" THOUGHTS ON PHYSICAL EDUCATION." J>7 



desire. Even within doors, bodily motion, singing, and shouting, 

 are regularly practised ; lessons form a very subordinate part of 

 their employment ; they do little else than exercise the brain in the 

 salutary and pleasurable offices of observation and action. The con- 

 sequence is, that the children thus trained in accordance with the 

 laws of nature thrive and are happy, and, instead of loathing school, 

 look forward with eagerness to the time of returning to it, and cry 

 if detained at home. Attendance at such schools possesses a great 

 superiority over roaming at large in the fields, in the rule which 

 keeps the pupils always under the eye of their teacher, who trains 

 them to moral habits, fixes moral maxims in their minds, and in- 

 stantly checks and points out the impropriety of any selfish or vi- 

 cious act. In this way the mind is made obedient to discipline and 

 pliant to reason ; a result which could not be easily obtained if the 

 children were allowed to spend their time in fields, without efficient 

 superintendence. The cultivation of the moral faculties is most 

 important, and where there is an assemblage of children it can be 

 effected only under the guidance of a well-qualified teacher. More- 

 over, it is a safe principle in education that whatever is productive 

 of misery and, though rationally taught, requires to be forced upon 

 young pupils, is at variance with the dictates of nature. The at- 

 tention of children ought to be claimed to those subjects exclusively 

 for which the mental faculties developed at their age are adapted ; 

 and the little beings ought never to be tormented with abstract stu- 

 dies which fall within the sphere of powers not unfolded till a later 

 period of life. 



Dr. Caldwell judiciously observes, that of the sets of organs of 

 which the human body is composed, some are so predominant in 

 their influence as to assimilate the condition of the rest to their own. 

 They also exercise a powerful influence over one another : thus, if 

 one of them be deranged, it deranges the others ; and, if any one of 

 them be healthy and vigorous, the soundness of the rest may be con- 

 sidered, on that account, as the more secure. In executing the task 

 of physical education, therefore, it is essentially necessary so to 

 watch and regulate them as to keep them unimpaired. " These 

 predominating organs are, the skin ; the digestive system, composed 

 of the stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines, and lacteals ; the blood- 

 making and blood-circulating system, made up of the heart, blood- 

 vessels, and lungs ; and the nervous system, comprising the brain, 

 spinal cord, and nerves. The muscular system is also important, 

 not only in itself, but as contributing, by its functions, to the per- 

 fection of the other organs. As an aggregate, therefore, physical 

 vol. v. — NO. XVII. N 



