Do not think that a robust organization is any warrant of long life,
nor that a frail and slight bodily constitution necessarily means scanty
length of days. Many a strong-limbed young man and many a blooming young
woman have I seen failing and dropping away in or before middle life,
and many a delicate and slightly constituted person outliving the
athletes and the beauties of their generation. Whether the excessive
development of the muscular system is compatible with the best condition
of general health is, I think, more than doubtful. The muscles are great
sponges that suck up and make use of large quantities of blood, and the
other organs must be liable to suffer for want of their share.

One of the Seven Wise Men of Greece boiled his wisdom down into two
words,--NOTHING TOO MUCH. It is a rule which will apply to food,
exercise, labor, sleep, and, in short, to every part of life. This is
not so very difficult a matter if one begins in good season and forms
regular habits. But what if I should lay down the rule, Be cheerful;
take all the troubles and trials of life with perfect equanimity and a
smiling countenance? Admirable directions! Your friend, the curly-haired
blonde, with florid complexion, round cheeks, the best possible
digestion and respiration, the stomach of an ostrich and the lungs of a
pearl-diver, finds it perfectly easy to carry them into practice. You,
of leaden complexion, with black and lank hair, lean, hollow-eyed,
dyspeptic, nervous, find it not so easy to be always hilarious and
happy. The truth is that the persons of that buoyant disposition which
comes always heralded by a smile, as a yacht driven by a favoring breeze
carries a wreath of sparkling foam before her, are born with their
happiness ready made. They cannot help being cheerful any more than
their saturnine fellow-mortal can help seeing everything through the
cloud he carries with him. I give you the precept, then, Be cheerful,
for just what it is worth, as I would recommend to you to be six feet,
or at least five feet ten, in stature. You cannot settle that matter for
yourself, but you can stand up straight, and give your five feet five
its--full value. You can help along a little by wearing high-heeled
shoes. So you can do something to encourage yourself in serenity of
aspect and demeanor, keeping your infirmities and troubles in the
background instead of making them the staple of your conversation. This
piece of advice, if follow