recovery from a Consumption, some Years agoe.
SIR,