“I said,” admitted Sir Patrick, “that a man will go all the better to his books for his healthy physical exercise. And I say that again--provided the physical exercise be restrained within fit limits. But when public feeling enters into the question, and directly exalts the bodily exercises above the books--then I say public feeling is in a dangerous extreme. The bodily exercises, in that case, will be uppermost in the youth’s thoughts, will have the strongest hold on his interest, will take the lion’s share of his time, and will, by those means--barring the few purely exceptional instances--slowly and surely end in leaving him, to all good moral and mental purpose, certainly an uncultivated, and, possibly, a dangerous man.” A cry from the camp of the adversaries: “He’s got to it at last! A man who leads an out-of-door life, and uses the strength that God has given to him, is a dangerous man. Did any body ever hear the like of that?” Cry reverberated, with variations, by the two human echoes: “No! Nobody ever heard the like of that!” “Clear your minds of cant, gentlemen,” answered Sir Patrick. “The agricultural laborer leads an out-of-door life, and uses the strength that God has given to him. The sailor in the merchant service does the name. Both are an uncultivated, a shamefully uncultivated, class--and see the result! Look at the Map of Crime, and you will find the most hideous offenses in the calendar, committed--not in the towns, where the average man doesn’t lead an out-of-door life, doesn’t as a rule, use his strength, but is, as a rule, comparatively cultivated--not in the towns, but in the agricultural districts. As for the English sailor--except when the Royal Navy catches and cultivates him--ask Mr. Brinkworth, who has served in the merchant navy, what sort of specimen of the moral influence of out-of-door life and muscular cultivation _he_ is.” “In nine cases out of ten,” said Arnold, “he is as idle and vicious as ruffian as walks the earth.” Another cry from the Opposition: “Are _we_ agricultural laborers? Are _we_ sailors in the merchant service?” A smart reverberation from the human echoes: “Smith! am I a laborer?” “Jones! am I a sailor?”