Non-fiction ~ sports/health
Published 1902
Benson edited with his friend Eustace H Miles
THE CRITICS
The title of this book, which belongs to the "Imperial
Athletic Library," indicates its purpose. It is intended to give
rules, rules always founded on principles, not for preparation for
feats of strength, but for general well-being of body. It is a
treatise on "daily" training, not the special cultivation
of an abnormal strength, a cultivation which may be easily overdone
and end in collapse, but of the general cultivation of a good
physical habit. Diet is, of course, one of the main points. Our
authors are strongly disposed to a modified vegetarianism; then there
are exercises, for which very detailed instructions are given, and
some admirably sound advice on morals. Altogether this is a book
which any one may read with profit.
~The Spectator, 22/11/1902
With commendable simplicity and
reasonableness, suggestions and directions are here set down
concerning such exercises and general regimen as may contribute to
the acquisition or preservation of health. Rules are based on the
experience and observation of both authors, one of whom is a
vegetarian, the other a meat-eater; one takes regular, the other
sporadic, outdoor exercise; one a hot, the other a cold, bath; one
uses tobacco, the other abjures it. They claim to be in harmony on fundamentals, and their advice is doubtless the more
acceptable and effective because of their differences in practice.
Argument for physical culture goes deeper than the simple
invigoration of the body: "There is no healthful habit of body
which does not exercise healthful influence on the soul," say
they.
~The Outlook, 21/03/1903
