Riding on Horseback is a fine exercise for both sexes. It promotes digestion, improves the circulation, and expands and develops the respiratory organs. The pure, fresh air, pleasant scenery, and pleasurable excitement, impart renewed vigor to the equestrian. In the Southern States it is a universal accomplishment, and children are taught to ride as well as to walk.
Dancing. Notwithstanding the fact that dancing has been perverted to the basest purposes, has been made the fruitful source of dissipation, and has often laid the foundation for disease, it is yet capable of being made to minister to health and happiness. As a means of physical culture, it favors the development of the muscular system, and promotes health and cheerfulness. When practiced for this purpose, Jacques terms it "the best of all indoor exercises," as it brings to bear upon the physical system a great number of energizing and harmonious influences.
MENTAL CULTURE.
The brain, like all other organs of the body, requires alternate exercise and repose; and, in physical endurance, it is subject to general physiological laws. When exercised with moderation it acquires strength, vigor, and an accelerated activity. Excessive mental exertion is liable to result in softening of the brain, and various nervous diseases, sometimes culminating in insanity, and in many instances proving fatal to life. The mere votaries of pleasure who avoid all effort of the mind, fall into the opposite error. In all cases of intellectual activity, the exertions should be directed to some subject interesting to the student. In this manner duty will become a pleasure, which in turn will re-invigorate the mental functions.
When the mind in confined to one subject for any considerable length of time together, it becomes fatigued, and requires relaxation, recreation, rest. This may be obtained by directing the attention to some other subject, either study or amusement, the latter of which is preferable. The amusement, however, may be of an intellectual or physical character or both combined, and will, if properly conducted, restore vigor to both mind and body.
Prominent among physical phenomena is the mutual relation between the brain and the organs of nutrition. Mental exertion should be avoided for at least one hour after a hearty meal, and all mental labor which requires concentration of thought ought to be accomplished in the earlier portion of the day, when the brain is refreshed and repaired by the night's repose. Mental, like physical endurance, is modified by age, health and development. A person accustomed to concentration of thought, can endure a longer mental strain than one inured to manual labor only. One of the most injurious customs, is the cultivation of the intellect at the expense of the physical powers.
Mental Culture During Childhood. One of the greatest mistakes which people make in the management of their children, is to overtask their mental faculties. Although it is exceedingly gratifying to see children acquire knowledge, and manifest an understanding far beyond their years, this gratification is often purchased too dearly, for precocious children are apt to die young. The tissue of the brain and nerves of children is very delicate; they have not yet acquired the powers of endurance which older persons possess. The greater portion of the nutriment assimilated, is required for growth and organic development, and they can ill afford its expenditure for mental manifestations. They receive impressions easier and learn much more readily than in after life, but it is at the expense of the physical organization. Their mental faculties continue to be developed by the expenditure of brain nutriment, while physical growth and the powers of endurance are arrested. It is much better to give physical development the precedence in order that the mental organism may be well supported and its operations carried into effect; for it must be apparent to all that an ordinary intellect in a healthy body, is capable of accomplishing infinitely more than a strong mind in a weak body. Regularity should be observed in exercising the mental functions. For this reason a fixed order in the pursuit of any literary occupation is very essential. The pursuit of the most abstruse studies will thus become habitual and comparatively easy, a consequence of systematic application. Mental labor should always cease when the train of thought becomes confused, and there is the slightest sensation of depression. All distracting influences should be absent from the mind, in order to facilitate intense study, for the intellect cannot attend perfectly to two subjects at the same time. Painful sensations always have a tendency to paralyze mental exertion. Great care should be taken that the head is not subjected to injury of any kind, as it is almost invariably accompanied by some nervous derangement. Exposure to extreme heat should be carefully avoided. An attack of sun-stroke although it may not be immediately fatal, may occasion tumors in the brain, or some organic disease.
SLEEP.
For all animated beings sleep is an imperious necessity, as indispensable as food. The welfare of man requires alternate periods of activity and repose. It is a well-established physiological fact, that during the wakeful hours the vital energies are being expended, the powers of life diminished, and, if wakefulness is continued beyond a certain limit, the system becomes enfeebled and death is the result. During sleep there is a temporary cessation of vital expenditures, and a recuperation of all the forces. Under the influence of sleep "the blood is refreshed, the brain recruited, physical sufferings are extinguished, mental troubles are removed, the organism is relieved, and hope returns to the heart."