270 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



It ought to become practically impossible for a 

 hearty and vigorous boy to fall in love with a help- 

 less and anaemic girl. It should be equally impossi- 

 ble for a hale and active girl to admire a man who 

 was her inferior in either vigor or alertness. The 

 modern taste for outdoor life has largely brought 

 this to pass among such of our people as have leisure 

 enough to indulge in vigorous sport. Among the 

 crowded dwellers in the closer sections of the city 

 such life has been so nearly impossible that no ideal 

 of vigorous manhood or of radiant womanhood has 

 had a chance to grow up. With the oncoming of the 

 parks and play-grounds, all of this, we may hope, 

 will change. Health and vigor will be no less attain- 

 able and hence no less adorable in the city than in 

 the country. Rich and poor alike will be attracted 

 by rosy cheeks and an elastic gait. 



Our aim, however, should not cease with a vigor- 

 ous body. We must teach our young men and young 

 women the glory of a well disciplined mind. This 

 should seem quite as admirable to them as a vigorous 

 body. To them, straight thought ought to be as lov- 

 able as a firm and supple body. In this matter our 

 young people are less exacting. The ordinary con- 

 versation of people gathered together for social pur- 

 poses is not particularly intellectual, and any attempt 

 to make it so at present seems priggish. With a 



