A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development | Page 8

this
world, the sporting world, so liable to abuse, and so unsparingly abused,
what is true of all the worlds, and that is, that it would be well for
mankind, if they were to bestow a little thought upon the demands of
this, as well as of the other worlds; and not be content to ignore wholly
a thing the value of which they do not understand;--how the sporting
world has witnessed, does witness, and will forever witness, for a fact
in Human Nature, which no amount of pressure will ever squeeze out
of Human Nature, and that is, the necessity which human beings feel
for amusement, and for open air exercise, not exercise merely, but
hearty, joyous, blood-stirring exercise, with a good amount of pleasant
emulation in it.
This, then, is what cricket and boating, battledore and archery, shinney
and skating, fishing, hunting, shooting, and baseball mean, namely, that
there is a joyous spontaneity in human beings; and thus Nature, by
means of the sporting world, by means of a great number of very
imperfect, undignified, and sometimes quite disreputable mouthpieces,
is perpetually striving to say something deserving of far nobler and

clearer utterance; something which statesmen, lawgivers, preachers,
and educators would do well to lay to heart. My children, she would
say, are not intended to be made working machines; they have
capacities for joy, for spontaneous action, for doing some pleasant
thing for the mere sake of doing it, without any regard to gain or profit,
whether it be of money or anything else; and by obeying my dictates,
they will find riches which they never sought for, will obtain gifts they
never asked.
Why, a fast young man at an English University too often learns no
good thing there, except to play a capital game at cricket, have a good
seat upon a horse, pull an oar till he drops, and to have a general belief
in the omnipotence of pluck! And I can tell you that is no bad education
too, as far as it goes. I am perfectly well aware that fast young men too
often learn other and worse things than these, learn to drink, and swear,
and debauch, and to spend as fast as possible in riotous living the
manhood and strength which God has given them. But this I know and
publicly declare, that it is this love of manly sports which keeps the fast
young men of England from utter corruption and decay. Such men,
renowned in their school and college days as good cricketers, oarsmen
or riders, were the men that made Alma, Inkermann, and Balaklava
possible; who have just done battle at fearful odds on the burning plains
of India, on behalf of helpless women and slaughtered babies; and
those whom their strong right arm could not save, it was able to avenge!
The iron endurance which they had gained in many a bloodless contest,
stood them in good stead there, when all their manhood was needed, if
ever it was; and over those that nobly died there, methinks that I can
see the Genius of England weep bitter tears, and thus speak with deep
self-reproach:--"Ah! sons of mine! loved and early lost! ye whom I
could not teach, whom no one in all my broad lands could teach, how
to unite the virtuous, wise and holy soul, together with the soul joyous
and free! Alas! for me, that ye had to die, before I could know how
noble ye were! that your cold bodies, fallen on the field, wounds all in
front, and none behind, would be so many poor dumb mouths to tell me
of the untold wealth which I have in my children, those very ones who
too often are nought but shame and grief to me!" Dear, noble old
England! if God will teach her this wisdom, her old heart will beat on
bravely for a thousand years to come.

The preponderance of the animal, the bodily element, produces fast
young men; and fast young men, and boys tending to become such, are
the problem of society, the terror of the peace-loving, money-making
world, and the scandal of the Educator, as he himself feels well enough
his own impotence in dealing with them.
I have seen many an Educator who has felt that he ought to get at these
young rebellious forces, but who does not know the way, and
despairingly wonders why he cannot do so. Friend! I would say, no
man can influence another, unless he has something akin to Him. What
do you think gives these blacklegs, men of not a tithe of your force and
talent, such power over them? Why, it is community of nature, interests
in common. But what interests have you in common with a fast young
man? You