portive activities to which the instincts impel, are essential to
bodily welfare. Whoever forbids them, forbids the divinely-appointed
means to physical development.

* * * * *

A topic still remains--one perhaps more urgently demanding consideration
than any of the foregoing. It is asserted by not a few, that among the
educated classes the younger adults and those who are verging on
maturity, are neither so well grown nor so strong as their seniors. On
first hearing this assertion, we were inclined to class it as one of
the many manifestations of the old tendency to exalt the past at the
expense of the present. Calling to mind the facts that, as measured by
ancient armour, modern men are proved to be larger than ancient men; and
that the tables of mortality show no diminution, but rather an increase,
in the duration of life, we paid little attention to what seemed a
groundless belief. Detailed observation, however, has shaken our
opinion. Omitting from the comparison the labouring classes, we have
noticed a majority of cases in which the children do not reach the
stature of their parents; and, in massiveness, making due allowance for
difference of age, there seems a like inferiority. Medical men say that
now-a-days people cannot bear nearly so much depletion as in times gone
by. Premature baldness is far more common than it used to be. And an
early decay of teeth occurs in the rising generation with startling
frequency. In general vigour the contrast appears equally striking. Men
of past generations, living riotously as they did, could bear more than
men of the present generation, who live soberly, can bear. Though they
drank hard, kept irregular hours, were regardless of fresh air, and
thought little of cleanliness, our recent ancestors were capable of
prolonged application without injury, even to a ripe old age: witness
the annals of the bench and the bar. Yet we who think much about our
bodily welfare; who eat with moderation, and do not drink to excess; who
attend to ventilation, and use frequent ablutions; who make annual
excursions, and have the benefit of greater medical knowledge;--we are
continually breaking down under our work. Paying considerable attention
to the laws of health, we seem to be weaker than our grandfathers who,
in many respects, defied the laws of health. And, judging from the
appearance and frequent ailments of the rising generation, they are
likely to be even