The Season.
We may expect very pleasant weather during this month. For whether the summer has been cold, warm, or showery, September, in all latitudes lying between 45 and 55 degrees north, produces, on an average, the finest and pleasantest weather of the year: as we get farther south the pleasantest temperature is found in October; more northward than 55 degrees the chills of autumn are already arrived, and we must look for temperature to August.[334]
The Gymnasium.
For the Every-Day Book.
Hæc opera atque hæ sunt generosi Principis artes.
Juv. Sat. 8. L. 224.
Let cricket, tennis, fives, and ball,
The active to amusement call;
Let sportsmen through the fields at morn
Discharge the gun and sound the horn,—
Gymnastic sport shall fill my hours,
Renew my strength and tone my powers.
I learn to climb, to walk and run,
I make defence, and dangers shun;
Now quick, now slow, now poised on high,
I stand in air and vault the sky;
The sailor’s skill, the soldier’s part,
I compass by Gymnastic art.
All life’s concerns require that health
Should be secured to gather wealth;
That limb and muscle, nerve and vein,
Should vigorous force and motion gain:—
Seek the Gymnasium,—try the plan,
And be the strong and graceful man.
The Olympic games, of Grecian birth,
Gave many a youth athletic worth;
Hence Romans shone;—hence Britons fought,
The Picts and Vandals influence caught;
The lance, the spear, and arrow flew,
And prove what deeds Gymnastics do.