Evening star., 1932-06-22
Intellect Is but one form of physical

IHtolleCt II but one Iofm OI pHysio@i
visor.
He who realizes this will have every
sympathy with the modern education
in its emphasis on sports.
Not that brain power Is direct de-
rivative from muscle tone.
BY no means.
Nor that the muscular man Is neces-
sarily the intellectual man.
The connection between physical
and intellectual vigor goes deeper than
that
1t is a matter Of driving power
The spark which sets of brains is the
same which impeis the leg push in the
hundred-yard dash.
1t Is the take-off which counts, both
in physical and intellectual education.
No doubt there is tremendous mass
OF sheer brain power in the world held
In check by lack CT the physical spark
to set it going.
"Oh, but look at Robert Louis Steven
SON" some one pipes up.
We knew some one would throw Louis
into our face.
The truth seems to be that Robert
Louis Stevenson was a man of immense
physical powers despite the handicapS
Of lifelong sickness which he bore.
The worlds desire for a hero has
managed to make him out q sort OF
martyr to sickness, striving mighty
against the inimieal forces which strove
to pull him dcun, and which at last
succeeded at compe rstively early age
If any one will take the trouble to
look at the 80 volumes or SO which he
left behind him one will at once become
suspicious.
How could q sick man produce 80
much?
The only answer is that q sick man
did not produce them-he who wrote
those splendid things, both prose and
verse, was the well man in him. the
we'll part of him, if one wants to put
1t so.
Clayton Hamilton, in his In the
Footsteps Of Stevenson" takes an en-
tire chapter of a small book to MAKE
out case along these lines, that Louis
wrote best when he was Ill, that he
possessed the essential physical vigor
behind his predispositions toward res
irrational maladies, to be able to write
and that sickness simply freed him
from the ordinary harassments Of
everyday life.
Only the person who has had some
experience along these lines can be II
d pOoltlOII 10 iCduLC TIC pOooioAiliCo loi
truth in this diagnosis. There II
many writing man who will tell you
much the came thing.
One may rest assured that the ap-
parently sick person who nevertheless
produces a great deal of work in this
world possesses great fund of physica
vigor at bottom.
We are SO used to regarding health
as health and sickness as sickness that
ordinarily We do not like to believe
that there are millions of border line
cases, in which the aspects of lines:
simply cover up. and tend to obscure
the lines Of health.
Physical vigor came to Stevenson
from his Scots ancestors. They were
lighthouse builders, rugged engineers
vino battled the elements in the appli.
cation of their minds to stubborn phys
ical problems.
Brain power and physical power are
two aspects of the same thing, almost
This does not mean that they are not
tremendously different.
But each helps the other. each has
something to contribute to the human
No doubt there have been instances OF
sheer intelligence which worked nobly
and tiIelessly without the aid of the
physical being, or under handicaps
from 1t.
One may feel, however, that such in
stances have been rarer than is COM
monty supposed. and that in many
cases the lack of physical powers Il
| more apparent than real.