J. F. Campbell Collection > Address to the middle classes upon the subject of gymnastic exercises

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attempt to recover that health, which an hour's
daily exercise in the gymnasium would effectually
restore.
As every parish has its Church, its baths, its
workhouse, its school, so ought it to have its gym-
nasium. In each parish an association should be
formed, the members of which should subscribe for
the erection or hire of a suitable room, for the
putting up the requisite apparatus, and for the
salary of a superintendent, who should take charge
of thegymnasium, and direct the various exercises.
Were the association as large, as I trust it will be,
the amount of subscription for each member would
be small, far less probably than is now spent in
drugs to vitiate that health, which these exercises
would preserve. It is said that 22 millions sterling,
are annually spent by the inhabitants of Great
Britain upon ardent spirits, and I know not how
many more in the consumption of tobacco. Will
the middle classes grudge, for the maintenance of
their health, a fraction of the sum expended in the
stimulants which destroy it ? Surely they will
devote to the practice of manly exercise an infi-
nitesimal part of that, which is devoted to sensual in-
dulgence. I have too high an opinion of my fellow-
countrymen to entertain any doubts on the subject.
I believe, that the inactivity of the British middle
classes proceeds less from choice than from igno-
rance, and that the means of exercise need only be
pointed oat to be readily embraced. The middle
classes have always displayed a singular promp-