448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that at the time of life when young men come to our American colleges, 

 when, in fact, all their bodily organs are approaching maturity, this 

 body brain-work ought to cease, or can, without dangei*, be neglected ? 

 Is it not most essential that at this very period the reciprocal action 

 between body and brain should be steadily maintained, in order that 

 both should be able to endure the strain put upon them by the various 

 stimulants of thought and feeling to be found in college-life ? The 

 great pressure brought to bear upon them is toward conscious cerebra- 

 tion. Acquisitions of knowledge, scholarships, the ambitious desires of 

 parents, and prizes, all incite them to neglect body brain-work, under 

 the mistaken impression that time given to that is time lost to the 

 other. Many a fine scholar has left college with great honors, to ex- 

 perience in his subsequent career the serious results of the mistake 

 made in college, and has discovered, often too late, that a vigorous 

 body to carry his brain is more essential to success in life than a 

 well-trained brain full of knowledge but lacking a strong body from 

 which to draw its nourishment and strength. 



Again, exercise, to be beneficial, should be regular and systematic. 

 To be most beneficial it should be in the open air. The oxygena- 

 tion of the blood is not the least important effect of exercise. In con- 

 sequence of the reciprocal action of mind and body, to be as bene- 

 ficial as possible it should be accompanied by mental occupation. The 

 mind should be interested in the exercise while the body is engaged. 

 How shall all these requisites of the best kind of exercise be secured ? 

 First, a regularly set time for exercise ; next, a fixed amount of time 

 devoted to it ; then a place where the lungs should breathe fresh air ; 

 and, lastly, a Idnd of exercise which should engage the mind as well 

 as the body. By the present system of college athletics these requi- 

 sites are met, if not perfectly, at least as well as it is possible for them 

 to be met. If the millennium had come, and all men, and especially 

 young men, would do right, without any compulsion, and simply be- 

 cause it is the only thing to do, we might come to a settlement of these 

 important particulars of exercise for our students. The regularity of 

 the exercise, and the amount of time devoted to it, could easily be ar- 

 ranged. There could be no question as to the expediency of taking it 

 in the open air. But how secure the co-operation of the mind ? How 

 make bodily exercise interesting, so that a man will desire to take it 

 and will take it with gladness, not making a burden of it, and not 

 considering it as a duty merely ? That is the real problem to solve, 

 when we set ourselves to the task of prescribing the right kind of 

 exercise. Very few can be induced to exercise from a sense of duty. 

 The majority go without it till they suffer illness from the want of it, 

 and then prefer a doctor's remedies to Nature's. Here athletics accom- 

 plish the greatest good. They do furnish a mental stimulus. They 

 set up an object to be striven for, and an ideal of strength or skill. 

 The object is honor — honor of no great worth, perhaps, but still honor 



