THE BUILDING OF THE BODY. 



41 



of many a physical and mental conflict, and give to declining years a 

 hearty and vigorous old age. 



On our beautiful Island, we fancy, we can find as nowhere else all 

 those gracious influences which tend to develop the human body 

 ino the likeness of that deathless marble which we worship as the 

 god of physical perfection. Our Island, swept by the winds fresh 

 from leagues of the open sea, girdled by the broad Bay and the wind- 

 ing beauty of the Kills, lengthening its wide fields into spacious 

 Jawns, rearing its terraced hills under a genial sky, and everywhere 

 sloping down to inviting shores, beckons the athlete and the pleasure 

 lover to such an arena as never did Grecian isle of yore. 



And the call is not unheeded. The loiterer on our curving strand 

 and breezy upland sees the straight back bowing over the flashing 

 oar, the sway of lithe figures on the green sward, the sweep of pliant 

 muscle, and the swift rush of flying feet. He hears the sharp crack 

 of the bat, feels the hot breath of the runner, and notes with kindling 

 eye all those invigorating pastimes in which lusty youth and supple 

 maidenhood exult and find the abounding joy of living. 



May it be our beneficent task to see that those who are to follow 

 us will not only make our favored Island the plain of Elis and the 

 abiding home of all manly sports, but that our own sons and daugh- 

 ters shall wear the unfading laurel of a sound body and a healthful 

 life. 



