i 3 z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



temporary sculptor of his native state. What a terrestrial Walhalla it 

 must have been, that sacred mountain-grove of Elis, where these statues 

 were erected in the shade of majestic trees, while the summit of the hill 

 and the open meadows were adorned by such masterpieces of Grecian 

 architecture as the temple of Jupiter Olympius and the Pantheon of 

 Callicrates ! Besides the military drill-grounds and the public gym- 

 nasia, of which every hamlet had one or two, and where the complete 

 apparatus for all possible sports was often combined with free baths 

 and lecture-halls, the larger cities had associations for the promotion of 

 special favorite exercises, the brag-accomplishments of the rival towns. 

 Wrestling, javelin-throwing, running, leaping, pitching the quoit, riding, 

 driving, climbing ropes, shooting the arrow, were all practised by as 

 many amateur clubs, which commonly owned a race-course or a private 

 hall. 



How many of the most admirable character-traits of the ancient 

 Greeks, and how much of their success in the arena of life may be dis- 

 tinctly traced to these sources of mental and physical health ! Health 

 in the widest sense of the word was, indeed, the primary characteristic 

 of their age, for health and vigor are synonyms. The same process of 

 adaptation that qualifies the body for the performance of athletic feats 

 disqualifies it for the development of any morbid elements, and acceler- 

 ates the elimination of effete matter from the organism. We according- 

 ly see that, among the creatures of the wilderness whose normal condi- 

 tion is one of muscular vigor, disease is wholly abnormal, and premature 

 death only the consequence of wounds or protracted famine. " The 

 immunity of hard-working people from the consequences of wrong or 

 over-feeding," says Dr. Boerhaave, " is a proof that nine-tenths of your 

 fashionable diseases might be cured mechanically instead of chemically, 

 by climbing a tree, or chopping it down, if you prefer, instead of swal- 

 lowing castor-oil and sulphur-water." Physical exercise, by accelerating 

 the circulation of the blood, stimulates the activity of all those internal 

 organs whose functions conjointly constitute the phenomenon of life, and 

 counteracts innumerable functional disorders, any one of which is sure 

 to react on the nervous system and the organ of the soul. 



Mental pathology, if rightly understood, is a physiological science 

 which must recognize the intimate connection and interaction of soul 

 and body, and the influence of every physical derangement on the most 

 subtile functions of the brain. 



The physical superiority of the ante-Alexandrian Greeks to the 

 hardiest and most robust nations of modern times is perhaps best illus- 

 trated by the military statistics of Xenophon. According to the author 

 of the " Anabasis," the complete accoutrements of a Spartan soldier, in 

 what we would call heavy marching order, weighed seventy-five pounds, 

 exclusive of the camp, mining, and bridge-building tools, and the rations 

 of bread and dried fruit which were issued in weekly installments, and 

 increased the burden of the infantry soldier to ninety, ninety-five, or 



