452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mit this. The instinctive desire, repressed too often, becomes 

 weakened, and finally disappears. The body accommodates itself 

 to a sedentary life, and the insufficiency of exercise finally induces 

 muscular indolence and an inert habit. The teacher of gymnas- 

 tics would not be needed if the pupil had the privilege every day, 

 for a sufficient time, of a large space, and liberty to amuse himself 

 in it. 



Why, then, erect halls and apparatus if we can have the privi- 

 lege of a si3acious sward or a garden with broad walks ? While 

 gymnastic apparatus may be useful where there is not room to 

 provide other means, what is to be said of heads of families hav- 

 ing ample spaces in the country, with all desired conditions for 

 natural gymnastics, who go to the trouble of constructing gym- 

 nasiums for their children ? The tendency to look for the best 

 misses its mark nowhere more sadly than in the physical educa- 

 tion of the child, when it prefers complicated processes to natural 

 methods, and neglects the best hygienic means as too simple or 

 insufficient. In the belief that the child can not take proper exer- 

 cise without apparatus, when no apparatus is at hand no exercise is 

 taken. He must have a special master for the exercise, and his 

 taking it is made to depend on the master — to such an extent, that 

 no one in the family thinks of the child's doing anything outside 

 of the regulation lessons. 



Instinctive gymnastics is, from the hygienic point of view, the 

 best adapted to the regular development of the child. It is not 

 liable to any of the objections we have brought against gymnastics 

 with apparatus. It can not deform the body, for it is made up of 

 spontaneous movements, and conformed to the natural office of 

 each limb. It does not localize the work in a particular region of 

 the body, for all the limbs are instinctively invited to take their 

 quota of exercise; and it does not seduce the child into efforts 

 touching upon the limits of his strength. Instinct also invites 

 him to the kind of work which is best adapted to his particular 

 aptitudes for resisting fatigue. He has a natural disposition to 

 perform light but frequently recurring acts, quick motions, which 

 put him out of breath, while exercises with apparatus rather exact 

 slow and intense efforts that bring on local fatigue. Now, all 

 observers have noticed the wonderful facility with which a child 

 recovers his breath, and his impatience of local fatigue. Finally, 

 natural exercise, being the satisfaction of a want, is by that very 

 fact a pleasure ; and joy shines in the face of the child who is 

 playing freely. 



The partisans of artificial gymnastics object to this method 

 that it does not give in mature age the great muscular force, the 

 capacity to bear fatigue, and the refined dexterity of movements — 

 the various athletic and acrobatic qualities, in short, that should 



