A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development | Page 7

of a hundred miles, how many of the
Skitzland aristocracy should we find, think you? What a dropping off
of limbs and features there would be, if the letter of the law of
Skitzland were carried out! But it is absolutely certain that, this is in
effect the law of nature, which does not act, it is true, all in a moment;
but which slowly and truly tends to this. The Hindoo ties up an arm, for
years together, as a penance, thinking thereby he does Brahma service;
the limb with fatal sureness withers away, and rots. The prisoner in
solitary confinement has his mind and faculties bound, fettered and tied,
and by a law as fixed as that which keeps the stars in their places, the

said prisoner's mind grows weaker, feebler, less sane, day by day.
School children are confined six long hours in a close school-room,
sitting in one unvarying posture, their lungs breathing corrupted air, no
single limb moving as it ought to move, not the faintest shadow of
attention being paid to heart, lungs, digestive organs, legs or arms, all
these being bound down, and tied as it were; and so, by the stern edict
of heaven, which, when man was placed upon earth, decreed that the
faculties unused should weaken and fail, we see around us thousands of
unhealthy children whose brains are developed at the expense of their
bodies; the ultimate consequence of which will be, deterioration of
brain as well as body.
What is the remedy for all this? I have before stated that in large
crowded cities, gymnastic training, systematically pursued as a study,
is the only thing which seems possible to be done, and most assuredly
will be beneficial wherever it is introduced. But there is a different
method of physical education, which can be pursued either exclusively,
or in association with gymnastics, which can be followed up either in
the country, or in towns, where playgrounds can be obtained. This is
the method which I have invariably pursued myself, namely, the
systematic pursuit of health and strength by all manner of manly sports
and games. I myself learnt to play and love these games at school and
at college. I have given them now nearly four years' trial in my school,
and every day convinces me more and more of their beneficial results.
I cannot tell how much physical weakness, how much moral evil we
have batted, and bowled, and shinnied away from our door; but I do
know that we have batted and bowled away indolence, and listlessness,
and doing nothing, which I believe is the Devil's greatest engine; and I
also know that the enthusiasm of the boys in these games never dies out,
their enjoyment never flags, for these games supply the want of the
boys' natures, and keep their thoughts from straying to forbidden
ground.
Now these games are the very thing which that portion of mankind
called the sporting world, have always loved and cherished. They have
infused the love of these games into the very bones of Englishmen, and
who knows how much good England owes to them! Let us then
overlook for a while the religious world, the commercial world, the
literary world, for they do not contain what we seek now, and let us

look at this poor sister world, a world which seldom finds itself in such
good company.
Each of these worlds has its work; the one we now have to do with, the
sporting world, is a world probably as much decried, and with as much
reason, as any. But see how pertinaciously this world will persist in
coming up to the surface wherever a community of men may be. See
how rigorously the Puritans tried to put down, or rather squeeze this
heinous tendency out of Human Nature! But they did not succeed,
though goodness knows, they tried hard enough. Yet it has come up
again, and lo! it is now as vigorous as ever. Friends! I am finding fault
with the Puritans in the very midst of their descendants. But what
greater compliment could I pay these old Puritans than this? for their
greatest glory is, that they left to their descendants the precious legacy
of free thought! and so deeply imbedded is this in the very bones of the
race, that they will gladly hear a stranger criticize and even condemn, a
portion of the Puritan mind: knowing full well, that the fabric which
they builded on the shores of this Continent is sufficient to bear witness
to the real manhood that was in them. But what was the reason of their
failure? Simply they were trying to drive out Nature with a pitchfork,
and she of course will perpetually keep coming back. So we say of