LTO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTAT011."1
SIR,—I have read with much interest the correspondence in your columns on this subject, which is one of no little interest to me, who have managed to preserve physical and mental vigour through a life of hard mental work. It has struck me that your able correspondents have missed one point of capital moment. By common consent, exercise, much exercise, is good, if you can take it,—if work, weather, and other circumstances allow it. But frequently it is impossible ; what then is to be done P I have uniformly found that reducing the diet, and especially avoiding the too free use of heat-producing foods, if not an equivalent for the lack of exercise, at any rate enables one to pursue one's desk work in comfort, with efficiency, and without harm accruing. Perhaps I may-presume to say this, as, despite this my notion of the harmlessness of physical inactivity if accompanied by a low diet, I each morning, at sixty-four, get into my garden at six o'clock for a two hours' spell before my bath and breakfast, though the followingloug day's work at my books, desk, and easel is now, perhaps fortunately for me, a
purely voluntary one.— am, Sir, &c., CONSTANT READER.
Previous page
