r.TO TEE EDITOR OF ERE "SPECTATOR. ") SIE, — May I be allowed
to say, in reply to Mr. Scarth's letter and your own strictures on my letter, that I do not presume to be an authority on the value of exercise. As Mr. Scarth observes, it is a matter as to which every man must be a law to himself. But I must demur to the argument that a moderate amount of physical exertion is incompatible with intellectual health. Facts prove the contrary. Robert Burns has written s few things that will not readily die, yet his way of life was far from sedentary. Scott at his best was one of the most active of men. Wordsworth was a frequent wanderer, Christo- pher North a mighty athlete, Dickens a great walker, Charles Kingsley an enthusiastic sportsman, Mr. Gladstone preserves his health by woodcutting, and the late Archbishop Whately was wont to cure his headaches by cutting down trees.
Reverting for a moment to my own experience, I do not, as Mr. Scarth seems to suppose, spend much time on my tricycle —perhaps an hour a day—and about once a week I generally find time for a spin of twenty miles or thirty miles. I have already mentioned that the exercise has rid me of my headaches, but I omitted to mention that it has cured me of sleeplessness, and that I now never suffer from that morning languor which tomes of insomnia, and is so great a drawback to literary work.
I do not vouch for the accuracy of Dr. Jaeger's theories—the responsibility for them is entirely his own—but it may be well to repeat that he considers Turkish baths to be in some measure an equivalent for exercise. It might be worth the while of literary workers who are unable to take much exercise, or who 'fear that by doing so they may impair their brightest and best -ideas, to try the alternative suggested by the doctor.
It may possibly interest some of your readers to know that the lecture which I described in your columns on June 3rd was reported iu the Neue Zilricher Zeitung about three weeks ago.—
I
• Nothing of the kind. A " deck-pacer " it nimest invariably a thinker.—En. Spectator.
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