EDUCATION OF YOUTH. 263 







cannot be carried on without a proper and due proportion 

 of corporeal activity, even in adults ; and it is well known 

 that youth require much more action than their parents, in 

 order that the several functions of the animal fabric may 

 be properly developed, and ultimately gain their most per- 

 fect condition. And who had not much rather see his 

 child return home from school with a little less algebra, 

 and a good stock of health, than to know that she had 

 outdone her classmates, and obtained the highest prize, 

 while the pallid cheek, and the crooked, emaciated frame, 

 show that this has been done at the expense of her 

 health ? 



831. Boys may run through the streets, play ball, skate, 

 snow- ball, fish, and hunt, while the fate of the poor girls 

 is fixed, and bound down to the sedate and measured walk, 

 and this only for a short distance, and at stated times. 

 And still the girls require full as much exercise as their 

 brothers. It is true, as will be seen in another place, that 

 the dress of females is far more pernicious in its conse- 

 quences than that of the males ; and hence, in a degree, 

 undoubtedly, we may account for the greater number of 

 deaths by consumption in the former than among the latter. 

 But is it not to be feared, that in many instances, a predis- 

 position to consumption is acquired in females in early 

 youth, in consequence of the want of those wholesome 

 sports which the boys enjoy ? And is it not the duty of 

 parents and teachers to look to this subject especially, and 

 see whether there is not a prevailing error in this respect ? 



832. Remarks of the Rev. Dr. Dick.- The Rev. Dr. 

 Dick, in his excellent work on Mental Illumination, has 

 some good remarks on the subject of school exercises for 

 the body. 



833. <f Pupils of every description.," says he, " should 

 be daily employed in bodily exercises, for invigorating 

 their health and bodily powers. Every school should have 

 a play-ground for this purpose, as extensive as possible^ 

 and furnished with gymnastic apparatus for exercising the 

 muscular activities of the young of both sexes. Swings, 

 poles, hoops, see-saws, pulleys, balls, and similar articles, 

 should be furnished for enabling them to engage with spirit 



