PARASITIC CULTURE 259 



biologically speaking, is the culture derived through performing activi- 

 ties associated with the natural, that is to say, fundamental and long- 

 established, functions of life. These are, in general, the spontaneous 

 play-activities of childhood, and the productive work-activities of man- 

 hood and womanhood, each performed under normal conditions of 

 stimulus and environment. Neither artificial gymnastics nor the feats 

 of strength and skill performed under the stimulus of the prize-ring or 

 athletic field come under these heads. 



How such considerations have begun to affect the thought of critical 

 students of physical culture may be illustrated by the conclusions of 

 Dr. Jules Payot, set forth in his book on " The Education of the Will " : 



The qualities of vital resistance are in no way dependent upon muscular 

 strength. A man may be an athlete in a circus, or able to do the heaviest porter 

 work, and yet have very poor health, while another man who lives in his study 

 may have an iron constitution with mediocre muscular power. Not only have 

 we no reason to aspire to athletic strength, but rather we ought to avoid it; 

 because it can only be developed by violent exercise, and such exercises not only 

 interfere with the regularity of the respiration, and cause very distinct conges- 

 tion in the veins of the neck and brow, but they are undoubtedly weakening and 

 exhausting. . . . We have come to the conclusion, therefore, that it is not Eng- 

 land with her violent system of exercise which we ought to imitate in this con- 

 nection, but rather Sweden who has completely given up such ruinous physical 

 efforts for young people in her schools. There the object is to make young 

 people strong and healthy, and they have perceived, that excessive physical 

 exercises are more sure to lead to a breakdown than excessive study. 



Turning now to intellectual culture, we have to consider whether the 

 law of waste and disease, operative throughout the biological world, 

 applies to the unused organs of the mind that have been developed 

 through stunts in mathematics and the classical languages, as there is 

 accumulating evidence for believing it does to physical organs trained 

 in the gymnasium and on the athletic field. Here, it must be acknowl- 

 edged, our evidence may seem less tangible and conclusive. It is 

 harder, even for minds familiar with the facts of neurology and psy- 

 chology, to image the special processes of nervous stimuli, the building 

 up of cortical neurones, and the establishing of association-centers 

 involved in mathematical and linguistic study, than it is to image the 

 enlarged biceps of the disciple of punching-bag or gridiron education. 

 For minds unfamiliar with such facts, it is absolutely impossible. 

 Hence the whole process of intellectual culture, both to the average 

 student and to the average onlooker, be he teacher or parent, has no 

 concreteness whatever. It is a mere matter of subjective impression 

 and a priori opinion. But the difficulty of our problem need not deter 

 us. Our evidence, however intangible and remote from average experi- 

 ence, is sure to become clearer the longer it is considered in the lio-ht 

 of the general scientific facts of life that are gradually becoming so 

 extensively popularized. 



