PHYSICAL education: 21 



Cato, who taught his sons to dive and traverse rapid rivers. I know 

 that a swimming-school is not always a favorite resort of a young 

 child ; weakly youngsters are apt to prefer a sponge-bath ; but I agree 

 with the Baptists, that immersion alone will save us. The way of the 

 beginner is hard, but the reward is worth the price. No boy who has 

 learned to " tread water " or to " take a header " from a high bank 

 would exchange the wild joy of his sjDort for all the taffy of a tame 

 Sunday-school picnic. And it is a great mistake to suppose that hardy 

 habits would harden the character ; on the contrary, the bravest lad of a 

 parish can generally be known by his cheerfulness and his frank good- 

 nature, and in after-years will be apt to meet the billows of life with a 

 joyous zeal rather than with a shivering "resignation." I am often 

 tempted to quote the remark of a French training-ship surgeon, of 

 blunt speech, but with a sharp eye for the character-traits of his young 

 countrymen : " If I had my own way," said he, " every boy in the marine 

 should serve an apprenticeship in the rigging, and learn to rough it, 

 before he gets a soft berth. The lads that have grown up before the 

 mast make the best men in every sense of the word, brave, honest fel- 

 lows most of them ; while the cabin-boys, who have been pampered 

 with titbits and soft jobs generally, turn out " (I won't risk a literal 

 translation) " prevaricating puppies," or words to that effect. 



Per aspera ad astra, and a very important branch of gymnastic 

 education might be included under the head of hard work or volun- 

 tary labor. Labor with a practical purpose is not only more visibly 

 useful but more agreeable than mere crank- work at the horizontal bar, 

 and it is sometimes advisable to beguile ourselves into a strenuous and 

 long-continued physical effort. For what we call vice or evil propen- 

 sities is often nothing but misdirected energy, vital force exploding in 

 the wrong direction for want of a better outlet. The sensible remedy 

 is not to anathematize such energies, but to let our muscular system 

 absorb them by engaging in some entertaining out-door business re- 

 quiring a good deal of heavy work. In summer-time there will be no 

 lack of such jobs : interest your enfant terrible in horticulture ; make 

 him transplant shade-trees and dig ditches ; send him to the gravel-pit, 

 and let him fill his wheelbarrow with sand and his pockets with geo- 

 logical specimens. Or enlist his constructiveness : set him to build a 

 garden- wall, and quarry his own building-material in the next ravine. 

 During the progress of the good work the hours will vanish magically, 

 and so will the evil propensities. Novel-reading girls can generally be 

 cured with a butterfly-catcher ; entomology and sentimentalism are 

 not concomitant manias. 



It has often been observed as a curious phenomenon that the vilest 

 young hoodlums are found in the middle-sized towns. I believe I could 

 suggest an explanation : In very large cities, as well as in the woods 

 and mountains, they find something else to do. A New York street 

 Arab is often addicted to sharp practice, but not often to degrading 



