Athletic Sports (extract)

The Physical Proportions of the Typical Man of the evils that tend to degrade them? I know of no better way of accomplishing this desirable end than by repeatedly re­ minding the individual of the ultimate aim of every kind of physical exercise. Do not the harmonious development of the physique, and the building up and broad­ ening out of the highest types of manhood and womanhood, offer an inducement to work for? This has been the theme of the philoso­ phers and sages of all times. Every writer on education, from Plato to Herbert Spen­ cer, has advocated physical activity as a means of attaining that full-orbed and harmonious development of all parts of the human economy so essential to robust, vigorous health. We have had no end of treatiseson the sports, games, and gymnastic exercises that are reputed to give strength and symmetry to the body ; but, unfortunately, the wise and good men of old have left us no stand­ ards by which to judge of symmetry or strength. The ancient masterpieces are models of symmetry and beauty, but they were made largely from ideal standards, certainly not from actual measurements; while the miraculous exhibitions of strength attributed to some of the Grecian athletes