Section 113 The Management of the Body1
I have nothing new to say upon the management which the body requires2. The common rules are the best:—exercise without fatigue; generous3 living without excess; early rising, and moderation in sleeping. These are the apothegms4 of old women; but if they are not attended to5, happiness6 becomes (App. § 15) so extremely difficult that7 very few persons can attain8 to it. In9 this point of view, the care10 of the body becomes a11 subject of elevation and importance. A walk in the fields, an hour’s12 less sleep, may13 remove all these bodily vexations14 and disquietudes which are such formidable enemies to15 virtue; they may enable16 the mind17 to pursue18 its own resolves without that constant train19 of temptations to resist, and20 obstacles to overcome, which21 it always experiences from the bad organisation of its companion.—Sidney Smith.
Notes
1 treatment.
2 bedürfen, govern. the Gen.
3 strengthening food.
4 Lebensregeln.
5 to attend to, beobachten, v. tr.
6 the acquisition of happiness.
7 Insert the adv. ‘only’ after ‘that’.
8 I cannot attain to it, ich kann es nicht erlangen (v. tr.).
9 In — view, Von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus betrachtet, after which follows the verb (App. § 14).
10 Pflege, f.
11 Say ‘a grand (erhaben) and important subject’.
12 an hour.
13 can perhaps.
14 disturbances and troubles, Störungen und Beschwerden.
15 Use the noun with the Gen. of the def. art.
[16] befähigen, v. tr.
17 mind = soul.
18 folgen, with Dat.
19 ‘train’, here = host, Heer, n.; of, von; to resist, widerstehen, govern. the Dat.
20 Supply here ‘those’.
21 the acquaintance of which (deren) the soul always owes (verdanken, govern. the Dat.) to the defective organisation of its companion.