✍️ Max Beerbohm
- “Going Out for a Walk” is a humorous personal essay by Max Beerbohm.
- Beerbohm challenges the popular belief that walking is always enjoyable and mentally refreshing.
- He says that he has never voluntarily gone out for a walk.
- Even as a child, he disliked being taken out for walks.
- He considers living in London an advantage because its noise, smoke and hustle discourage walking.
- When staying with friends in the country, however, he often fears being invited for a walk.
- People who love walking consider it something noble and virtuous.
- They even disturb people who are comfortably sitting and reading.
- Beerbohm's usual excuse for avoiding a walk is that he has some letters to write.
- The excuse is ineffective because people do not believe it.
- It is especially useless on Sunday mornings because there is no post until evening.
- Beerbohm's main objection is that “walking for walking's sake” stops the brain.
- He disagrees with people who claim that their brains work better while walking.
- According to his experience, intelligent and amusing people become dull during a walk.
- Their interesting ideas and lively conversation gradually disappear.
- A walking companion soon begins reading signboards and notices along the road.
- He reads inscriptions such as “The King's Arms,” “Uxminster. 11 Miles,” “Drive Slowly” and “Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted.”
- Beerbohm humorously describes such a walker as a “mental wreck.”
- After lunch, the same man becomes lively and entertaining again.
- Yet, surprisingly, he soon sets out for another walk with a new companion.
- Beerbohm humorously imagines a conflict between the soul, body and brain.
- The soul orders the body to go walking without any destination or purpose.
- The brain considers this pointless and refuses to cooperate.
- It metaphorically goes to sleep until the body returns home.
- Beerbohm is not completely against exercise or walking.
- He admits that moderate exercise may be physically beneficial.
- He also reveals humorously that this essay itself was composed during a walk.
- His real objection is to purposeless walking merely for walking's sake.
- He finally declares that unless he has a definite reason to go somewhere, he will never go out for a walk. ]
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[Prepared by Sindhu P,HSST English,GGHSS Kallai]