But both are absolutely in accord on far more main points than those on which their practice, at any rate, differs, and they have found it perfectly easy to write this book together without wrangling, on which account they wish to express a pious hope that the very fact that they differ in so many things may have saved them from dogmatism. For it has helped them to realize that even when they are agreed on any point it would be a sheer stupidity to hint that they were therefore right, and in consequence they only put forward the points on which they are agreed as suggestions, hoping that others after trial may also agree with them. For universal laws on an empirical matter like health are rare, and the constitutions of men are various. One man’s meat, in fact, is literally another man’s poison. But in the main the two authors are agreed. They believe that the majority of mankind habitually eat too much and habitually take too much stimulating food and drink. They believe also that most people who do so do not take enough exercise, and that either an increase of exercise or a decrease of stimulant is needed. They believe that the best sorts of exercise are not those of slow pushing movements such as are made in the use of dumb-bells, but full brisk extended movements, with much use of the breathing apparatus and the large muscle areas of the body. Similarly they are in accord as regards present systems of training which tend to treat an entire crew or team as if they were identical specimens, not as widely different specimens; in every day life also they hold that because a certain mode of diet and work suits A, it will not necessarily suit B and C, though B and C might do worse than try it. They also regard the ordinary acceptation of the word “Training” as far too narrow, and hold that to acquire a high fitness of the body is a duty which should be within the reach of everybody, since a mind housed in a fit body is far more capable of good and sustained work than when its shell is imperfect. For this end they advocate the starting of city athletic clubs like those in certain American towns, being fully convinced that these clubs, with a reasonable attention to matters of diet, would secure for the ordinary city-worker a far higher measure of health than he is at present accustomed to enjoy. Finally, they believe that air, light and work (and here they do not mind appearing dogmatic) are three prime remedies in the pharmacy of God. And they feel sure that sensuality is bad for everybody. _September, 1902._ CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I.--INTRODUCTORY 1 II.--FALLACIES AND DEFECTS IN PRESENT SYSTEMS OF TRAINING 27 III.--EXERCISE AND EXERCISES 62 IV.--DIET AND STIMULANTS 94