, if followed with great caution. _Dancing_, for those who sit
much, such as pupils in school, tailors and shoemakers, would be an
appropriate exercise, if it were not perpetually abused. By assembling
in large crowds, continuing it late at evening, and then sallying out
in a perspiration, into the cold or damp night air, a thousand times
more mischief has been done, than all the benefit which it has afforded
would balance. It were greatly to be wished that this exercise might be
regulated by those rules which human experience has indicated, instead
of being subject to the whim and caprice of fashion. It is a great pity
an exercise so valuable to the sedentary, and especially those who
_sit_ much, of both sexes, should be so managed as to injure half the
world, and excite against it the prejudices of the other half.

I have said that the young must have recreations, and generally in the
open air. The reason why they should usually be conducted in the open
air, is, that their ordinary occupations too frequently confine them
within doors, and of course in an atmosphere more or less vitiated.
Farmers, gardeners, rope makers, and persons whose occupations are of
an active nature, do not need out-of-door sports at all. Their
recreations should be by the fire side. Not with cards or dice, nor in
the company of those whose company is not worth having. But the book,
the newspaper, conversation, or the lyceum, will be the appropriate
recreations for these classes, and will be found in the highest degree
satisfactory. For the evening, the lyceum is particularly adapted,
because laboring young men are often too much fatigued at night, to
think, closely; and the lyceum, or conversation, will be more
agreeable, and not less useful. But the family circle may of itself
constitute a lyceum, and the book or the newspaper may be made the
subject of discussion. I have known the heads of families in one
neighborhood greatly improved, and the whole neighborhood derive an
impulse, from the practice of meeting one evening in the week, to read
the news together, and converse on the more interesting intelligence of
the day.

Some strongly recommend 'the sports of the field,' and talk with
enthusiasm of 'hunting, coursing, fishing;' and of 'dogs and horses.'
But these are no recreations for me. True they are _healthy_ to the
body; but not to the morals. This I say confidently, although some of
my readers may smile, and call it an affectation of