A Lecture on Physical Development, and its Relations to Mental and Spiritual Development | Page 9

know nothing that he knows, you admire nothing that he
admires; and until you do really get a community of interest with him,
you will be wide asunder as the poles, and the fast young man will
remain, as he has hitherto remained, the one disgraceful problem which
modern education cannot solve.
If an educator or college tutor wishes to influence this class of his
scholars, or if a clergyman wishes to gain the souls of this part of his
congregation, the one most difficult to deal with, let him join with them
in some manly game, and let him assuredly know that whatever true
manhood he has will stand him in good stead, and nothing else: nothing
but real vital religion, real nobleness of character will be of any use in
the cricket-field or the row-boat; and this will hold its own here as well
as elsewhere.
Once, then, establish a community of interest on any one subject with
young men, and you open to yourself a door, by which all good may
enter. Nature, dear friends, makes nothing in vain, and it is of such
infinite importance that strength of limb, readiness of eye and hand,
physical vigor in short, should be transmitted from generation to
generation, that she keeps producing fast young men, in spite of the
thousand excesses which they commit, and will do so, until the ablest
and wisest human minds take the matter in hand, and see to it that this
part of Human Nature has its proper and legitimate food, guided by
mind, thought, and reverence, instead of being allowed to run riot in all
manner of wantonness.
The sporting world, then, with its manly games and manly sports, gives

us the means which are needed by the community at large for physical
education; and the future educators of the country must be taught to
love these manly games at school and at college, and then they will be
able to disseminate them; whereas, at present, educators in this country
are almost entirely ignorant of any manly games whatever. "But are not
these games very dangerous," asks a careful mamma; "don't you find
that boys get hurt very much by them? I have heard of some one who
got his teeth knocked down his throat by them. Somebody else got his
head hurt at shinney and so that was put a stop to, I believe, at Mr.----'s
school." Such mammas, doubtless, put into the hands of their children
some good little book, with a narration of this sort. Little Johnny was
told by his mamma not to climb trees. He was a good boy, and
generally obedient. But one day he was in the garden of one of his
schoolfellows, who asked him to climb a cherry tree; he forgot his
mother's command, and went up, but after he had climbed nearly to the
top his foot slipped, and down he tumbled through the branches on to
the ground. He cried very much, and could not move, so they had to put
him upon a shutter and carry him home. The doctor found that his leg
was broken; the pain was dreadful when he had it set, &c. &c.; the
drama ending by Johnny throwing his arms round his mother's neck,
and declaring that if he ever got well, he would never disobey his dear,
dear mother any more!
The good people who write these edifying stories never seem to think
whether it was wise for mamma to forbid Johnny to climb a tree.
Monkeys are never forbidden to do so, and I seldom hear anything of
their falling off. Poor people's children climb trees, and there does not
seem to be an extraordinary increase of juvenile mortality on this
account. What should you say if some hard-hearted person, myself for
instance, were to say to the dear mother of little Johnny, "Dear Madam,
you yourself, I grieve to say, were the cause of Johnny's accident; you
have habitually prevented him from doing anything which would
quicken his perceptions and strengthen his limbs. He must not soil his
pinafore, he must not get his hands dirty, and above all he must not
play at any games which make his hair untidy, or tear his clothes. In
fact, you have forbidden him to do precisely those things which Nature
prompted him to do. He has generally been very obedient, you say, and
therefore his bodily powers have become weaker instead of stronger.

Well, the temptation came, the unused and untrustworthy limbs were
summoned to act, his consciousness of doing wrong enfeebled him still
further, and made them still more nervous. He went up the tree, and the
natural consequence was, that he fell."
This, in substance, is the answer to all questions of this class. I