PHYSICAL TRAINING OF YOUNG CHILDREN 453 



result from a complete physical education ; and they assume that 

 these superior qualities of the picked man, to be given the fullest 

 vigor, should be cultivated from a tender age. They fall into the 

 mistake, which is too often made in physical education, of not dis- 

 tinguishing between methods of development and perfecting pro- 

 cesses. The physical education of the child, up to his fifteenth 

 year, should have for its sole object to favor the growth of the 

 body in all directions, particularly in height and weight ; the per- 

 fecting of the structure of the organs, and the training of them by 

 methodical exercise to a more complete performance, should come 

 later on. The fourteenth year will be early enough to begin more 

 energetic motions for hardening the flesh and developing the 

 muscles. Till that age, physical education should especially aim 

 to remove from the child all influences that may be in the way of 

 the free expansion and growth of the body. Among these harm- 

 ful influences are two of opposite character that produce nearly 

 identical results — want of exercise, which makes the child emaci- 

 ated, and excess of work, which stunts him. 



This important distinction between developing and perfecting 

 hygiene is well understood and observed by horse-trainers. They 

 give colts nourishing food, free air, and room to gambol ; and do 

 not begin training them for work till they have acquired bodily 

 growth and substance. 



If natural gymnastics is enough for the animal, we may con- 

 clude from analogy that it would be amply sufficient for the child, 

 if he had the conditions of space and time that are indispensable 

 to the satisfaction of the instinct that impels him to exercise. 

 When, then, the social conditions to which the child is subjected 

 do not permit him to indulge in instinctive exercise, gymnastic 

 methods as like as possible to those which instinct suggests should 

 be sought for him. 



The form of exercise that comes nearest to natural exercise is 

 playing. It is nothing else than a more or less methodical regula- 

 tion of the instinctive motions, such as every living being is prone 

 to execute spontaneously when he feels the stress of the want of 

 exercise. It may be called a natural exercise, for we see the 

 young of every species of animals playing with one another, and 

 may even observe their parents inciting them to play. The teach- 

 ing of plays, which we find in all countries and ages, originates, 

 we may suppose, in this tendency of the living being to educate 

 his progeny physically by exciting him to enjoy himself in mo- 

 tion. Play, in the progress of civilization, has taken various 

 forms, and has been subjected to methods that tend more and 

 more to introduce into it an artificial element. Hence, sport has 

 been developed from plays ; the exercises called sports are in gen- 

 eral simply plays that have taken a more methodical form, per- 



