The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-27

brain and Drawn and to Judge fairly
of each, and to demand for each
every best facility that our civilization
can be made to yield. We want to
produce not scholars simply, but
men. 1t is men of whom the country
and the world stand in bitter need.
And after examining all the processes
that produce a symmetrical and
strong type of manhood. the college
looms up before us at its proper
height, and we recognize that, up to
the present time, nothing better has
been found in the way of training
than that which the college gives.
The world not only needs the men,
but it needs the whole man. And
this sentence is sufficient answer to
those who are constantly denouncing
the development of the body as hav-
ing properly no share in college life
On the contrary, it should have first
consideration, because the body is a
foundation structure on which the
right development of mind and spirit
must depend. The objections to
physical training arise largely from
its abuse, which in SO many instances
nullifies and destroys its value.
To many people the physical train
ing of the colleges seems like put
ting the first things last. 1t should
be frst-that is, it should be found
alton and the solid bottom on which
higher things can be upreared. If
the ideal mentioned above is the true
ideal, and the object is to make a
perfect man, provision should be
furnished not only for the stimu-
lation of his thought and the inspira-
tion of his spirit, but for the strength
ening of the muscle and nerve of
every fibre of his body. The mis-
take is in making of these things an
end rather than means. Too many
men give themselves to sport for the
sports sake, when the truth is that
the sport should be given to the man
for the mans sake.
A perfect body is in the present
day as important to the young Amer
ican as it was in ancient time to the
young Roman or the Greek. To note
the rarity of this perfection of physi-
cal manhood, we have only to watch
the throng in the crowded thorough
fare of any great city or to summon
before the mind the men of ones
acquaintance. See how many in
every hundred are narrow-chested
stoop-shouldered, spindle-legged
weak-eyed and bald headed. The
erect carriage, the broad shoulders,
the stalwart limbs are the exception
and not the rule. The average mo.
tion lacks vigor and grace. The
mincing trip takes place of the man
ly stride. The whole bearing and
presence suggest quite the opposite
of vitality and power.
1t will not take many hours of quiet
observation of this kind to convert
the critical mind from it's attitude of
opposition to physical culture in or
through the colleges. Indeed, we
become so eager that men should get
bodily vigor somewhere, somehow,
that we are tempted to say, let them
have it anywhere, anyhow. The
ordinary college life opens at least a
chance for it. That only few COM
pared to the whole number of stu
dents avail themselves of the chance
is no argument that the present
provision is altogether wrong. 1t
suggests the need of more generous
and general supply. The excesses of
present games need to be controlled
to the point of the exclusion of bru-
tality at least, and more general and
systematic use of the gymnasium
and the less special facilities should
be encouraged. The colleges should
not produce few men trained to
exceeding muscular vigor and power,
but every man should come out OF
his four years of college life with the
body trained to the limit of its special
possibilities.
That this should be so may seem
an ideal impossible to be attained,
yet we are already moving nearer to
it, and in country like ours young
manhood is not going to stop short
of anything but the best. Another
grand hope lies in the fact that
athletic matters are largely in the
hands of students themselves, and it
goes without saying that they will
ultimately make it what it ought to
be.
History affords us abundant evil
dence that the intellectual and spirit
ual vigor in college boys keep pace
with the physical vigor. If the col