38 THE BUILDING OF THE BODt. 



pense of another, and that vitality be not sapped for the sake of 

 mere muscular strength. 



The object of physical training is not strength as the word is us- 

 ually used, but perfect health, and that firm equipoise and vigorous 

 condition of the mind which is the index of the well-conditioned 

 and thoroughly cared-for body. To this end the building of the 

 body demands as careful and as constant attention as that of the 

 mind. The average boy if left to himself will turn to those sports 

 and exercises in which he naturally excels, and neglect the parts of 

 the body which especially require attention, in the same way as a 

 pupil who is deficient in mathematics and above all needs analytical 

 work shuns arithmetic and its successors. Or, if turned loose in a 

 gymnasium with its bewildering array of apparatus, he will probably 

 do himself irrepairable injury from his ill-advised attempts at feats 

 beyond his capacity for which gradual exercise has not prepared 

 him. The chances are that if he grows up without well regulated 

 instruction his development will be partial and one sided, that cer- 

 tain muscles will have suffered at the expense of others, and that 

 manhood will come unattended with that vigorous and harmonious 

 play of all the organs which is essential to successful life work. And 

 if this instruction is necessary for the boy, how much the more for 

 his sister! on her perfect health and complete physical development 

 rests the future and the "World that is to be." 



Physical education should begin as soon as the mind readily com- 

 prehends the purpose and the muscles can obediently and accurately 

 follow the will. Much can be done with a pupil at almost any period 

 before middle age, but to obtain the highest results the work must 

 begin with the earliest years, before the twig has assumed a bent. 

 The instruction should be regulated by growth itself, "beginning 

 with its beginning, adding to, proportioning, consolidating and sus- 

 taining every cell of fibre and tissue as it is added to the frame." The 

 work should begin while all is plastic and movable, changing and ca- 

 pable of being changed. As true education consists not in the ac- 

 quirement of knowledge but in growth of mental power, so physical 

 education is the getting the body into that superb condition ichcre it con 

 work at its best in every line of effort. Our duty to our children de- 

 mands that we equip their bodies as well as their minds for the 

 struggle for existence, a struggle never so fierce as now, and which 



