Extract from a supposed Speech of John Adajns, in support of American Independence.......... Webster. 379 Extract from a Speech of Robert Emmet, Esq., Before Lord Norbury, on an Indictment for High Treason... 381 Hamlet's Soliloquy.... Shakspeare. 265 Happy Freedom of the Man whom Grace makes Free. Industry necessary to the Attainment of Eloquence. Lines supposed to have been Written by Alexander Juan Fernandez.......... Meeting of Satin, Sin, and Death. Milton on his Loss of Sight.... Cowper. 195 Sheridan Lefanor. 516 Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua.... Elijah Kellogg. 410 Speech of Cicero Against Verres.. Speech of Satan to his Legions Speech of Satan, with Gestures. Tell's Address to the Mountains. The Bells.... The Black Regiment. Edgar A. Poe. 490 Port Hudson, May 27, 1863. Geo. H. Boker. 542 The Hermit.... Beattie. 236 The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire (1571.) Jean Ingelow. 450 The Hour of Prayer..... Mrs. Hemans. 389 The Importance of Order in the Distribution of our Time. Blair. 347 The Nature of True Eloquence.. The Old Clock on the Stairs.... The Parting of Marmion and Douglas. The Pauper's Death-Bed...... Caroline The Quarrel of Brutus and Cassius INTRODUCTION. AN is designed for action. Nature has so constituted him, that both body and mind require daily exercise to develope their powers, and maintain them in a vigorous and healthy condition. The truth of this remark is manifest from constant observation and experience - those who lead active, bustling lives, conjoined with temperance and prudence, commonly possess robust frames, and healthy constitutions; while the sedentary and the indolent are enervated and sickly. We find the same results from the exercise of the mental faculties. He whose mind is constantly employed in the acquisition of knowledge, usually retains his mental faculties unimpaired to the last. But not so with the man of ease and indolence. After the meridian of life, the powers of his mind, with those of the body, become weaker, and weaker, and he finally leaves the world as he entered it - a child. The health and strength of the body, therefore, mainly depend on the number of muscles that are frequently called into action, and the degree of rational exercise through which they pass. Now there are few, if any, whose daily avocations are so varied as to bring into requisition all the muscles of the body: hence the necessity of gymnastic exercises. The term, gymnastics, in its widest sense, signifies all bodily exercises; in a more limited sense, "exercises syste matically adapted to develope the physical powers, and preserve them in perfection, which constitutes the art of gymnastics properly so called." |