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PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

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FROM time immemorial, the world has sought to educate the intellect. As if the mind or the spirit were a separate and an independent power or creation, accidentally accompanying the body, but having no share or lot in its strength or weakness, in its liabilities, responsibilities or condition. The world has sought to excite this spiritual essence to its greatest action, to impose upon it its greatest burdens, and to demand of it its utmost labor.

In this plan of education, the body is not included, nor is it usually even thought of: or if considered at all, it is commonly supposed, that it may be safely left to its own natural wants and appetites, and that the business, circumstances, and necessities of life would be sufficient to develope and sustain its powers.

Thus the mind is prepared for action; by instruction in various kinds of knowledge and by training in various ways, it is fitted to bear the burdens that may be laid upon it, and to fulfil the duties that may be required of it; while the body, the very dwelling of the mind, the brain, the very instrument by which it operates, the other organs by which the brain is sustained, are left unprepared for the burdens and duties which they must bear and perform.

The consequence is, the mind is prepared for its condition and life, and sustains itself, in those who do not require any considerable amount of mental action, while the body falters, and in almost all persons comes short of the entire fulfilment of its destiny. And among those whose purpose of life is exclusively mental action, the body being neglected and unsustained, the brain becomes enfeebled and consequently acts sometimes languidly, sometimes with uncertainty, or even fails to act at all.

A thorough examination of the nature of man shows, that all the powers belonging to him are mutually dependent, that the strength of the whole depends on the degree of the strength of each one, and that the power of each one depends on the degree of vigor of all the rest. If any one is weak, all the others suffer more or less.

Thus, if the stomach is weakened, the food is not easily and completely digested, nutrition is incomplete, consequently all the other organs, the lungs, the muscles, the brain, &c. are imperfectly nourished, and cannot therefore perform their duties with heathly vigor. So, also, if the lungs are diseased, or if one breathes impure air, the blood is not cleansed of its dead particles in the lungs, impure blood is thence sent back to the heart and from the heart to the whole body; the same consequences of imperfect nutrition, and comparative weakness and

languor follow in all the other organs, as flow from impaired digestion. In a similar manner universal depression of life follows disorder or weakness of any other organ None can be perfect unless all the others, its co-workers in the general sustenance, are also perfect.

A connection, similar to this between the various physical organs and powers, is manifested between the physical and mental powers. If the brain is weak the mind is unable to work vigorously; if the brain is disordered the mind works irregularly and the moral affections are uncertain and perhaps perverse; if the brain is oppressed as in apoplexy, the mind is torpid and its actions are suspended.

It is in vain then to endeavor to educate and develope one organ unless the others also are strengthened, or to expect that one can be kept in regular action unless the others perform their parts with due vigor and regularity. A complete system of education then must include the developement and the training of all the powers, those of the body as well as those of the mind.

The developement and training of the mind, in manifold ways, has been fully and ably discussed, explained and established. The mind has been analyzed, and all the various mental and moral faculties examined, and those means, studies and appliances which will best develope and strengthen them, have been determined and used in education.

A similar analysis of the body and examination of the physical organs also are wanted, in order to understand their character and their relations, their wants, and the limits and extent of their powers; and the law of the human constitution should then be so explained and set forth, that children and youth may learn that which is necessary for their future self-government.

The great purpose of all education is to prepare the child or the youth to meet the responsibilities of life, to bear all the burdens that shall be imposed upon him, and discharge all the duties that shall be required of him in his future manhood.

This implies a consideration of the responsibilities and duties of life, to ascertain what are those which come upon men, what is their relative importance, what of these are inevitable, what are universal, and what are partial and avoidable. It is manifestly proper, that in making preparation, we should first prepare for that which we must certainly meet, and next for that which is the most important to be borne or discharged; and when we shall have made ready for these, we may, if we have time and opportunity, prepare for such responsibilities as come but occasionally, or on but a part of mankind, and for those which are of less importance to be sustained.

Upon this principle should all plans of education be arranged.

We should take into view first the organs, powers, and faculties of man, those which belong to his constitution and nature, and then the purposes to which they are to be applied and the objects which are to be effected by them.

In the usual plans of education, the first idea is that a man is to acquire knowledge, and therefore reading is the first thing taught. As language is ordinarily the instrument or the means of this acquisition, it very properly takes precedence of all other studies. The communication of knowledge ranks next in common estimation, and therefore writing is taught soon after reading or simultaneous with it. Then grammar, or the correct analysis of language, is early taught, to enable the scholar to convey his own ideas intelligibly, and to readily understand the language of others. Geography, to prepare one with a knowledge of various parts of the earth in order that he may do business or read with understanding the accounts of other places and nations; and arithmetic, to enable one to calculate and buy and sell correctly, are ranked among the essential elements of common education.

With these various kinds of knowledge, the man is supposed to be fitted for the chances and duties of life. They are indeed essential to the greatest usefulness and the highest enjoyments of life; but they are not absolutely necessary to existence on earth. The chances and contingencies that require the use of these kinds of knowledge do not come to all men; none of them are inevitable to any one; they may be and are avoided by many and, at most, they come upon only a part of mankind, and upon them only a part of the time.

But the responsibilities that are connected with the body, the advantages to be gained by a knowledge of its structure and action, and faithfulness to its laws, and the disadvantages that flow from an ignorance and neglect of its laws and conditions, are universal and permanent. They come upon every man and woman, and abide with them through life. They can be escaped or avoided or diminished at no time, and in no day, from the beginning to the end of earthly existence.

Each man is appointed to take care of his own body. Several of the organs of which his body is composed and by which his life is sustained are left partially or entirely to his charge. These are the organs of digestion, respiration and circulation, the bones and muscles, the brain and nervous systems and the skin. All of these have certain wants to be supplied or cer tain powers to be used; and the man himself, their owner and enjoyer, is the appointed one to supply these wants and to appropriate these powers.

This is so inevitable to all, that life and health hang upon the discharge of this responsibility. According to the manner in

which each one eats, drinks, and breathes, cares for his skin, and uses his bones, muscles and brain, is his life full, and vig orous, joyous, and protracted, or feeble, painful, and short. If he does these things intelligibly, and faithfully, agreeably to the law of his nature; if his nutriment is exactly adapted to his powers of digestion and the wants of his body, if he always breathes pure air, if he bathes and clothes himself properly, if the exercise of his brain, and his locomotive apparatus are just what these systems need, and no more than they can bear, then health in a high degree is enjoyed, strength is ever at command, and life is well sustained and prolonged. But, on the other hand, in as far as a man is faithless to this law of life, he is weak and sick; he has not the command of his powers, and his earthly existence is shortened. In this matter the reward immediately follows and inevitably follows the obedience, and the blessing attends each virtue. On the contrary the punishment is irreparably connected with the neglect of duty, and with the disobedience to the law of life.

This connection between the right or wrong administration of our organs and powers, and health or sickness, strength or weakness, is as certain as cause and effect, as that between any causes and their consequences in nature.

The will or the intention has nothing to do with the result. Whether a man neglects or errs from ignorance of the law or from wilful resistance to its commands, the punishment follows in the same manner and degree; it has regard only to the amount and kind of disobedience, and not to the motive or will of the sufferer.

Because this knowledge of the condition of the present being, this practical science of popular physiology has been rarely taught, men have generally been left to their appetites and propensities, their views of worldly interest, to guide them in their" self-management; and consequently the law of physical life has been almost universally disobeyed, to a greater or less extent; and thus the measure of life here, in its fulness or in its continuance, is very materially diminished in nearly, perhaps quite, the whole of mankind. In Massachusetts, with about a million of inhabitants, according to the calculation founded on the experience of the Health Insurance Companies, there are twenty-six thousand persons between the ages of fifteen and seventy constantly sick. This covers the entire productive period of a man's life. This State thus loses every year the enormous amount of twenty-six thousand years of productive service, on account of sickness. Massachusetts is supposed to be among the most healthy countries. Others probably have more sickness than even this. Very much of this defect of life of the sickness, weakness and ill health of mankind, would be prevented, if men in

their early years, were as well prepared to administer their powers of body as they are to administer their estates- if they were as well taught in physiology, as they are in geography and arithmetic.

The preparation for this self-care implies neither a knowledge of the comparative physiology of various animals, nor a study of the minutiae of anatomy. It is necessary to understand the general structure of those organs which are subject to man's control, or affected by his management. These are the organs of nutrition, respiration, of locomotion, the skin, and the brain and nervous system. But the physiology of these organs and systems, their actions, wants, powers, and uses, must necessarily be more extensively examined.

The practical applications of these laws to the manifold chances of life, the way in which and the degree to which they are affected by the various circumstances of the world, the infinite variety of duties in respect to them, according to varying contingencies, require a far greater study than the anatomy and physiology of the system.

Thus, in studying the locomotive system, it is needful to learn the general character, strength, and arrangement of the bones; the general structure and connections and actions of the muscles. Beside this, we should learn the relations of these organs to the others, as the effect of muscular action on digestion of food, and the effect of various kinds of food on muscular action; the effect of bathing, clothing, and perspiration; of the condition of the lungs and of respiration; of the various states of the brain, of the mind, the feelings, and passions, on the power of labor; the effect of protracted or interrupted action; of rest and sleep; of over exertion and of inaction; of day and of night labor. All these, in their manifold varieties, are to be learned, in order to fully understand the laws and responsibilities connected with the organs of locomotion.

All the other systems are to be learned in this manner, and thus one may be prepared to use his powers and organs for their legitimate purposes-to maintain his health and strength, and increase his enjoyments to the highest degree, and prolong his present life to its fullest extent.

There are other and different views taken of this subject. Some propose to teach a wide range of physiological science. Thus, in respiration, they explain the respiratory apparatus and its mode of action in the various classes of animals. In the same manner, and to the same extent, they teach the structure and action of the other organs. By this means, students may become naturalists, but they consume so much time in acquiring this wide range of anatomical and physiological knowledge, that comparatively little or none is left for the study of the special

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