Let a gifted but weakly lawyer go into a court-room and meet some
bull-headed opponent with not half the keen insight or knowledge of the
law, but one who has tenacity, ability to hold on, and nine times out
ten the abler man of the two--mentally--goes home wearied and defeated,
and the other man wins the case. Who are the men prominent in the
pulpit? Are they weak, puny men, or men of physique? Who are the leaders
in the Churches? They are not leaders on account of their intellectual
brilliancy, but by their wholeness as men. They find sympathy with the
people because they are good specimens of manhood. There might be many
more such had they been better trained.
The best training-school for the body is the gymnasium. That is the
purpose of all its appliances and apparatus. But it may be dispensed
with if one has an adequate desire for physical training. Give a boy to
understand that his body is not impure and vile, but that it is as much
worth consideration as his mind, and that if he does not take carte of
his body he can not do any thing with his mind, and ways of physical
training will not be wanting.
All children should be examined at intervals by a physician, and a
record kept of their development. I measure my little boy every year. I
know how he is growing. If he has been subject to too much excitement,
there will be larger relative growth of the head, and we adjust his
manner of life accordingly. The object of education is to _develop the
boy_, not to put him through so much of arithmetic or so much language.
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