Chapter 23—Recreation
“To everything there is a season.”
There is a distinction between recreation and amusement. Recre-
ation, when true to its name, re-creation, tends to strengthen and build
up. Calling us aside from our ordinary cares and occupations, it af-
fords refreshment for mind and body, and thus enables us to return
with new vigor to the earnest work of life. Amusement, on the other
hand, is sought for the sake of pleasure and is often carried to excess; it
absorbs the energies that are required for useful work and thus proves
a hindrance to life’s true success.
The whole body is designed for action; and unless the physical
powers are kept in health by active exercise, the mental powers cannot
long be used to their highest capacity. The physical inaction which
seems almost inevitable in the schoolroom—together with other un-
healthful conditions—makes it a trying place for children, especially
for those of feeble constitution. Often the ventilation is insufficient.
Ill-formed seats encourage unnatural positions, thus cramping the ac-
tion of the lungs and the heart. Here little children have to spend from
three to five hours a day, breathing air that is laden with impurity and
perhaps infected with the germs of disease. No wonder that in the
schoolroom the foundation of lifelong illness is so often laid. The
brain, the most delicate of all the physical organs, and that from which
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the nervous energy of the whole system is derived, suffers the greatest
injury. By being forced into premature or excessive activity, and this
under unhealthful conditions, it is enfeebled, and often the evil results
are permanent.
Children should not be long confined within doors, nor should
they be required to apply themselves closely to study until a good
foundation has been laid for physical development. For the first eight
or ten years of a child’s life the field or garden is the best schoolroom,
the mother the best teacher, nature the best lesson book. Even when
the child is old enough to attend school, his health should be regarded
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