320 On Gymnastic ^xGrcises: 



ere fully developed, perfected, and preserved from falling into 

 decay. In this climate we cannot enjoy the fresh air unless 

 we, at the same time, keep our bodies in active exercise ; and 

 every one knows how much this conduces to the general acti- 

 vity of the frame, and assists in the operations of the digestive 

 organs'*^. It is also the most effectual remedy for that morbid 

 excess of nervous irritability which is sometimes observed even 

 at an early age. 



The works of Locke, of Addison, indeed of all the most 

 eminent writers on education, contain admirable examples of the 

 influences which activity of the body has over the operations 

 of the mind. Even Hippocrates, who wrote a philippic 

 against violent exercises, says, moderate exertion gives firmness 

 and strength to the body, and vigour to the mind ; and in Pliny 

 there is an observation to the same effect. *' Mirum est ut 

 animus agitatione motuque corporis excitetur." But the most 

 forcible remark is made by Rousseau in his Emilius : " The 

 weaker the body, the more it commands ; the stronger it is, 

 the more it obeys ; the body must possess vigour to be obedient 

 to the mind ; a good servant should be robust." 



These views have not always been admitted ; Tor although it 

 has been allowed, that the mental energies of the eastern 

 nations correspond to the inactive and indolent life which they 

 lead, it has been argued that the savage, who possesses bodily 

 strength, agility, health, and all the animal faculties in greater 

 perfection than man in the more advanced state of society, is 

 but little removed above the brutes in regard to intellectual 

 faculties. But this question has been so often and so well met, 

 that it would be almost presuming, and certainly unnecessary, 



• The following is rather a curious instance of the necessity of exer- 

 cise ; it is in the life of Eumenes, by Cornelius Nepos. " Hinc tamen, 

 multis suis amissis, se expedivit, et in eastellum Phrygiae quod Nora ap- 

 pellatur, confugit. In quo cum consederetur, et vereretur ne uno loco 

 manens equos militares perderet, quod spatium non esse agitandi ; calli- 

 dum ejus fuit inventum quemadmodum stans jumentum calefieri exer- 

 cerique posset, quo libentius et cibo uteretur et a corporis motu non 

 removeretur. Substringebat caput loro altius, quam ut prioribus pedi- 

 bus plane terram posset attingere ; deinde post verberibus cogebat 

 exultare, et calces remittere, qui motus non minus sudorem excutiebat 

 quam si in spatio decurreret. Quo factum est, quod omnibus mirabile 

 est visum, ut jumenta ex castello educeret, quum complures menses in 

 obsidione fuisset, ac si in campestribus ea locis habuisset," 



