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so difficult that none but professed athletx appeared as competitors, 

 and the exercises degenerated to mere shows of physical strength 

 and brutality. The early Roman gymnastics were also of a military 

 character ; and the taste of the Romans led to the exhibition of still 

 more savage and sanguinary scenes ; as the naumachise, or sea 

 fights, to which slaves and criminals were devoted ; or the combats 

 of gladiators, often fatal, with wild beasts or with each other. 

 These, perhaps, gave rise to the bull fights of modern Spain. 



In the ancient gymnasia, the palsestra was that part in which the 

 athletic exercises were performed. Five of these exercises were 

 called by the Greeks pentathlon, and by the Romans, quinquertium ; 

 including leaping, running, wrestling, quoiting, and darting ; or in 

 place of the two latter, some writers mention boxing and dancing. 

 Boxing, or the csestus, was a common amusement of the Romans : 

 and in the game called pancratium, or all fights, two men, disrobed 

 and unarmed, fought together till one of them yielded, barely 

 escaping with his life. Dancing was in early, and in classic times, 

 made a part of religious festivities ; but, unlike the dancing now in 

 vogue, it consisted chiefly in measured movements of individual per- 

 formers. The chariot race was a favorite sport ; and the Greeks, as 

 well as the Romans, set a great value on the art of swimming. With 

 the decline of Roman virtue, the ancient gymnasia degenerated into 

 mere haunts of licentiousness and vice. 



In the middle ages, the tournament became the favorite amuse- 

 ment ; in which knights or cavaliers contended with each other, in 

 the lists, on horseback, and armed with the lance. These festivals 

 originated in France, as early as A. D. 900 : and a code of regula- 

 tions, concerning them, was drawn up by Godfrey de Preuilly, in 

 1066. With the changes in the art of war, they had already begun 

 to decline, when the death of Henry II., who was mortally wounded 

 in tilting with Count Montgomery, in 1559, led to their abolition in 

 the country which gave rise to them. Swordsmanship, including 

 fencing, was also a favorite practice of the middle ages : and archery 

 is celebrated in the exploits of Robin Hood and his foresters, in the 

 lawless times of Richard and King John. Hunting, has long been a 

 fashionable recreation among the European nobility ; and since the 

 days of Izaak Walton, fishing may claim an honorable place among 

 the arts of amusement. 



A regular system of Gymnastics, was first matured in Germany, 

 by Salzmann, a clergyman, at his school in Thuringia, about the 

 year 1790. The exercises which he taught, were chiefly running, 

 leaping, climbing, balancing, and swimming. The first treatise on 

 Gymnastics, was written by Guts-Muths, who was a teacher in Salz- 

 mann's institution. Jahn proposed the general introduction of Gym- 

 nasia, with a view to rouse the youth of Germany in the cause of 

 political freedom; but this course led to their suppression, in 1819 

 or 20. On the subsequent persecution of the liberal leaders, Mr. 

 Volker went to London, and there established the first Gymnasium 

 in England, in 1824 : and Dr. Beck, a pupil of Jahn, founded the 

 first Gymnasium in the United States, at Northampton, Mass., in 

 1825. At about the same time, a system of Calisthenics, or ex- 

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