Chapter 21. Of Running.
THe manifest seruices which we receiue by our legges and feete, in warre for glorie, to pursue or saue, in game for pleasure to winne and weare, in Physick for health to preserue and heale, do giue parentes to vnderstand, that they do suffer their children to be more then halfe maymed, if they traine them not vp in their youth to the vse and exercise therof. To polishe out this point with those effectuall reasons, which a∣uaunce and set forth nature, when she sayeth in plaine termes, that she meanes to do good: or with those argumentes, wher∣with the best authors do amplifie such places, when they finde nature so freindly and forward, (as the anatomistes which suruey the workmanship of our bodie, and histories, which note the effectes of swiftnesse, do wonder at nature, & wish ex∣ercise to helpe her, for that which they see) were to me nothing needefull, considering my ende is not the praise, but the pra∣ctise of that which is praiseworthy: neither to tell you, what Alexander the Macedonian, nor what Papyrius the Romain did by swift foote, nor that Homere gaue Achilles his epithete of his footmanship, but to tell you that running is an exercise for health, which if reason cannot winne, wherof euery one can iudge, sure historie will not, where the authors credit