inds of Labour, and for that
Reason gives a Man a greater Stock of Health and consequently a more
perfect Enjoyment of himself, than any other way of Life. I consider
the Body as a System of Tubes and Glands, or to use a more Rustick
Phrase, a Bundle of Pipes and Strainers, fitted to one another after
so wonderful a manner as to make a proper Engine for the Soul to work
with. This Description does not only comprehend the Bowels, Bones,
Tendons, Veins, Nerves and Arteries, but every Muscle and every
Ligature, which is a Composition of Fibres, that are so many
imperceptible Tubes or Pipes interwoven on all sides with invisible
Glands or Strainers.

This general Idea of a Human Body, without considering it in its
Niceties of Anatomy, lets us see how absolutely necessary Labour is
for the right Preservation of it. There must be frequent Motions and
Agitations, to mix, digest, and separate the Juices contained in it,
as well as to clear and cleanse that Infinitude of Pipes and Strainers
of which it is composed, and to give their solid Parts a more firm and
lasting Tone. Labour or Exercise ferments the Humours, casts them into
their proper Channels, throws off Redundancies, and helps Nature in
those secret Distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in
its Vigour, nor the Soul act with Chearfulness.

I might here mention the Effects which this has upon all the Faculties
of the Mind, by keeping the Understanding clear, the Imagination
untroubled, and refining those Spirits that are necessary for the
proper Exertion of our intellectual Faculties, during the present Laws
of Union between Soul and Body. It is to a Neglect in this Particular
that we must ascribe the Spleen, which is so frequent in Men of
studious and sedentary Tempers, as well as the Vapours to which those
of the other Sex are so often subject.

Had not Exercise been absolutely necessary for our Well-being, Nature
would not have made the Body so proper for it, by giving such an
Activity to the Limbs, and such a Pliancy to every Part as necessarily
produce those Compressions, Extensions, Contortions, Dilatations, and
all other kinds of Motions that are necessary for the Preservation of
such a System of Tubes and Glands as has been before mentioned. And
that we might not want Inducements to engage us in such an Exercise of
the Body as is proper for its Welfare, it is so ordered that nothing
valuable can be procured without it. Not to mention Riches and H