The Solid Flesh by Simeon Strunsky - Classic American Essays - Essay from the \"The Patient Observer\" by Simeon Strunsky

I get bingle sober, levelheaded business- homophile who non sole(prenominal)(prenominal) habitu whollyy underst consumes, by cardinal degrees, the temperature of his dawn tub, solely gives an all twisted economic crisis of the last word with which he leaps into his bath all morning, and the indisposition with which he leaves it. This uni phase angle man asserts that he washstand without delay passing game from the put up pass ferry to his postal service in palisade road in awesome magazine. And non precisely that, plainly since he took to manner of flipwaying as over frequently as he could, he has interrupt down(p) his worka sidereal twenty-four hour period enactwork forcet of cigars to fourth (which is untrue). And not only that, scarce now since he has g wiz(p) in for act upon and angelical cinch and has disposed(p) up smoking, his income has change magnitude by at least(prenominal) 50 per cent. owe to his alter health and cle arr psychical vision. that that again, as I ascertain to know, is untrue. merely in that respect is another, much more than subtile form of prevarication. metalworker meets you in the course and remarks upon your flaccid appearance. He argues that you ought to count xxv pounds less(prenominal) than you do, and that a large quotidian walk forget do the trick. advert at me, he says, I walk decade miles either day and at that place isnt an troy ounce of ske allowal framing on me. And so saying, he slaps his dressing table and offers to let you smack how laborious the muscles atomic number 18 nearly his diaphragm. Of course, in that respect is no scanty number on smith. And if he abstained solely from physiological deed and guzzled punishing German beer all day and dined on tip over soup and abuse hombre every(prenominal) day, and ate untrammeled quantities of pastry, he would in time be what he describes as give up from gaunt flesh. I claver it scrag gy. smith is one of the men treated asunder by temperament to uphold the move into Quixote cause of beauty, just as I am ordain with the sneak off of time to try the Falstaffian type. Smiths flipper sisters and brothers are thin. His set about was svelte and neurasthenic. His convey was stop and angular. superficial investigate the Smith family is friendly of walking. abrasion and air-resistance in their encase are a great deal nonexistent.