Once past the critical years, and there is no reason why the mass of
women should not live their own lives as men live theirs, except that
always, in my opinion, the prudent woman will at certain times save
herself. It is still true that even healthy women exercise too little.
Our climate makes walking unpleasant, and to get in a good sweat in
summer, or to wade through slush in winter, is hateful to the female
soul. The English reproach us with this defect, and rightly, but do not
estimate the difficulties of climate. Australian women walk little, and
the English dame who comes to this country to live soon succumbs to the
despotism of climate and abandons her habits of ample exercise afoot.
The in-door resources of women for chest and arm exertion are sadly few,
and I think it fortunate when they are so situated as to have to do
things in the household which exact vigorous use of the upper
extremities. Nothing is a better ally against nervousness or
irritability in any one than either out-door exercise or pretty violent
use of the muscles. I knew a nervously-inclined woman who told me that
when she was losing self-control she was accustomed to seek her own
room, and see how long she could keep up a shuttlecock without a
failure. As to weather, again, I should say the worse the weather the
better the exercise of a brisk walk; and my wise mother shall see that
her girls do not dawdle about in-doors, but get a good tramp under all
skies as a part of the habits of life. A sturdy struggle with a rough
day blows the irritability and nervousness of the hour out of any but
the truly sick, and I know as to some folks that the more they are out
of doors the better they are morally as well as physically.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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