The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1865-02-17
AND FAITHFUL. AND VALIANT FOR
B1DDEFoRD, ME-, FRIDAY MORNING,
Muscle.
From the beginning, bone and muscle. and
~ ,r;nd I'm ve fnrned the ponular measure

From the beginning, bone and muscle, and
not mind, have formed the popular measure
of the man. Mind has come up-when al
all-in spite of popular thought. Saul wa,
chosen king for the single reason that he was
taller by head and shoulders than any 9th.
er man in Israel. This was simple bone and
muscle measurement. Sampson, for achieve
ments purely muscular, was almost rated as
delegate Of God. Moses, the greatest al
together of the Hebrew leaders, was very
much ..on his muscle " lie was hard-hit-
ter, q gallant. generous gentleman. He kill.
cd an Egyptian with blow Of his fist, and
fleeing from Egyptian justice, sat down at
nishtfall by we'll to rest. To that well
came Jeptha's daughters to water their fa.
ther's sheep, and shortly thereafter came 9th.
er shepherds. Of the sterner sex, who, belicv'
ing in the right Of the strongest, would have
driven away the beautiful daughters Of the
High Priest. Then arose the man in Moses,
who, like a sound oil fighter rs no was,
whipped every shepherd Of the lot in the
girls quarrel. The Hebrew leaders were
great exactly as they were fighters and mus.
Gle men, and the Hebrews at large believed
in God, not so much because he ,pas general
ly on their side, us because he fought on their
side. You do not find hero in oil antiquity
who was small man. Homer especially
dwells upon the size and virility of his he'
roes-his tall and "hairy-breasted" Greeks.
Theseus. "the most virtuous Of oil the he
roes," first asserted himself as muscle man.
These old stories arc the ante historical tes-
timony to the greatness and worth of mus
cle-the one power Of those times, rs OF the
times "when wild in woods the noble savage
ran" Achilles, Of the later time, Ajax. Di-
omedes, Hector, and the men OF the lliad
generally, were great; and the deifcation
and worship Of Hercules was ths setting up
of an altar to physical forcc-bowiug down
to mere muscle; the admission Of people
who seem in their time 10 have discovered, to
have thought, and to have done everything
and not only their admission, but their broad
gensral assertion.-that Muscle was God.
Hero Greek and Jew seemed to meet. II
is true that at tho great Olympic festival OF
the Greeks, the History OF Herodotus was
read, and the odes OF Pindar excited tho peo
Pile almost to delirium but they were con.
sidercd rs great in tho proportion in which
they glorify muscular achievement, and at
that, even, had only fourth place in the
festival-the Stadium, the great test Of mus
clio and endurance. holding the first.
In the farther East 1t was tho same. Rus.
tum is ut once Persian Hercules and Achil-
les, who, by one hand grasping the long locks
Of Bcauty's hair, can vault from the earth
to the rampant of the castle in which she Is
imprisoned. So in the North, the Scandina-
vians made their god of Thor, the man who
could handle the biggest battlc-axc and not
less would have happened with the gigantic
Arthur. il his British followers had had more
time before Christianity broke out among
them. Christianity, too, has had its muscu-
lar aspect.-Porter's Spirit.