THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



persevere in this or any other perfunctory exercise. 

 After a spasmodic effort they relapse into the old con- 

 dition of muscular flabbiness and mental lethargy. 

 Exercising for the mere sake of exercise is so uninter- 

 esting a procedure that few people will follow it out, 

 whatever its ultimate rewards. An element of interest 

 must be introduced if the best results are to be attained. 



This element of interest is furnished by the various 

 competitive sports, and this is one essential point of 

 difference between perfunctory development of one's 

 muscles and development through entering into games. 

 But there is another and equally important point of 

 difference in favor of the games as against the mere 

 calisthenics. This is that the full educational value 

 of physical development is only to be secured through 

 competitive exercises. Proper physical development 

 implies vastly more than mere muscular development. 

 It implies a trained muscular co-ordination that is 

 essentially a brain development. Each group of muscles 

 can contract only in a single way, but different groups 

 may contract in endless series of combinations. 



The brain, whose controlling influence makes such 

 co-ordinate action possible, must be trained by con- 

 tact with other brains. Hence physical development 

 through athletic games has an educational value that is 

 not approached by development through mere perfunc- 

 tory exercises. 



The person who undertakes to develop his muscles by 

 entering into athletic games stands a good chance of 

 keeping at it long enough to accomplish tangible re- 

 sults, because of the interest in the game itself which he 



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