ll tell you that he, or some friend of his, could
accomplish in his eighteenth year. Why it should always be among the _res
gestae temporis acti_ cannot be readily explained. It is a common belief
that any stout truckman can do the thing; but I have been assured by one
of the leading truckmen of Boston, that there are not, probably, three
individuals in the city who are equal to the accomplishment.

The mode of life that I had hitherto found essential to the keeping up of
my strength was quite simple, and rather negative than positive. From
tobacco and all ardent spirits, including wine, I had to abstain as a
matter of course. Beer and all fermented liquors had also been ruled out.
Impure air must be avoided like poison. Summer and winter I slept with my
windows open. Badly ventilated apartments were scrupulously shunned. Cold
bathing of the entire person was rarely practised oftener than once a week
in cold weather or twice a week in warm weather. A more frequent ablution
seemed to over-stimulate the excretory functions of the skin, so that
excessive bathing defeated its very object. The "tranquil mind" must be
preserved with little or no interruption. Great physical strength cannot
coexist with an unhappy, discontented temper. You must be habitually
cheerful, if you would be strong. With regard to diet,--that was the very
experiment I was trying,--the experiment, namely, of going without solid
animal food. With me it did not succeed. So far from gaining in strength,
hardly did I hold my own. Suddenly I resolved to give up my vegetable
diet, and return to beef-steaks, mutton-chops, and loins of veal. A daily
appreciable increase of strength was soon the consequence. Within ten days
I succeeded in shouldering the loaded barrel weighing two hundred and
sixteen pounds; and a day or two after I shouldered, in the presence of
our grocer himself, a barrel of flour.

I had now no further excuse for deferring my promised lecture. The month
of May had arrived. My father delicately broached the subject of the
announcement. Being a little fractious, perhaps from some ebb in my
strength, I hastily replied,--

"Announce it for the 30th of May."

"What hall shall I engage?"

"Any hall in Boston. Why not the Music Hall?" I added, affecting a valor I
was far from feeling; but, like Macbeth, I now realized that "returning
were as tedious as go o'er."

Mercantile Hall, in Summer Street, was engaged for me,--it being central,
modes