PRODUCTION OF STUPIDITY IN SCHOOLS. 131 



oumstances which give an unquestioned superiority to bodily strength, 

 we may find evidences of special care to foster and increase it. The 

 "games " obligatory upon the little Spartans, the exercises of "gentle 

 youth " during the age of chivalry, the description given by Mr. Cat- 

 lin of the early training of the American aborigines, are all instances 

 in point ; and all show the recognition, under circumstances widely 

 dissimilar, of the principle that the powers of the human organism are 

 bestowed only in possibility to be developed by culture, or to dwin- 

 dle under neglect. 



The state of physiological knowledge permits us to lay it down as 

 an axiom that what is true of one system or apparatus, among those 

 given to man, must also be true, mutatis mutandis (the necessary 

 changes being made), of the rest. Without in the least degree failing 

 to perceive the dependence of the higher faculties upon a spiritual 

 nature, we must also perceive their dependence, during this life, upon 

 the qualities of their material organs, the nervous centres ; and the 

 dependence of these qualities upon the laws which regulate nutrition 

 and cell-growth. We are therefore entitled to assume, a priori, that, 

 precisely as the methods of the trainer raise the physical powers of his 

 disciples to the highest point attainable by each organism, so analo- 

 gous methods would raise the intellectual powers in the same manner 

 and degree. The conclusion which may be formed by reasoning is 

 not unsupported by experience ; but the masters of the art are few, 

 and the examples of their skill are rare. 



In an age of bodily repose, with nearly all locomotion artificial, 

 with money as the principal purveyor, it is not surprising that men are 

 careless about their physical powers, and think them hardly worth the 

 trouble which their full cultivation would entail. Under circumstances 

 in which strength of arm and fleetness of foot have afforded the chief 

 sources of security, or have opened the most direct paths to renown, 

 there has never been an approach to indifference about the means by 

 which these qualities might be attained. If physical education be now 

 almost wholly neglected, it is because the utility of its results has 

 been diminished by the progress of civilization. 



But this age of bodily sloth and weakness is also, it must be 

 remembered, an age of intellectual activity and strength. The wide 

 diffusion of knowledge, the facilities for travel, and the application of 

 philosophy to the comforts and conveniences of life, have increased 

 a thousand-fold the value, to each possessor, and to the whole human 

 race, of the perceptive and conceptive faculties of the mind. Every 

 one who observes the facts within his sphere, and reflects upon them, 

 may find the key to some, as yet, unopened door in the temple of 

 Nature, or may excogitate results calculated to increase the happiness 

 of man. The career that offers itself to the intellect surpasses im- 

 measurably all that has ever been offered to the corporeal powers ; 

 and it might, therefore, reasonably be expected that intellectual 



