Miscellaneous Suggestions. 439 



natural aptitude had given and careful training had 

 fostered, the eyes of this people opened. That a steam- 

 engine, though perfect in design and faultless in con- 

 struction, is worthless when coupled with a worn-out 

 boiler, is now generally accepted as a truth applicable 

 to the conduct of life. Though but in middle age, it 

 seems to me I can recognize a marked improvement in 

 the physique of the rising generation over that of my 

 own. 



Athletics and out-of-door sports have been, and will 

 continue to be a priceless boon to this nation. It has 

 applied, and it is now applying a remedy to a disease 

 which escaped the notice and comment of no intelligent 

 foreigner who visited our shores. Though we hear it 

 no more, it must not be forgotten that but a few years 

 since the pessimist doomed us to extinction as a people, 

 and that solely from pure physical decay. 



To the progress of physical education among us, no 

 true lover of his country can maintain an attitude of in- 

 difference. In the hope that I might perhaps add some- 

 thing to the impetus of this, as it seems to me, all-im- 

 portant movement, this book has been written. 



