WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 325 



train your horses, for speed, strength, or endurance, you would smile 

 at the" supposed absurdity. Yet 1 assure you that physiologically it 

 is imperatively necessary. There is a strong belief that labor was 

 entailed upon the human family as a curse, but science, experience, 

 and history disprove the idea. From earliest infancy all animal life 

 requires motion, — first a gradual movement of the limbs, then fol- 

 lows vvalking, running, leaping, and every conceivable motion or 

 contortion, even to dancing. More animals dance than the human, 

 but the old ones of all species look upon it as very useless and foolish 

 waste of time, if not sinful. The instinct or exercise may lead to. 

 injury, especially by its novelty. I have said that exercise carried to 

 the point of fatigue or beyond, is injurious. As a remedy I would 

 systematize all varieties, whether as labor or amusement. As the ob- 

 ject of this paper is more to benefit the young, 1 would select the 

 public school as the most fitting for "human culture," and while I 

 do not object to six hours a day, I do most earnestly protest against 

 six hours cramping or confining the growing human frame anywhere, 

 more especially in a crowded room. The very young should not be 

 confined in crowded rooms at all. While they may be taught at a 

 very early age, all teaching must be with a due admixture of exer- 

 cise — the physical exercise to be as systematic as the mind training. 

 As the frame begins to harden the body may be kept longer in res- 

 traint, never at any time, or any age, to exceed fifty minutes. 



In connection vvith every institution of learning there should 

 be an exercise room, large in proportion to the number of pupils 

 attending. This should be fitted with all the most approved appli- 

 ances of the gymnasium — dirt or sawdust floor — for exercises of 

 the arms and muscles generally, and a hard, smooth floor for calis- 

 thenics and walking. With such a system of mental and physical 

 culture — fifty minutes study for those of the age to study, ten 

 minutes brisk exercise, under the supervision of a trained gymnast 

 — the school session might go on indefinitely ; digestion would be 

 promoted, consequently, good blood, healthy brains, and fine physical 

 systems for all. 



Physiologically, there is no reason why a girl should not l)e as 

 strong and vigorous as a boy. With the same training, she may row 

 a boat, handle a gun, throw a ball, or, if necessary, hold the plow or 

 swing an ax. And while I do not advocate the rough, coarse exer- 

 cises that tend to develop musculinity, I would rather a hundred 

 times see women fill all the professions and callings, in peace or war, 

 driving the shuttle or spinning wheel, or leading armies, as Joan of 

 Arc, than to see the delicate, childless, suffering invalids that are 

 now gradually coming into the homes from the older eastern states 

 to the west and across the continent. 



And now, gentlemen, while you are devoting your best thoughts 

 to culture in other directions, I beg of you to look into the branch 

 of culture I have mentioned, and you will be surprised, if not 



