[58] Hawkesworth, in the second paper of the "Adventurer," has
composed, from his own feelings, an elegant description of
intellectual and corporeal labour, and the sufferings of an
author, with the uncertainty of his labour and his reward.
[59] Dr. Fuller's "Medicina Gymnastica, or, a treatise concerning the
power of Exercise, with respect to the Animal OEconomy, fifth
edition, 1718," is useful to remind the student of what he is
apt to forget; for the object of this volume is to _substitute
exercise for medicine_. He wrote the book before he became a
physician. He considers horse-riding as the best and noblest
of all exercises, it being "a mixed exercise, partly active
and partly passive, while other sorts, such as walking,
running, stooping, or the like, require some labour and more
strength for their performance." Cheyne, in his well-known
treatise of "The English Malady," published about twenty years
after Fuller's work, acknowledges that riding on horseback is
the best of all exercises, for which he details his reasons.
"Walking," he says, "though it will answer the same end, yet
is it more laborious and tiresome;" but amusement ought always
to be combined with the exercise of a student; the mind will
receive no refreshment by a solitary walk or ride, unless it
be agreeably withdrawn from all thoughtfulness and anxiety; if
it continue studying in its recreations, it is the sure means
of obtaining neither of its objects--a friend, not an author,
will at such a moment be the better companion.
The last chapter in Fuller's work contains much curious
reading on the ancient physicians, and their gymnastic
courses, which Asclepiades, the pleasantest of all the ancient
physicians, greatly studied; he was most fortunate in the
invention of exercises to supply the place of much physic, and
(says Fuller) no man in any age ever had the happiness to
obtain so general an applause; Pliny calls him the delight of
mankind. Admirable physician, who had so many ways, it
appears, to make physic agreeable! He invented the _lecti
pensiles_, or hanging beds, that the sick might be rocked to
sleep; which took so much at that time, that they became a
great luxury among the Romans.
Fuller judiciously does not recommend the gymnastic courses,
because horse-riding, for persons of delicate constitutions,
is preferable; he discovers too the reason why the ancients
did not introduce this mode of exercise--it arose from the
simple circumstance of their not knowing the use of stirrups,
which was a later invention. Riding with the ancients was,
therefore, only an exercise for the healthy and the robust; a
horse without stirrups was a formidable animal for a
valetudinarian.