212 AMERICAN FARMS. 



particular eventually there must also be one in the 

 second. In all great movements of the world, in the 

 growth of nations, or in great crises, it has been the men 

 of well-developed physique who have triumphed. The 

 men of Greece took sufficient interest in the tilling of the 

 soil to make it a first medium for fostering the growth 

 of muscle and sinew. They practised also such manly 

 exercises as made them the admiration of the world, as 

 well as fitted them to be, as they were, the rulers of their 

 time. We may say more than this of the Roman, whose 

 national industry, in their palmy days, was husbandry. 

 The brawny, deep-chested Englishman and the sinewy 

 Scotchman have made themselves masters wherever they 

 have planted themselves. 



As a rule, just in proportion as a people have become 

 effeminate in their habits and exercises, so have they 

 degenerated in mental capacity. Observations have 

 proved that the great man is more likely to be greater 

 in stature, more symmetrically proportioned, and of more 

 pleasing physical appearance than his contemporaries ; 

 while such a one will be governed by a brain of full 

 physical development.' Science also claims, with good 

 reason, that wherever a proper equilibrium has been 

 maintained through a due exercise of the physical and 

 mental functions, there the tendency has been towards a 

 constant improvement in the types of men. And when 

 the reverse has been the case, there has been experi- 

 enced a marked deterioration. Says Herbert Spencer : 

 " Each function has some relation, direct or indirect, to 

 the needs of life. Then the complete life is one in which 

 all functions are exercised to their normal capacity, and 

 this can only take place in the physically developed man." 



' Dr. Woods Hutchinson. 



