British Manly Exercises

6 WALKING. WA L K I N G I N G E N E R A L , OF all exercises walking is the most simple and easy. The weightof the body restson one foot, while theother is advanced ;it is then thrown upon the advanced foot, while the other is brought forward; and so on in suc­ cession. Tn this mode of progression, the slowness and equal distribution of motionis such, that manymuscles are em­ ployed ina greater orless degree; each acts in unison with the rest; and the whole remains compact and united. Hence, the time of its movements may be quicker or slower, without deranging theunion of the parts, or the equilibrium of the whole. It is owing to these circumstances, that walking dis­ plays somuch of the character of the walker,—that it is light and gay in women and children, steady and grave in men and elderly persons, irregular inthe nervous and irritable, measuredin the affected and formal, brisk in the sanguine, heavy in the phlegmatic, and proud or humble, bold or timid, &c. in strict correspondence with indivi­ dual character. The utility ofwalking exceeds that ofall other modes of progression. While theable pedestrian isndependent of stage-coaches andhired horses, he alone fully enjoysthe