SAINTS, AND THEIR BODIES ¥H 
tive ill-health joined with intellectual precocity, 
— stamina wanting, and the place supplied by 
equations. Look at a class of boys or girls 
in our grammar schools; a glance along the 
line of their backs sometimes affords a study 
of geometrical curves. You almost long to re- 
verse the position of their heads, as Dante has 
those of the false prophets, and thus improve 
their figures; the rounded shoulders affording 
a vigorous chest, and the hollow chest an ex- 
cellent back. 
There are statistics to show that the average 
length of human life is increasing; and facts 
to indicate a development of size and strength 
with advancing civilization. Indeed, it is gen- 
erally supposed that any physical deterioration 
is local, being peculiar to the United States. 
But the “Englishwoman’s Journal” asserts 
that “it is allowed by all, that the appearance 
of the English peasant, in the present day, is 
very different to [from] what it was fifty years 
ago; the robust, healthy, hard-looking country- 
woman or girl is as rare now as the pale, deli- 
cate, nervous female of our times would have 
been a century ago.” And the writer proceeds 
to give alarming illustrations, based upon the 
appearance of children in English schools, both 
in city and country. 
All this may be met by the alleged distinction 
