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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be says in his address to Mrs. Fry, the 

 benevolent Quaker lady who interested 

 herself so deeply in the inmates of jails 

 and penitentiaries. He admired many 

 things about that amiable lady. "I 

 like," he says 



"Your dove-like habits and your silent 

 preaching ; 

 But I donH like your Newgateory teaching." 



" Nugatory " Tom thought it, and nuga- 

 tory, indeed, the great mass of such 

 teaching has been, as prison chaplains 

 would themselves confess. But if it 

 is the case that the energies of the 

 mind and of the moral nature are sadly 

 cramped and confined through imper- 

 fect physical development and abnormal 

 physical habit, what may we not hope 

 for if, by proper gymnastic exercise and 

 sound sanitary conditions, we are able 

 to remedy, to a great extent, these bodi- 

 ly defects ? The idea that body and mind 

 work together, and that it can not be 

 well with the one if it is ill with the 

 other, was a commonplace among the 

 ancient Greeks ; but for ages the truth 

 was lost sight of, and was indeed sup- 

 planted by the antagonist error that if 

 we would cultivate and develop the soul 

 we must oppress and dishonor the body. 

 We are now working back to the Greek 

 point of view ; and, with the exact 

 methods of modern science to aid us, 

 may be expected to turn whatever of 

 truth it contains to better use than they 

 did. The Greeks held, empirically, that 

 rhythm of sound and rhythm of motion 

 particularly simple rhythms free from 

 all bravura had a regularizing effect 

 upon the thoughts and a moderating 

 effect upon the passions. Now, this is 

 precisely what the average criminal na- 

 ture most needs. The criminal is es- 

 sentially a man who does not naturally 

 act in unison or harmony with his fel- 

 low-men he is prone to strike discord- 

 ant notes that is, to perform irregular 

 and lawless actions. This disposition 

 is probably due in part to distrust of 

 himself, arising from a secret conscious- 

 ness of deficiency. To such a man, a 



well-directed course of bodily exercise 

 means, in the first place, the develop- 

 ment of his physical organs and facul- 

 ties ; in the second place, a certain sense 

 of power resulting therefrom ; thirdly, 

 a heightened self-respect and self-conn* 

 dence ; fourthly, a sense of the value 

 of method ; fifthly, a more regular flow 

 of thought to more definite objects ; 

 and, sixthly, a certain development of 

 the social instinct arising from a gen- 

 erally improved bodily and intellectual 

 condition. 



It may be accepted as a general prin- 

 ciple that when a given result proves 

 very difficult if not impossible of attain- 

 ment we are trying to take too big a 

 step to get at it that is, we are over- 

 looking some intermediate stage or 

 stages that have to be passed through 

 before we can get at our objective point. 

 It is as if we wanted to get up- stairs all 

 at once, instead of proceeding step by 

 step. Well, in regard to criminals, we 

 have preached at them in the effort to 

 reach their spiritual nature ; we have 

 set the schoolmaster on them, in the 

 effort to rouse their dormant intel- 

 lectual faculties ; now, at length, after 

 abundant evidence as to how little either 

 chaplain or schoolmaster can effect, we 

 are trying what the drill-master can do 

 to mend their crooked bodies, to reform 

 their shambling gait, to fix the vacant 

 or wandering eye, to infuse life, vigor, 

 and " snap " into spiritless frames ; and 

 at last it seems as if we were on the right 

 track. After all. what did St. Paul tell 

 us long ago? " First that which is natu- 

 ral " (physical), " then that which is 

 spiritual. 1 ' Well, without heeding him 

 any more than the ancient Greeks, who, 

 in this matter at least, were eo wise, we 

 have in the main been working, or try- 

 ing to work, on the spiritual, and leaving 

 the natural to shift for itself, even when 

 its defects have been most conspicuous, 

 and when, owing to these defects, the 

 spiritual has been almost non-existent. 

 It is time to go back on our tracks and 

 to see to it that we make things as 



