lf. The woman whose
soul rises and falls the whole distance between ecstasy and despair
with the fit of a glove or the shade of a ribbon must not wonder if
people rate her as of about equal consequence with gloves and ribbons.
These vices make their victims low and petty; and the contempt with
which they are regarded is simply the recognition of the pettiness and
degradation which the vices have begotten.

CHAPTER III.

Exercise.

When the body is well fed and clothed, the next demand is for exercise.
Our powers are given us to be used; and unless they are used they waste
away. Nothing destroys power so surely and completely as disuse. The
only way to keep our powers is to keep them in exercise. We acquire the
power to lift by lifting; to run, by running; to write, by writing; to
talk, by talking; to build houses, by building; to trade, by trading. In
mature life our exercise comes to us chiefly along the lines of our
business, domestic, and social relations. In childhood and youth, before
the pressure of earning a living comes upon us, we must provide for
needed exercise in artificial ways. The play-impulse is nature's
provision for this need. It is by hearty, vigorous play that we first
gain command of those powers on which our future ability to do good work
depends.

THE DUTY.

+The best exercise that of which we are least conscious.+--It is the
duty of every grown person as well as of every child to take time for
recreation. Exercise taken in a systematic way for its own sake is a
great deal better than nothing; and in crowded schools and in sedentary
occupations such gymnastic exercises are the best thing that can be had.
The best exercise, however, is not that which we get when we aim at it
directly; but that which comes incidentally in connection with sport and
recreation. A plunge into the river; a climb over the hills; a hunt
through the woods; a skate on the pond; a wade in the trout brook; a
ride on horseback; a sail on the lake; camping out in the forest;--these
are the best ways to take exercise. For in these ways we have such a
good time that we do not think about the exercise at all; and we put
forth ten times the amount of exertion that we should if we were to stop
and think how much exercise we proposed to take.

Next in value to these natural outdoor sports come the artificial games;
baseball, football, hare and hounds, lawn tennis, croquet, and hockey.
When neither natural nor artifi