Exercise Necessary to Strength.
If we accustom a lap-dog to live on chicken, cakes, and cream--to warm washings, aromatic soaps, blue ribbons, and soft rugs--we do perhaps a silly thing; but if after all this petting we turn him out in the cold without a bone we do a cruel thing. Nor is the matter amended if we have drilled him into perfect obedience, taught him to bark at certain signs, to sit up and beg, and to keep a biscuit on his nose till he is told to eat it; for all these arts and accomplishments will neither get him a crumb nor spare him a kick in the crowded streets. But this is virtually the practice of many parents towards their grown-up daughters, who are kept in a kind of stalled ease and plenty, are required to look to them for the commonest decision, and who, having been disciplined exactly in those qualities which will least help them in the battle of life, wake up one sad morning with the bitter blast of poverty blowing upon luxurious habits, and with the consciousness of not excelling in one single thing that can be exchanged for bread.