THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



They develop the body perforce. War and the chase, 

 the making of implements, tilling the soil, in short, 

 their every-day avocations, keep them in constant 

 training. And the same is largely true of the residents 

 of rural districts in civilized communities. The far- 

 mer need not be told to exercise his body. He has 

 hardly leisure from physical exercise to develop his 

 mind. 



But we are living in the age of cities. Year by year 

 the population of the civilized world masses itself into 

 larger and larger communities, and lives on an average a 

 more and more sedentary life, as regards vocations that 

 bring a livelihood. Meantime the struggle for exis- 

 tence, though becoming harder and harder, is less and 

 less a physical struggle, more and more a battle of 

 minds. So the tendency has been everywhere to put 

 a premium on mental development and disregard phys- 

 ical development. 



Only when the disastrous effects of this one-sided 

 development have become manifest in the sequel has the 

 reaction come. It has become proverbial that our 

 cities were stocked with "new blood" from the country, 

 and that the succeeding generations of city-bred de- 

 scendants were progressively degenerative. Plainly 

 this must not continue if the gregarious impulse is to be 

 increasingly obeyed and the average status of our race 

 maintained or carried forward. And gradually the idea 

 gained acceptance that in physical development lay 

 the remedy. Hence the introduction of calisthenics into 

 our schools, the building of gymnasia for our colleges, 

 the springing up of athletic clubs in our cities, the 



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