Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-09-14
oFPHYsIcAL EDUCATION.


that bodily exercise was the true founda-
ton Of all social and mental, as we'll as
physical growth and development. They
had no doubt that the mind could not,
by any possibility, be in healthy state,
unless the body also was in condition
of perfect health. The same ideas were
possessed by the ancient Jews and hence,
in the laws of these people, we find the
most minute and careful hygienic enact
ments, side by side with those for the
suppression and punishment of vice or
immortality.
Gymnastic exercises, and a regular
habit, are found to be as old as the earliest
records of the inhabitants of Greece: and
as with the descendants of the Puritans,
the church and the school-house are
erected simultaneously with the huts OF
the early settlers, so were gymnasia built
for the training of the youth of every
considerable town in Greece. These gym
nasia were always under the control OF
government, and the gymnasiarch had
power to manage as he saw fit. The
buildings were constructed with porches.
These were used for conversation and oral
instruction. Within the inclosure were
covered apartments for exercise in the
winter or stormy weather, and others not
covered for milder seasons-walks for
those not engaged in the games, and cold
and hot baths. Nearly all the art and
splendor of the city was gathered into
these gymnasia, and immense sums of
money were expended in their adorn-
ment. The gynnasiarch had the general
supervision of the gymnasium, and could
expel such teachers, sophists, and philo-
sophers, whose teachings he considered
injurious to the young, or prejudicial to
the interests Of the nation. Another class
of officers had for their duty, to inspire
the youth With loue of moralitu; and
another regulated the diet of the pupils,
and acted as surgeons and physicians.
The education of the Greek youth was
divided into three parts, grammar or a
knowledge of the language by which he
was to make his thoughts known; music
which has already been defined and
gymnastics, or the exercise of every
power and faculty of the body; and the
latter, as the basis of all advancement in
the former, occupied more time and at
tention than all the others, and continued
during the entire lifetime. 1t was an
everyday occurrence, to see the gray.
headed sage and philosopher engaged
with the lads in their sports, and the
highest, either in church or state, deemed
it no way derogatory to their duty to
recredte in this manner their faculties of
body and of mind.
In Ionia and some other States, the
girls were secluded and brought up in
sedentary habits; but in Sparta, and
among the Dorians, the laws compelled
The people to provide for a full and free
education OF the women. The goa Apol
10 and the goddess Diana were twins.
and each is represented with the fullest
and most perfect physical and inteIlec-
tual development-and each free of the
slightest stain upon their reputation for
chastity and purity. The Spartan girls
were taught to sing, to dance, to shoot
with the bow, to throw the javelin, to
run, and every exercise befitting their
sex or strength; and all this in the pres
ence of the youth of the other Sex, the
citizens, magistrates, and kings; and
they were always remarkable for their
dignity of manners and purity of charac-
tor. When the stranger remarked to the
~ onnidas, You are the only
VINE VI ns~- "'ntain an aScendency
over men," she replied to A' 'e.narh
" Undoubtedly, for we are the ON. W.
men who bring men into the world"
Among the Romans, similar attention
was paid, for a time, to the Strengthening
and thorough development of all the hu-
man faculties, and it was the result of
this alene which gave to Rome the proud
title of Mistress of the World ;" but
when effeminacy and sloth first attacked
the females, and afterwards the male
youth of that proud city, inevitable but
great was the fall thereof. A similar
lesson, but less marked, is taught by all
nations that have risen from a state of
savagism or barbarity. Their very con-
dition oblges them to exercise their fac
ulties and by that exercise comes power,
which raises them in the scale of humani-
ity. 1t is by the exercise alone, that
man grows as an individual, or as ma
ton. 1t is by the exercise and activity
of each function of the body and of the
mind, that we can recognise the existence
of such faculty: for until such existence
is demonstrated by use, We may say the
power is ready to be born into life, but
we cannot say it already is in existence.
How many persons are there that have
never yet enjoyed more than partiaI-a
half existence; and how many are each
day dying-losing their faculties by ne
glecting to use them!
The fable of the apes, on the border of
the Dead Sea, who fearing to speak lest
they became enslaved, lost the power of
speech and of thought, and now, sit there,
perched upon the trees, chattering their
apish folly, and family dreaming of the
manhood they have lost by refusing to
use their faculties, has become an every
day reality, in regions not as far from us
as the shores of the Dead Sea. The
Or;entals have the art of dwardng trees,
until the pear and the oak do not exceed
foot in height; but we- have the art of
dwal fing men, until we need not send
to Central America for Aztec children;
their parallels, or those nearly their paral-
lels, ride up and down Broadway, and
.:lx. r. fo,,nl ~ E;fh ovonno