Meaning

Addison is drawing a direct parallel between two kinds of development: the physical and the mental. Just as the body grows stronger, more capable, and more resilient through regular exercise, the mind gains clarity, flexibility, and depth through regular reading. Neither benefit appears all at once. Both require consistency and effort over time. The comparison also implies that neglecting either one leads to a kind of atrophy, where faculties that could have grown sharp instead become sluggish and weak.

Context

This line appeared in The Tatler, a periodical that Addison contributed to in the early eighteenth century alongside his close collaborator Richard Steele. Publications like The Tatler and the later Spectator were influential vehicles for bringing ideas about culture, manners, literature, and self-improvement to a broad educated readership in Britain. The analogy between reading and exercise would have struck that audience as both practical and elegant, fitting neatly into the period's enthusiasm for improving the mind as a moral and civic duty.

About the author

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, and politician born in 1672. He is best remembered for his contributions to periodical literature, particularly The Spectator, which he co-founded with Richard Steele in 1711 and which became enormously popular and influential in shaping public taste and opinion. Addison's prose was admired for its clarity and balance, and he was regarded as one of the finest stylists of his age. He served in Parliament and held government office before his death in 1719.