598 



GYMNASTICS. 



or, if several are together, they remain under the eye 

 of a professor, so Uiat they cannot talk to each other. 

 The verbal examination generally lasts one day, in 

 presence of commissioners appointed by government. 

 The compositions of the scholars are sent to the 

 minister of instruction and ecclesiastical affairs. 

 According to the result of the examination, the 

 scholars receive testimonials, marked No. I., II., or 

 HI. The first is difficult to gain, and indicates that 

 the pupil has appeared peculiarly well. If private 

 schools or (as is the case in several cities) orphan 

 asylums wish to send scholars to the university, they 

 must apply to government for commissioners to attend 

 their examination. Persons who have fitted them- 

 selves for the university, without attending a gymna- 

 sium, or any school, can be examined by a committee 

 appointed by the government, which sits every half 

 year. In order to obtain No. I, the pupil must write 

 Latin and Greek without grammatical faults, and in 

 a pretty good style ; be able to translate and explain 

 one of the most difficult classic authors (in some 

 gymnasia, Pindar is even taken for this purpose); be 

 well acquainted with the branches of the lower pure 

 mathematics, viz. all below the integral and differen- 

 tial calculus, and prove this by the solution of pro- 

 blems ; have a knowledge of general history, and the 

 most important periods ; know, besides the German, 

 one or more modern languages, so that he can write 

 in them pretty correctly (themes are generally taken, 

 by which the scholar shows his logical powers, and 

 the soundness of his ideas). If he is to study theo- 

 logy, he is also examined in Hebrew. If he is defi- 

 cient in either of these branches, he can only obtain 

 No. II. If he is deficient in all, he receives No. III., 

 which indicates that he is not fit for the university. 



GYMNASTICS (from yv[t,*a,<rrix,o;, pertaining to 

 exercise), if we understand by this word all bodily 

 exercises, may be most conveniently divided into 1. 

 military exercises ; 2. exercises systematically adapt- 

 ed to develope the physical powers, and preserve 

 them in perfection, which constitutes the art of gym- 

 nastics, properly so called ; 3. exercises for the sick, 

 a most important branch, which has been very little 

 attended to. 



The ancients divided their gymnastics into gym- 

 nastica militaria,gymnastica medica, (including under 

 this head our second and third divisions), and gym- 

 nastica athletica, or, as Galen calls them, vitiosa, 

 which were practised by professional athletes at the 

 gymnastic games, and were in bad repute with re- 

 flecting men, even in those times, on account of their 

 injurious effects on the health and morals. The class 

 of gymnastics which we have enumerated under the 

 second head, have their origin in the exercises of war 

 and the chase. The preparation of youth for those 

 occupations leads to the introduction of gymnastics ; 

 and the chase itself has been considered by many 

 nations as a preparation for war; the Spartans and 

 American Indians are instances. The ancients do 

 not inform us precisely of the origin of gymnastics, 

 considered as a branch of education. We first find 

 them in a systematic form among the Greeks. The 

 first gymnasium is said to have been established in 

 Sparta. In Athens, always disposed to mingle the 

 element of the beautiful in whatever she undertook, 

 gymnastics were refined from the rude military cha- 

 racters, which they bore among the Spartans, into an 

 art ; and the gymnasia became temples of the graces. 

 (See Gymnasium.) Vitruvius (lib. v.) gives a descrip- 

 tion of a gymnasium. In each, there was a place 

 called paleestra, in which wrestling, boxing, running, 

 leaping, throwing the discus, and other exercises of 

 this kind were taught. 



Gymnastics were afterwards divided into two prin- 

 cipal branches the palaestric, taking its name from 



the palaestra, and the orchestric. The former em- 

 braced the whole class of athletic exercises ; the 

 latter, dancing and the art of gesticulation. It is not 

 known with accuracy, what particular exercises were 

 usually practised in the gymnasia. The enthusiasm 

 for athletic sports among the Greeks, their love of 

 the beautiful, which was gratified in the gymnasia by 

 the sight of the finest human forms in the prime of 

 youth, and by the halls and colonnades adorned with 

 statues and pictures, and occupied by teachers of 

 wisdom and philosophy, rendered these places the 

 favourite resorts of the old and young. Gymnastics 

 even formed an essential part of the celebration of 

 all the great festivals. After a time, however, the 

 character of the competitors at the Olympian, Isth- 

 mian, Nemaean, and other great games of Greece, 

 degenerated, as they became more and more a sepa- 

 rate class, exercising, at least in many cases, in 

 buildings exclusively devoted to them. Euripides 

 calls them useless and injurious members of the state. 

 It is not precisely known to what extent their exer- 

 cises were practised in the gymnasia. The Greeks, 

 as well as the Romans, set a very high value upon 

 the art of swimming. In Sparta, even the young 

 women swam in the Eurotas ; and a common phrase 

 of contempt, pun t< purs yaap/jt.*. i^rif-rafou (he 

 can neither swim nor write), is well known. It is 

 well worth while to read the observations of 

 Mercurialis on this subject, in lib. iii, cap. 13, of 

 his valuable Artis gymnasticce apud Antiques celeber- 

 rimce Libri sex (Venice, 1569). Running was also 

 much esteemed, and the Olympiads were, for a 

 long time, named from the victors in the race.' 

 Riding on horseback was deemed a liberal exer- 

 cise. Dancing, by which we are not to understand the 

 modern dancing of the two sexes intermingled, 

 but the art or graceful motion, including orato- 

 rical gesture, together with certain formal dances 

 performed at festivals, was likewise indispensable to 

 an accomplished man. (See Lucian, -rtfi e^mrtu;.) 

 Wrestling was also much valued. There are not 

 many materials remaining, to enable us to judge of 

 the exercises practised by the Grecian women. In 

 later and corrupt times, they took part in the public 

 games with men. With the decline of Greece, the 

 gymnastic art naturally degenerated, and became 

 gradually reduced to the exercises of professional 

 athletae, which survived for a long time the ruin of 

 the land of their birth. 



The Olympic games continued to be celebrated 

 several centuries after Christ. Some late travellers 

 have thought that they could find traces of the an- 

 cient games remaining even in our day. " You have 

 the Pyrrhic dance as yet," says Byron. The Romans, 

 under the emperors, imitated the gymnasia as they 

 did every thing Grecian; but their establishments 

 were little better than places of vicious gratification. 

 The thermae, or baths, in Italy, took the place of 

 the gymnasia in Greece. Among the Romans, gym- 

 nastics never became national, as they may be said 

 to have been among the Greeks. There are some 

 indications, indeed, of early gymnastic games, we 

 mean the consualia ; but with this stern, martial, and 

 practical nation, gymnastics took altogether a more 

 military character. They were considered merely as 

 preparatory to the military service, or, when they 

 constituted a part of the exhibitions at festivals, were 

 practised only by a particular class, trained for brutal 

 entertainments, at which large bets were laid among 

 the spectators, as is the custom at the English races. 

 (Martial, ix., 68 ; Suetonius, Tit. 8.) Vegetius gives 

 us information concerning the exercises in which the 

 young soldiers, were trained, and they were of very 

 useful character. 



When all the acquisitions of the human intellect 



