EXERCISE 1

Old manuscripts tell us that in the Middle Ages students, when they had finished their studies, would congregate in open places to play games and indulge in healthful recreation. The roughness of the sports and the evident enjoyment of the participants were noted with surprise by the staid and sober chroniclers of the time, and these old scholars were inclined to shake their heads at such fruitless effort. As the games seemed to give the young men a certain mental alertness, the scribes suggested in their writings that perhaps the sports should not be forbidden.

Since that time increasing emphasis has been laid upon the importance of regular exercise for college men. Today we have what might almost be called the science of athletics, sanctioned by general opinion and supported by medical investigation and statistics. The last few decades have seen the growth of expensive gymnasiums, athletic fields, highly paid coaches, and a small army of trainers. No one under present conditions, should be without the benefit of sound health, even though he be a student.

Unfortunately even such a centre of intelligence and athletic equipment as Harvard has men who wilfully or carelessly refuse to take regular exercise, who spend their days and nights in comfortable chairs, and call the short walks between classes, or from a dinning hall "enough exercise for them." Some of them are pathetically conscientious students who persuade themselves that they have no time for such nonsense, and sit for hours poring over books that they could master in half the time if their brains were refreshed by a run, a sharp game of tennis, or even a brisk walk.

With the coming of cold weather the temptation to sit by a warm fire, to hibernate, is greater than in the spring or summer. Yet, if we realize the opiate consequence of such laziness, we should bestir ourselves. As Bacon wrote, "Use fasting and full eating, but rather full eating; watching and sleep, but rather sleep; sitting and exercise, but rather exercise, and the like; so shall nature be cherished, and yet taught masteries."