Book_j2jjT 
 
THi 
 
 ~<^ 
 
 
 PHYSICA^ EDUCATION: 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED TO A 
 
 CONVENTION OF TEACHERS 
 
 IN LEXINGTON, KY. 
 
 ON THE 6th & 7th OF NOV. 1833. 
 
 Br CHARLES CALDWELL, M. D. 
 
 . 
 
 BOSTON: 
 MARSH, CAP EN & LYON 
 1834. 
 
> . *s 
 
 
 - ... -N 
 
 i 
 
 y % X 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 
 
 Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the Dis. Court of the Dis. of Mass. 
 
 V/J& 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 B Dow, Pri 
 
 122 Washington-st. 
 
 James B Dow, Printer, > 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The following production being too long for a 
 Discourse, and too short for a Treatise, and possess- 
 ing neither the style nor manner of an Essay, is a 
 sort of nondescript in form, and by a certain class of 
 readers, will perhaps, at first sight, be considered no 
 less so, in some of the sentiments it contains. Should 
 it be favored, however, with an attentive perusal, and 
 a few second and serious thoughts, it is hoped that a 
 more familiar acquaintance with it, will wear off any 
 disagreeable effects, that first impressions may have 
 produced. 
 
 The author was induced to prepare and deliver it, 
 and has been led to print it, for sundry reasons. He 
 was requested to do so, and did not think it kind or 
 complaisant to refuse — the subject is one of great 
 importance, involving the highest perfection and 
 earthly happiness that man can attain, to say nothing 
 of its bearing on his future condition — and it has 
 rarely if ever, been treated on the ground, and under 
 the extent of principle, that justly belong to it. But 
 the chief reason for publishing the work, was a belief 
 that it contains a few seminal truths, not generally 
 known, which, when fully developed, and reduced 
 to practice, will lead to results of much usefulness, ia 
 the work of education. 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 The subject is treated altogether physiologically. 
 And that such is the nature of education, cannot be 
 denied. Every change it produces in those who are 
 made the subject of it, are strictly physiological. 
 This is as true of moral and intellectual, as of phys- 
 ical education. All the beneficial effects of training, 
 arise from the improvements produced by it, in or- 
 ganized matter, rendering such matter, whether it be 
 brain, nerve, muscle, lungs, or of any other descrip- 
 tion, a better piece of machinery, for mind to work 
 with. A knowledge of these truths is peculiarly im- 
 portant, as they show the essential connexion between 
 mind and matter, and make it clearly appear, that, 
 for its sound and vigorous operations, the former de- 
 pends on the condition of the latter. Hence the im- 
 portance of a strict attention to the health of pupils, 
 even independently of their corporeal suffering from 
 disease. Their mental character is no less concerned 
 in the issue. 
 
 Let no one allege that this view of education in- 
 volves materialism, or any principle, unfriendly to 
 morality or religion. The charge would be most 
 unjust. The entire subserviency of matter to mind 
 is acknowledged in it ; and that is all that the doc- 
 trine of spirituality can require. It must not claim 
 to take from matter the rank and attributes conferred 
 on it by its Creator. But for a fitter discussion 
 of these topics, the reader is referred to the work 
 itself, which, without further remark, is respectfully 
 submitted to his unprejudiced judgment. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION; 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 It would be not only a departure from the ob- 
 ject that has called you together, but objectionable 
 in itself, and injurious in its effects, to introduce into 
 the exercises of the present occasion the slightest 
 allusion to matters of party. Nor would any one 
 more reluctantly than myself be guilty of such a 
 fault. Let me hope, however, that, without furnish- 
 ing ground for a charge against me to that effect, or 
 awakening in the mind of any one, who hears me, 
 an unfriendly feeling, or an opposing thought, I may 
 be permitted to observe, that the aspect of our 
 country, political as well as social, is gloomy and 
 portentous. And when we turn from the present to 
 the future, the prospect presents but little to cheer 
 us, unless a change, to be presently specified, can 
 be produced in the public mind. While the embit- 
 tered strife of parties, differing in their views of men 
 and measures, and the growing discontents of geo- 
 graphical section,* seriously threaten the repose of 
 
 * This Discourse was written at the time when the spirit of 
 nullification in the south, was at its height. 
 
 2 
 
14 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 the country, not to say the integrity of the Union, — 
 the poison spread abroad by malice and falsehood, 
 through the public prints, is tainting the community 
 with moral corruption. So deep and pestilent is 
 this fountain, and so broad and destructive to sound- 
 ness of principle, as well as to the love and diffusion 
 of truth, the stream that issues from it, as to render 
 it perhaps more than doubtful, whether, perverted 
 as it is to the vilest of purposes, the freedom of the 
 press be a good or an evil. If men be too corrupt 
 and vicious, to refrain, of their own accord, from 
 practices disgraceful in themselves, and ruinous to 
 their country, I am far from being convinced that 
 they ought not to be debarred from them, by public 
 authority. 
 
 Every excess is an evil ; and that of the liberty 
 of the press, which, turned to licentiousness, de- 
 fames, misleads, inflames, and demoralizes, is among 
 the most deplorable. Were any one to pronounce 
 the sentiment here advanced, to be unfriendly to the 
 doctrines of republican government, my reply would 
 be, that it is not unfriendly to morality or Christian- 
 ity, but concurrent with both. Nor is it less so 
 with the spirit of genuine republicanism, which 
 embraces and upholds the general good, and is 
 therefore hostile to the corruption, fraud, and false- 
 hood, to which too many of our public presses un- 
 blushingly minister. 
 
 For this condition of things, stored with the ele- 
 ments of such fearful calamity, there is but one 
 remedy — the advancement of the people in intelli- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 15 
 
 gence and virtue. I say ' advancement ;' for there 
 is reason to apprehend, that the stock of those attri- 
 butes, now possessed by us, is too limited for the 
 work to be performed by them, — the eradication of 
 existing, and the prevention of future and more 
 grievous evils. It is to the improved mental char- 
 acter of the rising generation, and those who shall 
 succeed them, beyond that of the generation now at 
 maturity, that our hopes can attach themselves, with 
 any reasonable prospect of being realized. On the 
 redeeming influence of such improvement, alone, 
 can the American people safely and confidently 
 rely, for the attainment of that degree of national 
 prosperity, greatness, and glory, and that amount of 
 individual happiness, which is placed within their 
 reach, if they do not neglect or abuse their privi- 
 leges. 
 
 Two questions of moment here present them- 
 selves. Is the amendment referred to, within our 
 reach ? and, if so, What are the means by which it 
 may be compassed? I answer, Yes : the end can be 
 attained ; and an improved education constitutes the 
 means. To represent it fairly, and recommend it to 
 the acceptance and encouragement it deserves, I 
 may safely add, that it is the only means. To rely 
 on any other, would be a deadly fallacy. By that 
 alone can our safety be secured. And by that it 
 can be secured, provided we avail ourselves of it, as 
 wisdom dictates, and duty enjoins. But we must 
 avail ourselves of it promptly, else the opportunity 
 may be lost to us forever. It is not only ' in the 
 
16 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 affairs of men,' that ' there is a tide, which, taken 
 at the flood, leads on to fortune.' The same is no 
 less true of nations. And 1 may truly add, e On 
 such a full sea are we now afloat ; and we must take 
 the current, as it serves, or lose our venture.' 
 
 The influence of education, on the condition of 
 our country, were it judiciously conducted, and gen- 
 erally diffused, would be irresistible ; and its issue 
 would be precisely the improvement we require. 
 Not only would the people receive from it the intel- 
 ligence necessary to guide them in public affairs 5 
 they would be improved by it in their entire charac- 
 ter, moral and social, intellectual and political, and 
 enabled the better to control their passions, and give 
 them a safe and useful direction. Prepared to per- 
 ceive the public good with greater clearness, and to 
 pursue it with purer intentions, and a steadier aim, 
 they would be less susceptible of the rage and sway 
 of party, and more effectually guarded against the 
 machinations of unprincipled demagogues and aspir- 
 ants to power, who might wish to mislead them, for 
 the promotion of their own selfish and sinister pur- 
 poses. Thus would the nation become a n v ursery of 
 abler statesmen and more virtuous patriots, and have 
 its highest interests more certainly secured. 
 
 Fortunately for our country, these sentiments are 
 not new ; nor are they limited, as respects the num- 
 ber of those who entertain them. They are taking 
 root in the public mind, with the most gratifying ra- 
 pidity, and promise to be productive of invaluable 
 fruit. There is reason to hope, that, as the issue of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 17 
 
 them, education will be no longer neglected in the 
 United States, but improved and extended, in pro- 
 portion to our demand for it. Already is the inter- 
 est awakened in favor of it, broad and deep ; and it 
 is beginning to be regarded in its true character, as 
 constituting not only the corner-stone, but the foun- 
 dation and cement of civil society. Already is it 
 beginning to be looked to, as alone calculated to 
 rescue human nature from the dominion of animal 
 propensity and passion, and to bestow on it the high- 
 est perfection of which it is susceptible. Uneduca- 
 ted whites, and the roving children of the forest will 
 soon be considered, and justly so, as occupying 
 nearly the same level in the scale of being. Nor is 
 this all. There is cause to believe, that the period 
 is approaching, when to be wholly uneducated will 
 be held dishonorable and out of fashion ; and that 
 will do much to complete the spread and triumph of 
 education. As respects the points, on which they 
 bear, honor and fashion are everywhere despotic. 
 
 That these views are not fallacious, but that the 
 salutary change referred to is in progress, appears 
 from an abundance of concurrent testimony. The 
 meeting of the Convention I have the honor of 
 addressing, testifies strongly to that effect. So do 
 many other facts, which might be easily cited. 
 Teachers, of every rank in their profession, are not 
 only better rewarded, but held in higher estimation 
 than formerly. It is no longer true, as it once was, 
 that persons unfit for any thing else, on account of 
 
 indolence, infirmity, or some other disqualification, 
 
 2* 
 
18 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 are employed, as instructers. Men of character and 
 competency alone, are now considered worthy of the 
 trust. Already is this the case, in many parts of our 
 country, and promises soon to be so in all of them. 
 Annals, Journals, and Libraries are established, Ly- 
 ceums are opened, Institutes erected, Associations 
 formed, Essays published, Sermons preached, Con- 
 ventions held, and Discourses delivered, for the 
 advancement of education. Those measures are 
 calculated to form, foster, and diffuse a taste for it, 
 excite ambition in it, and 5 rendering it popular, in- 
 sure its success. For popularity, whether it attach 
 to projects fitted for good or for evil, is a current 
 which nothing can withstand 5 and fortunately, in the 
 present instance, it sets in the right direction. Tn 
 fine, a large portion of the talent of America, being, 
 in some way, enlisted in the cause of education, and 
 the general bent of society concurring w T ith it, an 
 effort so powerful and well directed, can scarcely 
 fail to produce an era in the annals of our country, 
 memorable alike for the diffusion of useful knowl- 
 eoge, and the. advancement of human happiness. In 
 the vocabulary of such numbers, united and reso- 
 lute, intelligent and persevering, there is no suitable 
 place for the terms impossibility, failure, or defeat. 
 To confederacies of the kind, all things, within the 
 scope of human means, become practicable and 
 easy. — But my business is, not to speak of educa- 
 tion, in the abstract, but to. offer a few remarks on 
 one of its branches. To that task, I shall now pro- 
 ceed. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 19 
 
 That I may the more easily and certainly be un- 
 derstood, however, in my subsequent exposition of 
 it, allow me first to make a few observations explan- 
 atory of what I mean, by the term education, as my 
 understanding of it may differ, perhaps, in some de- 
 gree, from yours. Any theoretical difference, how- 
 ever, that may exist between us, on this point, will 
 have no influence in creating a practical one, on 
 others of more immediate usefulness. 
 
 Let me here apprise you, that, in giving my defi- 
 nition, I must speak phrenologically. As education 
 relates to the operations of mind, as well as of body, 
 it must be considered and presented, as well sum- 
 marily as in detail, with a reference to some system 
 of mental philosophy. But of all the systems I have 
 examined, (and I have looked carefully into several 
 of them,) that of Gall and Spurzheim is the only 
 one I can either believe or understand. As soon 
 would I bind myself to discover the philosopher's 
 stone, or to concoct the elixir of life out of simples, 
 as to find substantial meaning in many of the tenets 
 of fashionable metaphysics. Indeed, the dreams of 
 alchymists, and not a few of those of metaphysicians 
 have a strong family-likeness. And well they may. 
 They are the twin-brood of common parents, Error 
 and Superstition, and were ushered to life during the 
 Dark Ages. These are my reasons for speaking in 
 conformity to phrenological principles, in the defini- 
 tion I am about to offer. 
 
 By education, in the abstract, I mean a scheme 
 of action, or training, by which any form of living 
 
20 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 matter may be improved, and, by perseverance, 
 reared to the highest perfection of which it is sus- 
 ceptible. I say, ' any form ;' because the lower or- 
 ders of living beings, vegetables not excepted, may 
 be educated and improved, as certainly as the high- 
 er, and on the same grounds. That it may produce 
 the desired effect, the scheme pursued, must con- 
 form to the constitution of the race of beings, for 
 whose improvement it is intended ; and, in the pres- 
 ent instance, that race is our own. No one, there- 
 fore, is capable of devising and arranging such a 
 scheme, for the amendment of the general condition 
 of man, nor even of comprehending and skilfully ap- 
 plying it, unless he be thoroughly acquainted with 
 his constitution. Hence, without such an acquaint- 
 ance, it is impossible to become an able and suc- 
 cessful instructer. He that would rectify or improve 
 a piece of machinery, must first understand it, in its 
 structure and principles. Under the want of such a 
 knowledge of it, to touch it, is to impair it : except 
 it be saved by the intervention of accident. In like 
 manner, he that would - alter human nature for the 
 better, must know it, as it is. Special education, 
 designed for a given, purpose, is a scheme of training 
 in accordance with that purpose. I need scarcely 
 add, that general training does nothing more than 
 improve general powers ; while special training fits 
 for some definite and corresponding pursuit. 
 
 By the constitution of man, as just referred to, I 
 mean his material portion, in its organized and vital 
 capacity, that being, as I feel persuaded, the only 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 21 
 
 part of him 3 we are able to improve. The mind 
 being a spirit, whose nature and qualities, as spirit, 
 are concealed from us, and with which none of our 
 faculties are fitted to make us acquainted, we do not 
 possess any means, nor can we conceive of any, 
 calculated to produce in it either amendment or 
 change. Its subtle and inscrutable character places 
 it beyond our action and influence. Nor, as will 
 appear hereafter, does the work of education require 
 it to be changed. It only calls for an amendment 
 of the instruments, with which it works. So exalted 
 is my view of spirit, that I believe it to be compe- 
 tent, without any interference from us, to the highest 
 actions, for which the body is fitted. To amend it, 
 belongs only to Him who made it. 
 
 It occurs to me, that he who believes in his power 
 to improve spirit, by making it stronger, larger, more 
 active, or in any respect better, has a much less ex- 
 alted opinion of it, than he has of himself. A 
 capacity to amend, implies a superiority, in the 
 amender and his machinery, to the thing he im- 
 proves. But the whole machinery of education is 
 material. To contend, then, that education can im- 
 prove the abstract mind, is to assert the superiority 
 of matter to spirit. This is neither quibble nor 
 sophistry, but a deduction of reason, and a dictate of 
 common sense. Nor will any thing but a spirit of 
 sophistry attempt its subversion. Except the teach- 
 er be superior to the pupil, he cannot instruct him. 
 Much less can he do so, being greatly inferior. 
 Spirit, being the superior, may modify and amend 
 
22 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 matter ; but for the converse of this to be true, seems 
 impossible. 
 
 The organized system of man, constitutes the 
 machinery, with which alone his mind operates, dur- 
 ing their connexion, as soul and body. Improve the 
 apparatus, then, and you facilitate and improve the 
 w T ork, which the mind performs with it, precisely as 
 you facilitate steam-operation, and enhance its pro- 
 duct, by improving the machinery, with which it is 
 executed. In one case, steam, and in the other, 
 spirit, continue unchanged ; and each works and 
 produces, with a degree of perfection, corresponding 
 to that of the instruments it employs. 
 
 As respects several of the functions of the mind? 
 the correctness of the foregoing theory is universally 
 admitted. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and 
 feeling, as well as voluntary muscular motion, are as 
 true mental operations, as judging, reasoning, remem- 
 bering, or calculation by numbers. And the former 
 are as susceptible of improvement, as the latter. 
 But when improved, no one considers the result as 
 consisting in any amendment of simple spirit, but of 
 compound organized matter. When, for example, 
 vision is improved, the amendment is uniformly re- 
 ferred to the eye, the optic nerve, and that portion 
 of the brain immediately associated with them, they 
 being the organs, by which the mind sees, and with- 
 out which, it cannot see. Is hearing improved? 
 For the same reason, it is not the mind, but the 
 auditory apparatus that is amended. Of the other 
 senses, the same is true. If either of them be im- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 23 
 
 proved, it is the organ that is meliorated in its con- 
 dition, not the mind that uses it. TNor is this truth 
 less obvious, as respects the instruments of voluntary 
 motion. The opera-dancer, the tumbler, and the 
 swordsman, do not, in acquiring expertness in their 
 occupations, improve their minds, but their muscles 
 and joints, with the nerves and portions of the brain, 
 that have the governance of them. These positions 
 are so plain, that to state them, is to prove them. 
 
 Respecting the higher mental operations, the 
 same may be affirmed with equal safety. In per- 
 forming them, the mind works with the brain as its 
 machinery, as certainly as it does with the eye in 
 seeing, or the muscles in dancing and swordsman- 
 ship. Is any form of memory, — say the memory of 
 words, or that of places, — rendered more apt and re- 
 tentive, by judicious exercise ? We have no reason 
 to believe, that the mind or spirit is amended, in 
 this instance, any more than in those heretofore 
 enumerated. It is a portion of the brain — the organ 
 of language or locality — that is amended. By 
 practice, man becomes more powerful and adroit in 
 reasoning and judging. Here again the mind is not 
 changed. The belief to that effect has no shadow 
 of evidence to sustain it. The improvement in this 
 case, as in the preceding ones, is confined to the 
 organs, with which the mind reasons and judges. 
 Arguments, not to be refuted, could be adduced *in 
 favor of this statement, were the discussion admis- 
 sible. Indeed, for man to claim the power of opera- 
 ting immediately on spirit, and either amending or 
 
24 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 deteriorating it, by any means he can employ, is an 
 assumption perfectly gratuitous, and, in my opinion, 
 not a little extraordinary and "arrogant. It is enough 
 that he is able to change matter, and control it to 
 his purposes, by material agents. And all the 
 means used in teaching, are material. There is 
 good reason to believe, as already stated, that noth- 
 ing short of the creative will, that brought spirit 
 into existence, can modify it, either for better or 
 worse. When we wish, then, I say, to improve 
 mental operations, we have only to amend the or- 
 gans, which the mind employs in performing them. 
 And it will appear hereafter, that this is a proposi- 
 tion of great importance, in the scheme of human 
 improvement. For no other reason would I have 
 ventured to introduce it, on the present occasion, 
 aware, as I am, that its correctness is not likely, at 
 first, to be generally acknowledged by you. Allow 
 me, however, to repeat, that a difference of opinion, 
 on this point, will have no tendency to create a dif- 
 ference on many that are to follow. The differ- 
 ence will be in theory, not in practice. 
 
 Education is usually divided into two branches, 
 Physical and Moral. More correctly might it be 
 divided into three— Physical, Moral, and Intellectual. 
 ' Nothing is more certain, than that the Intellectual 
 and the Moral powers may be educated separately ; 
 the former being amended, while the latter are not; 
 and the converse. Facts in proof of this are abun- 
 dant. There is as real a distinction between moral 
 and intellectual education, as there is between phys- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 25 
 
 ical education and either of them. It will appear, 
 however, presently, that they are all three so inti- 
 mately connected, that the improvement of any one 
 of them may be made to contribute to that of the 
 others. Nor can it be otherwise, except through 
 mismanagement. Moral action, intellectual action, 
 and what, for want of a better name, I may call 
 physical action, have their seats and instruments in 
 different parts of the human system ; and those 
 parts are essentially connected by sympathy, and 
 other ties more mechanical and obvious. One of 
 them being injured or benefited, therefore, the oth- 
 ers are affected in a corresponding manner. Deriv- 
 ing their being and sustenance from the same source, 
 and serving as elements of the same individual per- 
 son, each of whose parts is necessary to the integ- 
 rity and perfection of the whole, it would be singu- 
 lar, were it not so. To illustrate my meaning, and 
 prove my position. 
 
 The condition of the morals of every individual 
 depends on the condition of the moral organs of his 
 brain, the condition of his intellect on that of his in- 
 tellectual organs, and the condition of his physical 
 powers on that of the remaining portion of his body, 
 including the cutaneous system, the digestive, the 
 respiratory, the circulatory, the secretory, the 
 absorbent, the muscular, and some others. And all 
 these parts are so mutually dependent, that no one 
 of them can be either materially injured or benefit- 
 ed alone. More or less, the others correspond to 
 the condition into which it is thrown. Are the 
 3 
 
26 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 digestive, the respiratory, and the circulatory sys- 
 tems, or either of them seriously deranged, the brain 
 suffers, through all its divisions, for want of a suffi- 
 cient supply of good blood, to nourish, vivify, and 
 strengthen it. Is the brain itself materially deranged, 
 it is incompetent to prepare, in due quantity, and of 
 sound qualities, its matter of influence, whatever that 
 may be, and transmit it to the other parts of the 
 system. They therefore suffer in turn. Hence, I 
 repeat, that moral and intellectual education, which 
 consists in amending the condition of the brain, and 
 physical education, which is the improvement of the 
 other parts of the body, are indispensable to the per- 
 fection of each other, and, of course, to that of the 
 whole system. Physical education is to the other 
 two, what the root, trunk, and branches of the tree 
 are to its leaves, blossoms, and fruit. It is the 
 source and sine qua non of their existence. Injure 
 or improve it, and you produce on them a kindred 
 effect. Hence, physical education is far more im- 
 portant than is commonly imagined. Without a due 
 regard to it, by which I mean a stricter and more 
 judicious attention than is paid to it at present, man 
 cannot attain the perfection of his nature. Ancient 
 Greece might be cited, in confirmation of this. May 
 history and other forms of record be credited, the 
 people of that country were, as a nation, physically 
 and intellectually, the most perfect of the human 
 race. And there is reason to believe, that their un- 
 rivalled attention to physical education, was highly 
 influential in producing the result. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 27 
 
 In truth, the ancient Persians and Greeks, as well 
 as some other nations of antiquity, appear to have 
 cultivated that form of education to a much greater 
 extent than the moderns do. Nor were they with- 
 out their reasons for this. For their standing in 
 war, in common with their influence in peace, indi- 
 viduals, among those people, were greatly indebted 
 to their personal strength. The cause of this was, 
 that they were, in a high degree, deficient in the 
 improvements of art, especially in their knowledge 
 and command of the mechanical powers. Their 
 chief substitute for this want, was their own bodily 
 powers. It was incumbent on them, therefore, to 
 increase those powers, in the highest practicable de- 
 gree. The invention of gun powder has brought 
 the weak and the strong to an equality in war ; and 
 the improvements made in mechanics, have done 
 nearly the same, in relation to the arts of peace. 
 Hence, as respects the general business of life, the 
 moderns have much less necessity for personal 
 strength, than the ancients had. And, as mankind 
 act from motives of necessity and interest, much 
 more than from those of any other sort, physical 
 education, the chief source of superior strength of 
 person, has been greatly neglected, especially by the 
 higher orders of society, for two or three centuries. 
 Knowledge being now the only ground of great 
 power and influence, intellectual education, receives, 
 at present, a much more exclusive attention than it 
 formerly did, and much more than comports with 
 the benefit of our race. Even it, however, would 
 
28 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 profit greatly , by an improved condition of physical 
 education. 
 
 This brings me immediately to my task. Before 
 actually entering on it, however, suffer me- to ob- 
 serve, that if, instead of treating technically of moral, 
 intellectual, and physical education, authors and oth- 
 ers would speak correctly of the education of the 
 different portions of the body, each portion being 
 trained according to its organization and character, 
 ihey would be more philosophical and intelligible 
 than they are. I am persuaded they would be also 
 more instructive. The skin, for example, must be 
 educated by one mode of discipline, the stomach by 
 another, the lungs by a third, the muscles and circu- 
 latory system by a fourth, and each external sense 
 and cerebral organ by a method corresponding to 
 the peculiarity of its nature. In this view of the 
 subject, which is the only rational one, the training 
 of the brain, in all its departments, by whatever 
 name they may be called, is as truly a physical or 
 physiological process, as the training of any other 
 part of the body. I shall not, however, out of mere 
 conformity to these principles, employ at present 
 any new terms or phrases, as those already in use 
 are sufficient for my purpose, and willbe better un- 
 derstood, than such as I might substitute for them. 
 It is of physical education, then, in the usual ac- 
 ceptation of the phrase, that I am now to speak. 
 
 This process may be defined, that scheme of 
 training, which contributes most effectually to the 
 development.,, health, and perfection of living mat* 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 29 
 
 ier. — As applied to man, it is that scheme which 
 raises his whole system to its summit of perfection. 
 In this are included the highest tone and vigor of all 
 parts of the body, that are consistent with a sound 
 condition of them ; for the tone of a vital organ? 
 like that of a musical instrument, may be too high? 
 as well as too low. 
 
 Physical education, then, in its philosophy and 
 practice, is of great compass. If complete, it would 
 be tantamount to an entire system of Hygeiene. It 
 would embrace every thing, that, by bearing in any- 
 way on the human body, might injure or benefit it 
 in its health, vigor, and fitness for action. It must 
 be obvious to you, therefore, that, on the present 
 occasion, 1 can consider it but partially. To give a 
 full development of it, volumes of writing would be 
 necessary, and days would be required to read 
 them. So numerous are the elements, which enter 
 into the aggregate of the scheme, that I can but barely 
 refer to most of them, and speak of a few of them 
 very briefly. 
 
 Were I to commence at the real fountain of phys- 
 ical education, and trace the stream to its close, I 
 should be obliged to refer to a period anterior to the 
 birth, or even the formation of those, of the promo- 
 tion and perfection of whose health and strength I 
 should be treating. 
 
 The first and most important element of physical 
 
 education, is to procure, for those to be educated, a 
 
 constitution of body originally sound. To this, the 
 
 soundness of parents is indispensable — it being a law 
 
 3* 
 
30 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 of nature, that constitutional qualities are hereditary, 
 If the stamina of the child be defective, it is not to 
 be expected that the health and vigor of the adult 
 can be made perfect. The primitive deficiency,, 
 though it may be lessened, can never be removed. 
 As well may you look for the erection of a solid 
 edifice, to endure for ages, out of decayed mate- 
 rials. 
 
 The constitution of the child may be irremediably 
 impaired, by various causes. Of these, the marriage 
 of the feeble and infirm is one, — children inheriting 
 the constitutions of their parents. 
 
 Under this head are included all persons having a 
 well-known constitutional tendency to any form of 
 disease ; the more especially if that tendency be a 
 family inheritance. Of this description are those 
 who are predisposed to insanity, idiocy, pulmonary 
 consumption, asthma, gout, dyspepsia, scrophula, 
 and other affections known to be transmissible from 
 parents to their offspring. 
 
 Early marriages, — those, I mean, that take place 
 before the full maturity of the parties, is another. 
 Sound and perfect fruit cannot be the product of 
 immature and feeble trees. This truth is well 
 known to skilful agriculturists, and scrupulously ob- 
 served and practised on, by them, in their efforts to 
 improve their domestic animals, and the products of 
 their grounds. It is neglected, and run counter to, 
 only in what are termed efforts to improve the 
 human race. To improve the human race ! rather 
 say, to deteriorate it ! While man is the laborious 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 31 
 
 improver of every thing else, as well in art as in 
 nature, strange as it may appear, he neglects, or rather 
 deteriorates himself; not remembering that self- im- 
 provement would not only be a source of the purest 
 pleasure to him, but would qualify him the better for 
 effecting every other form of it, by increasing his 
 powers. 
 
 Another cause, is marriage, where the male party 
 is far advanced in life, the female being within the 
 period of fruitfulness. The issue of such connex- 
 ions are rarely possessed of sound constitutions. 
 They often exhibit some of the elements of old age, 
 even in their. youth. And no instance is remem- 
 bered at present, where they have been long-lived, 
 or distinguished by mental or bodily powers. 
 
 A fourth cause is the marriage of the indigent, 
 who are unable to provide for their offspring a com- 
 petent supply of wholesome food. Hence the uni- 
 versal degeneracy of the poor — of those, I mean, 
 whose nutriment is scanty, of bad quality, and imper- 
 fectly cooked. For the cooking of diet is of great 
 moment; and the cookery of the poor is always 
 defective. 
 
 A fifth cause is a long perseverance in family alli- 
 ances ; marriages, I mean, between those nearly allied 
 to each other, by descent. Be the immediate rea- 
 son what it may, the fact is indisputable, that the 
 descendants of parents thus related degenerate ; and 
 the families, in time, become extinct. Witness the 
 present royal families of Europe, that, from sceptred 
 pride, and state policy, have long intermarried with 
 
32 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 each other. They can now scarcely muster heirs, 
 in the direct line, to occupy their thrones — and such 
 heirs, that, the whole of them united, would not form 
 a well-gifted man ! Three of them are females,* 
 the average of whose ages would make them chil- 
 dren of about ten years old — feeble hands, to sway 
 the trident and the sceptre over a hundred and fifty 
 millions of the human race ! Yet, those families, 
 now so degenerate, were once signalized for high 
 and noble qualities, in the midst of the most noble, 
 and were, on that account, clad in purple, and deco- 
 rated with crowns. Nothing but commanding attri- 
 butes, mental or personal, or both, could have raised 
 them, at first, to regal power. Of the nobility of 
 Portugal, I might observe the same. They were 
 once the pride of Europe. But, by intermarriages, 
 continued for centuries, they are now a most degen- 
 erate race. By intermarrying with commoners, the 
 nobility of Great Britain, Turkey, and Persia, avoid 
 degeneracy, and continue among the finest people of 
 their respective nations. 
 
 The last cause I shall cite, as operating before the 
 birth of the child, is the state of health of the mother, 
 during gestation. Unless that be sound, the consti- 
 tution of the offspring will be necessarily impaired. 
 It is in vain to allege, in opposition to this, that the 
 infants of delicate, enfeebled, and even sickly moth- 
 
 * When, from any cause, men are feeble in their constitu- 
 tional powers, their offspring, if they have any, superabound in 
 females. Of inferior animals, the same is true. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 33 
 
 ers, are sometimes healthy and robust. They would 
 have been more so, had the health of their mothers 
 been in a better condition. 
 
 The avoidance, by females, therefore, while preg- 
 nant, of every thing that might injure them, cannot 
 be too strict. Nor is this all. They should take 
 more exercise in the open air than they usually do. 
 The feeling, which induces many of them to shut 
 themselves up in their rooms, for weeks and months, 
 before parturition, is an excess of delicacy — were 
 the term less exceptionable, I would say false deli- 
 cacy — and ought not to be indulged. Their food 
 should be wholesome, nourishing, and easy of diges- 
 tion, and should be ( taken in quantities sufficient to 
 give them their entire strength, and maintain all 
 their functions in full vigor. Their minds ought to 
 be kept in a state of tranquillity. In a particular 
 manner, the effects of frightful appearances, alarm- 
 ing accidents, and agitating and impassioned tales 
 and narratives should be carefully guarded against by 
 them. The blighting operation of the ' Reign of 
 Terror,' in Paris, on the children born during that 
 period, furnishes fearful evidence of the influence of 
 the distracted and horrified condition of the mother, 
 over the system of the unborn infant. An unusual 
 number of them was still-born. Of those who were 
 not so, a number equally uncommon died at an early 
 age ; and, of those who attained adult life, an un- 
 usual proportion were subject to epilepsy, madness, 
 or some other form of cerebral disease. Pinel tells 
 us, ' that out of ninety-two children born after the 
 
34 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 blowing up of the arsenal at London, in 1793, eight 
 were affected by a species of cretinism, and died 
 before the expiration of the fifth year ; thirty-three 
 languished through a miserable existence, of from 
 nine to ten months' duration ; sixteen died on com- 
 ing into the world, and two were born-with numerous 
 fractures of the longer bones ! The latter effect 
 must have been produced by the inordinate and de- 
 ranged contraction of the uterus. 
 
 Over the foregoing causes, you, as mere instruct- 
 ed, have no control. For no mismanagement of 
 them, therefore, are you accountable. Nor does 
 the direction of physical education in the. nursery, 
 fall within your province. Yet is the treatment of 
 children there, of great moment both to them and to 
 you, in subsequent years. Its effects, for good or 
 evil, can scarcely fail to be as lasting as their lives, 
 and to influence, more or less, their entire destiny. 
 A few remarks on it, therefore, will not perhaps be 
 out of place. 
 
 The sound nursery-education of children, consists 
 chiefly in the judicious^management of diet, cleanli- 
 ness, clothing, atmospherical temperature, respira- 
 tion, muscular exercise, sleep, and] the animal pas- 
 sions. I say ' animal passions,' because children in 
 the nursery have no other kind. Of the education 
 of the moral feelings, I shall speak hereafter. I do 
 not say that no degree of moral education can be 
 communicated to children at a very early period. 
 Their moral organs, however, being as yet not only 
 small, but very immature, cannot be operated on to 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 35 
 
 much advantage. An attempt to excite them pow- 
 erfully, might even do mischief. 
 
 For many reasons, infants are best nourished, 
 when nursed by their mothers. Though exceptions 
 to this sometimes occur, they are rare, and might, 
 by well-regulated conduct, be rendered much more 
 so. When children have passed the period of lac- 
 tation, their diet should be simple, nutritious, and 
 easily digested ; and they may take it liberally, and 
 at shorter intervals than adults. But they should 
 never be gorged with it, nor allowed to eat until 
 their appetites are cloyed. Of all solid substances, 
 whether animal or vegetable, they should early learn 
 the importance of thorough mastication. They 
 should be taught, that to swallow such articles, with- 
 out chewing them, is indecent, as well as injurious; 
 for they will often do, in defiance of danger and pos- 
 itive prohibition, what they would not do, in viola- 
 tion of good manners. High-seasoned condiments, 
 and other provocatives, should be carefully withheld 
 from them, So should unripe fruit, and crude veg- 
 etables,- — all their diet being thoroughly cooked. 
 Indeed, children are, on an average, much more in- 
 jured than benefited, by eating undressed summer 
 fruit, of whatever kind it may be, and whether it be 
 ripe or green. One reason of this is, that they are 
 permitted to eat too much of it, and to take it at im- 
 proper times. Every thing either highly stimula- 
 ting, or difficult of digestion, should be prohibited 
 food. Such diet is bad enough for adults ; for chil- 
 dren, tender, feeble, and susceptible as they are, it 
 
36 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 is poison, destroying life, at limes, in a few hours. 
 Infinite mischief is done, by giving children a ' little ' 
 of a prohibited article, because ' the dear creatures 
 wanted it, and held out their little hands for it ! ' A 
 transgression of this kind, by a nurse, should be vis- 
 ited on her, by an immediate dismissal. Let it 
 never be forgotten nor overlooked, that, like all other 
 parts of the body, the stomach may be strengthened, 
 by skilful training. Let that organ receive suitable 
 aliment, in proper quantities, and at well-regulated 
 periods, and it will be as certainly improved, in its 
 powers and sympathies, as the brain, external sen- 
 ses, and muscles are, by their appropriate kinds of 
 action. Nor is it less impaired and enfeebled than 
 other organs, by too much or too little action. It is 
 subject to all the laws that govern other portions of 
 organized matter. Suitable exercise, indulged in to 
 the proper extent, strengthens it, while excessive and 
 deficient action weakens it, and unfits it for its func- 
 tions. Too much attention cannot be paid to the 
 bowels, in the earlier years of life, and, indeed, 
 throughout the whole of it. Their condition should 
 always be free, inclining to laxity, rather than the 
 contrary. Let them be regulated by diet and regi- 
 men, if possible. Should that course, however, 
 prove unsuccessful, the necessary laxatives must be 
 administered. 
 
 The cleanliness of children, is indispensable to 
 the healthy action of their skin, and, through that, 
 to their general health ; and the water used in 
 cleansing them should be tepid. Though vigorous 
 
PHYSICAL, EDUCATION. 37 
 
 children may bear bathing in cold water, with impu- 
 nity, delicate ones cannot. And even the former, if 
 in the slightest degree indisposed, may be injured by 
 it. It being, moreover, not always easy to ascer- 
 tain, whether children are in perfect health, or not, 
 tepid water is always safest. Nor is infancy the 
 proper period to attempt to produce hardihood of 
 constitution, by exposure to a low temperature. 
 Practice founded on the opposite opinion, is often 
 productive of serious, not to say fatal results. 
 
 I shall only add, under this head, that personal 
 cleanliness, as one of the minor virtues, (for it de- 
 serves to be so called,) is much less attended to and 
 esteemed, in the United States, than it ought to be. 
 Nor does this charge implicate only the neglect of 
 children. Adults are still more negligent of cleanli- 
 ness in themselves. During weeks and months, 
 water touches no parts of many of them, save their 
 hands and faces — and' — longo intervello — their feet 
 and ancles. This is downright uncleanliness, not to 
 give it a harsher name. Were the inhabitants of 
 our country, to use some form of ablution much 
 more frequently than they do, they would be purer, 
 more comfortable, and healthier than they are. 
 
 The clothing of infants should be soft, fitted to 
 absorb moisture from the skin, and retain the natural 
 warmth of the body, and so fashioned, as to be 
 loose and free. The tight bandaging of children, 
 and every other form of pressure, made by their 
 clothing, is pernicious. Health has been injured, 
 and life destroyed by it. This is true, more espe- 
 4 
 
38 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 cially, of undue pressure on the abdomen or chest— 
 the parts on which it is most frequently made. 
 
 The temperature of a nursery ought to be com- 
 fortable. It should neither chill with cold, nor flush 
 with heat. To the tenderness and susceptibility of 
 infancy, all extremes are hurtful. Means to prevent 
 the apartment from being traversed by currents of 
 cold or damp air should be provided, and nothing 
 neglected, that may tend to secure an equable tem- 
 perature. 
 
 The respiration of infants is immensely important, 
 and cannot be too vigilantly attended to. The air 
 breathed by them should be fresh and pure. Let 
 nurseries, therefore, be spacious, clean, and thor- 
 oughly ventilated. Nor is it unimportant, that they 
 be well lighted — I mean with windows. The influ- 
 ence of light, on animal life, is not sufficiently appre- 
 ciated. Facts as well as principles show, that it is 
 much greater and more salutary, than is commonly 
 believed. Darkness long continued, is scarcely less 
 pernicious to tender animals, (and children are such,) 
 than to plants. Account for it as we may, light co- 
 operates with oxygen, in imparting to the arterial 
 blood, the brilliancy of its scarlet. Not only *the 
 complexion, but the blood itself, the source of com- 
 plexion, loses much of its florid hue, in miners, 
 criminals confined in dark dungeons, and other per- 
 sons long secluded from the light. During suitable 
 weather, infants should pass several hours daily in 
 the open air. The constant housing of adults is bad ; 
 that of infants far worse ; because their delicacy and 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 39 
 
 sensitiveness are greater. Respiration acts primi- 
 tively on the lungs ; and those organs are invigorated 
 and otherwise benefited, by the laughing, shouting, 
 crowing, and occasional crying of children. How- 
 ever unpleasant the latter sound may be, it is a nat- 
 ural one. And nature is, in all things, our best 
 guide; though w r e must not abuse her, or suffer her 
 10 be abused, by any sort of excess. Crying, within 
 proper bounds, is good exercise for the lungs, and 
 other vocal organs of children ; and suitable exer- 
 cise is a certain source of strength, to every portion 
 of the body. The late Professor Rush, who was 
 noted for his pithy, antithetical, and sagacious re- 
 marks, said, in his lectures, that, though the usual 
 adage respecting children was, ' Laugh and be fat ; ? 
 he had learned, from observation, that they might 
 also i Cry and be fat.' And he was right. 
 
 The muscular exercise of children should be reg- 
 ulated with more judgment and care, than is usually 
 bestowed on it. Crawling is their first mode of pro- 
 gression. In this they should be encouraged, and 
 induced to practise it freely ; and it ought to be 
 somewhat protracted. Nurses and parents, espe- 
 cially young parents, are generally too anxious to 
 see their infants beginning to walk, or rather to tot- 
 ter along, in a form of movement, that can hardly be 
 called walking. Hence they induce them to make 
 premature efforts to that effect. The evils likely to 
 arise, and which often do arise, from this practice, 
 are plain. Owing to the immaturity and flexibility 
 of their bones, and the feebleness of their muscles, 
 
40 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 the lower extremities are frequently bent and mis- 
 shapen by it; and the children, falling, injure their 
 heads, or other parts of their bodies, by bringing 
 them into collision with hard, cutting, or puncturing 
 substances. The precise age, at which children 
 may begin to walk with safety, cannot be settled, by 
 any general rule. The progress toward maturity, 
 being more rapid in some of them, than in others, 
 the periods of their fitness to walk, will be earlier or 
 later, in corresponding degrees. But none should 
 be allowed to walk, until the firmness and strength 
 of their limbs are sufficient to sustain, without distor- 
 tion or injury, the weight of their bodies. Observa- 
 tion on individual cases, therefore, aided by experi- 
 ence, must give the rule. On the subject of sleep, 
 as a means in physical education, a few remarks will 
 be offered hereafter. 
 
 The passions of children, if indulged, are growing 
 evils. Hence they should be vigilantly held in 
 check, from the earliest period. If not thus re- 
 strained, they become noxious weeds in the garden 
 of the mind, deprive vakiable plants of their nourish- 
 ment, and blight them- with their shadow. To speak 
 in language better suited to my subject; if, instead 
 of being curbed, they are fed and fostered, they be- 
 come the ruling elements of character, and insure to 
 the individual a life of trouble — -not to say of acci- 
 dent, disease, and suffering. A large proportion of 
 the evils of life, as respects both health and fortune, 
 is the product, more or less directly, of unruly pas- 
 sions. The higher and milder virtues, social as well 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 41 
 
 as moral, cannot flourish under their dominion. Tn 
 a special manner, children should never be allowed 
 to obtain what has once been denied them, by break- 
 ing into a passion about it. Such an act ought to be 
 always visited by a positive privation of the thing 
 desired. And the ground of the denial should be 
 made known to them. Never let a child have rea- 
 son to believe, that a gust of passion is a suitable 
 means to gratify a wish. Teach him, as far as pos- 
 sible, to know and feel the reverse. And, should he 
 become offended at a pet or a play-thing, neither 
 beat it yourself, nor allow him to beat it, by way of 
 pacification or revenge. Such procedure is aliment 
 to vindictiveness, and leads to mischief — perhaps, in 
 the end, to maiming and murder. As relates to 
 matters of this kind, ignorant and passionate nurses 
 are among the worst of family nuisances. They 
 often blow into a flame the sparks of passion, which, 
 without their aid, would have slumbered and gone 
 out. These may be deemed small and trivial mat- 
 ters. In themselves, they are so ; but not in their 
 consequences. Let it never be forgotten, that ' little 
 things are great to little men ;' and more especially, 
 to little children. A fiery education, in the nursery, 
 may heat the brain to the verge of inflammation, and 
 aid in the production of actual inflammation or mad- 
 ness — impair health, in sundry other ways, by exces- 
 sive excitement, render unhappy the days of others, 
 as well as of the mismanaged individual, and lay the 
 foundation of a blasted reputation. It is believed 
 that an education of this kind injured immeasurably 
 4* 
 
42 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 the late Lord Byron ; and Earl Ferrers expiated on 
 a gibbet, the fruit of a similar one. 
 
 But it is not what is called the temper, that is 
 alone injured by a nursery education unskilfully 
 conducted. Habits of deception, falsehood, and 
 even theft are not un frequently encouraged and 
 formed by it. This can scarcely fail to lead to 
 serious mischief; it being the natural course of 
 things, that seeds sown in infancy yield fruit in ma- 
 turer years. The slightest disposition, therefore, in 
 children, to deviate from truth and candor, either 
 in words or actions, or to appropriate, as their own, 
 what does not belong to them, should be promptly 
 suppressed. It arises from irregular action in cer- 
 tain organs of the brain, which, if not checked, runs 
 to excess, and turns to a moral disease. The 
 organs referred to belong to the animal class, and, 
 being thus exercised, become so powerful and re- 
 fractory, as to be no longer under the control of the 
 moral and reflecting organs \ and the elements of 
 vice, are finally rooted in the constitution with such 
 firmness, as to frustrate all attempts to remove them. 
 So important is early training to the character of our 
 race ; yet so lamentably is it neglected and abused ! 
 In such cases, health of body suffers in common 
 with soundness of mind, the undue exercise of the 
 animal organs of the brain being hostile to both. In 
 fine ; the regulation of the nursery, though too gen- 
 erally intrusted to ignorance and thoughtlessness, is 
 a charge of great importance, imposing a responsi- 
 bility far more weighty, than it is usually considered. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 43 
 
 Too often are those, who are fit for little else, con- 
 verted into nursery girls. 
 
 The teething of children, is a process requiring 
 some attention. Provided, however, health be oth- 
 erwise maintained, it is much less dangerous, than it 
 is usually considered. The only reason, why the 
 young of the human race do not cut their teeth with 
 as little difficulty and suffering, as those of the infe- 
 rior animals, is, because they are rendered, by the 
 treatment they receive, especially by improprieties 
 in diet, unnaturally tender and sensitive. Gastric 
 and constitutional derangement is the chief cause, 
 not only why infants do not cut their teeth with 
 ease, and without sickness, but also why they suffer 
 so much from diseases of them, in after life. More 
 attention to general health, than is now paid, not 
 alone during infantile and youthful, but likewise dur- 
 ing adult age, even to the close of life, would greatly 
 limit the business of the dentist. To the cleanliness 
 of the teeth and gums of children, strict attention 
 should be paid. 
 
 It need scarcely be observed, that, as a prevent- 
 ive of small-pox, children should be vaccinated, at 
 an early age. The practice, therefore, may be re- 
 garded as an important element of nursery educa- 
 tion. The neglect or improper procrastination of it, 
 devolves on parents a responsibility as weighty as 
 almost any other respecting infants, of which they 
 can be guilty. 
 
 As already mentioned, however, these things 
 affect you, as teachers, but remotely ; yet they do 
 
44 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 affect you : because your profession calls you to 
 witness their products, and to remedy, as far as possi- 
 ble, the mischief they have done. The pupil of the 
 nursery, carries, as the fruit of his tuition there, a 
 given character into your schools. And that char- 
 acter accords with his previous training. I doubt 
 iiot that many of you have learned to read and deci- 
 pher, in children, a correct record, and one not easi- 
 ly mistaken or forgotten, of the family government 
 of their parents. Were fathers and mothers apprized 
 of the fact, that their offspring are correct inform- 
 ants, at the bar of the public, of what they daily see, 
 and hear, and experience at home, a sense of repu- 
 tation alone, in the absence of -higher motives, would 
 induce them to amend their domestic discipline. 
 Such at least ought to be its effect. Children trained 
 to obedience and attention, in their own dwellings, 
 will not, when they enter seats of instruction, leave 
 those valuable qualities behind them. But, if they 
 are neglected by their parents, they can scarcely 
 fail to be strangers, as well to a sense of duty and 
 decorum, as to the practice of them. In fine, when 
 children are irregular, vicious, or even sickly, the 
 fault and the misfortune are, in a much higher de- 
 gree, than is usually imagined, attributable to the 
 neglect or mismanagement of those, who have had 
 the superintendence of them. You are prepared, I 
 am confident, to concur with me, in the sentiment, 
 that some of the greatest difficulties experienced in 
 schools, as relates to every branch of education, 
 arise from the faults of domestic discipline. Let 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 45 
 
 parents and guardians do their duty, and the busir 
 ness of school tuition will be not only facilitated, but 
 enhanced in its usefulness. 
 
 Children ought not to be too soon dismissed from 
 an education exclusively domestic. They ought not, 
 I mean, to be sent to school at too early an age. A 
 practice the contrary of this, threatens to be produc- 
 tive of serious, not to say irreparable mischief. Pa- 
 rents are often too anxious that their children should 
 have a knowledge of the alphabet, of spelling, read- 
 ing, geography, and other branches of school-learn- 
 ing, at a very early age. This is worse than tempt- 
 ing them to walk too early, because the organjikely 
 to be injured by it, is much more important than the 
 muscles and bones of the lower extremities. It may 
 do irremediable mischief to the brain. That viscus 
 is yet too immature and feeble, to sustain fatigue. 
 Until from the sixth to the eighth year of life, the 
 seventh being perhaps the proper medium, all its 
 energies are necessary for its own healthy develop- 
 ment, and that of the other portions of the system. 
 Nor ought they to be diverted, by serious study, to 
 any other purpose. True— ^-exercise is as essential 
 to the health and vigor of the brain, at that time of 
 life, as at any other \ but it should be the general 
 and pleasurable exercise of observation and action. 
 It ought not to be the compulsory exercise of tasks. 
 Early prodigies of mind, rarely attain mature distinc- 
 tion. The reason is plain. Their brains are injured 
 by premature toil, and their general health impaired. 
 From an unwise attempt to convert, at once, their 
 
46 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 flowery spring into a luxuriant summer, that sum- 
 mer, too often, never arrives. The blossom with- 
 ers, ere the fruit is formed. For these reasons, I 
 have never been an advocate of ' Infant Schools.' 
 Unless they are conducted with great discretion, 
 they cannot fail to eventuate in mischief. They 
 should be nothing but schools of pleasurable exer- 
 cise, having little to do with books. 
 
 As those institutions are now administered, they 
 are serious evils. The passion in favor of them, be- 
 coming more extensive in its prevalence, and acquir- 
 ing daily greater intensity, is among the alarming 
 portents of the time. It is founded on the want of 
 a correct knowledge of the human constitution, and 
 of the amount of labor its different organs can sus- 
 tain with safety, at the different periods of life. 
 Perhaps I should rather say, it is founded on the 
 fallacious belief, that it is the infant's mind alone, 
 that labors in acquiring school learning, and not any 
 organized portion of his body. This is an error, 
 which, if not corrected, will prove fatal to hundreds 
 of thousands, of the human race. It is not the mind, 
 but the brain, the master organ of the system, essen- 
 tial to the well-being and efficiency of every other 
 part of it, that toils and is oppressed in the studies 
 of the school. Nor, tender and feeble as it is, is it 
 possible for it to endure the labor often imposed on 
 it, without sustaining irreparable injury— ?an injury 
 no less subversive of mental than of corporeal sound<- 
 ness and vigor. 
 
 Were parents fully sensible of this, (a truth which 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 47 
 
 Phrenology alone can teach them,) they would no 
 longer overload the brains of their mere babes with 
 study, any more than they would their half organ- 
 ized muscles and joints with unmerciful burdens of 
 brick and mortar. They would even know that the 
 latter, would be the least destructive practice of the 
 two. Under such circumstances, we should hear 
 no more of the ' Boy's Book,' and the ' Girl's Book,' 
 and the ? Child's Own Book,' with such other slip- 
 shod, catch-penny trash, as now encumbers our 
 bookstores and parlors. These would all be ex- 
 changed for the Book of Nature, which is, truly, the 
 ' Child's Own Book ;' and which, being traced for 
 that purpose, by the Divinity himself, is faultlessly 
 prepared. 
 
 Instead of seeing infants confined to inaction in 
 crowded school-rooms, with saddened looks, moist 
 eyes, and aching heads, we should then meet them 
 in gardens and lawns, groves and pleasure-grounds, 
 breathing wholesome air, leaping, laughing, shouting, 
 cropping flowers, pursuing butterflies, collecting and 
 looking at curious and beautiful insects and stones, 
 listening to bird-songs, singing themselves, admiring 
 the bright blue arch of the heavens, or gazing at the 
 thickening folds of the thunder-cloud, and doing all 
 other things fitted to promote health, develope and 
 strengthen their frames, and prepare them for the 
 graver business of after-life. And, instead of pale 
 faces, flaccid flesh, and wasted bodies, we should 
 find them with ruddy cheeks, firm muscles, and full 
 and well-rounded limbs. 
 
48 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Exercises and pastimes such as these, constitute 
 the only 'Infant School' that deserves to be encour- 
 aged ; nor will any other sort receive encourage- 
 ment, when the business of education shall be thor- 
 oughly understood. The brain of infants will be 
 then no longer neglected, as a mass of matter of little 
 importance ; skin, muscle, and bone, being thought 
 preferable to it. On the contrary, it will be viewed, 
 in its true character, as the ruling organ of the body, 
 and the apparatus of the mind, and its training will 
 receive the attention it merits. I repeat,— and the 
 repetition should be persevered in, until its truth be 
 acknowledged, and reduced to practice, — : that most 
 of the evils of education, under which the world has 
 so long suffered, and is still suffering, arise from the 
 mistaken belief, thatj in what is called moral and in- 
 tellectual education, it is the mind that is exercised, 
 and not the brain. Nor will the evils cease, and 
 education be made perfect, until the error shall be 
 exploded. Knowing nothing of the nature of mind, 
 and supposing it to be, as a spirit, somewhat impas- 
 sive, we are neither apprized nor apprehensive, that 
 any degree of action will impair it. Indeed we can 
 form no conception of an injury done to it, as a sep- 
 arate essence. Perhaps the most rational belief is, 
 that it can suffer none. But the case is different, 
 as respects organized matter. We witness, daily, 
 injuries done to it, by injudicious exercise. Nor is 
 there perhaps any portion of it so easily or ruinously 
 deranged by excessive action, as the brain, especially 
 the half-formed and highly susceptible brain of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 49 
 
 Infants. Let this truth be realized, and faithfully and 
 skilfully acted on, and human suffering from hydro- 
 cephalus, rickets, phrenitis, idiocy, epilepsy, mad- 
 ness, and other cerebral affections will be greatly 
 diminished. It. would be infinitely wiser and better, 
 to employ suitable persons to superintend the exer- 
 cises and amusements of children, under seven years 
 of age, in the fields, orchards and meadows, and 
 point out to them the riches and beauties of nature, 
 than to have them immured in crowded school- 
 rooms, in a state of inaction, poring over torn books 
 and primers, conning words of whose meaning they 
 are ignorant, and breathing foul air. 
 
 After these remarks on what falls more especially 
 within the province of others, I shall now consider 
 briefly a few of those points of physical education, 
 in which you, as instructers, have an immediate con- 
 cern. 
 
 Having hitherto intentionally omitted it, I find 
 it necessary to my purpose now, to observe, that the 
 human body is composed of a variety of sets of or- 
 gans, some of which are so predominant in their 
 influence, as to assimilate the condition of the others 
 to their own. They exercise, also, a powerful influ- 
 ence over one another. If one of them be derang- 
 ed, it deranges the others ; and if either of them be 
 healthy and vigorous, the soundness of the others 
 may be considered, on that account, the more se- 
 cure. Of the control of all and either of them over 
 the rest of the body, the same is true. If they be 
 sound, it is sound ; if diseased, it is diseased. — To 
 5 
 
 \f\ 
 
50 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 execute the task of physical education, then, it is 
 necessary, chiefly, so to watch and regulate them, 
 as to keep them unimpaired. 
 
 The organs alluded to, as possessing a predomi- 
 nance, are, the skin, the digestive system, composed 
 of the stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines, and lacte- 
 als; the blood-making and blood-circulating system, 
 made up of the heart, lungs, and blood-vessels j and 
 the cerebral and nervous system, comprising the 
 brain, spinal cord, and nerves. The muscular sys- 
 tem is also important, not only in itself, but as con- 
 tributing, by its functions, to the perfection of the 
 others. Physical education, as an aggregate, then, 
 consists in the proper education of these several sets 
 of organs. Train them in the best manner, and to 
 the highest pitch, and the individual has attained his 
 highest perfection. 
 
 Of the education of the skin, I have already spoken, 
 under the heads of cleanliness, clothing, and tem- 
 perature ; for the chief action of temperature is on 
 that organ. On these points, therefore, I have but 
 little to add. The same attention to them required 
 in the nursery, is required in the school. The tem- 
 perature of school-rooms should be comfortable, in 
 all sorts of weather, and the cleanliness and clothing 
 of pupils such as may best contribute to the health 
 of the skin. The rooms themselves should also be 
 clean. The covering of all children, especially 
 of delicate ones, had better be too warm than 
 too cool. And pupils should never be allowed to 
 sit in school, with their clothes and feet wet, or 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 51 
 
 even damp. The most vigorous constitutions have 
 suffered from such exposure. Persons may exercise 
 with impunity, in damp clothing, and with wet feet ; 
 but not sit still. Nor should children be exposed to 
 currents of air in school-rooms. They would be safer 
 out of doors, than under the action of such a cause. 
 The education of the digestive organs has been 
 briefly noticed, under the head- of die*. It is matter 
 of regret to me, that time does not permit me to en- 
 large on it, as it is infinitely important in physical 
 education. Long-lived individuals are generally re- 
 markable for the soundness of their stomachs. Ma- 
 ny of them have never experienced nausea, and 
 rarely an impaired appetite. Improprieties in diet 
 are the most fruitful source of the diseases of chil- 
 dren. Nor are they much less so to those of riper 
 age. Eating too much, and of unwholesome arti- 
 cles, is a national evil in the United States; and 
 were I to add, a national disgrace, the charge would 
 scarcely be too severe. Do you ask me whether it 
 is more so in the United States than elsewhere? I 
 answer, Yes ; and the reason is manifest. Such is 
 our happy condition, did we not abuse it, that it is 
 much easier to procure the means of indulging to 
 excess, in the United States, than in any other 
 country. And experience, in common with history, 
 teaches us, that mankind are prone to the gratifica- 
 tion of the palate, and other animal appetites, in pro- 
 portion to the facilities of indulgence they enjoy. I 
 confidently believe, that the thirteen or fourteen 
 millions of people, inhabiting this country, eat more 
 
52 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 trash, for amusement, and fashion's sake, arid to 
 pass away idle time, than half the inhabitants of 
 Europe united. Unquestionably they consume a 
 greater amount of such articles, in the proportion of 
 five to one, than an equal number of the people of 
 any other country I have ever visited. Shame, if 
 not prudence, should drive them from a practice, 
 which might well be called disgusting. No wonder 
 that European travellers ridicule us on account of it. 
 In a special manner should children and youth be 
 guarded from its influence, calculated as it is, to 
 weaken their constitutions, and injure their intel- 
 lects, and thus reduce the men of America below 
 the standard he would otherwise attain. Nor will 
 human nature ever reach the perfection our fine cli- 
 mate, abundance of wholesome food, entire freedom 
 of mind and body, and other favorable influences 
 belonging to our country, would bestow on it, unless 
 the evil be remedied. For, that the Americans 
 have it in their power, if they be true to themselves^ 
 and use, with wisdom, the advantages they enjoy, to 
 become, bodily and meutally, the most perfect peo- 
 ple the world has produced, might be easily shown, 
 had I leisure to sum up the evidence which presents 
 itself. 
 
 It is well known to every teacher, that children 
 are comparatively dull, after dinner, and often sleep 
 over their tasks. Why ? Because they have dined 
 on improper food, or eaten to excess of that which 
 is proper. In such a case, the exercise of the 
 brain, or of the mind, if the latter word be pre- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 53 
 
 ferred, proves injurious, by producing indigestion. 
 It expends, in the organ of thought, that portion of 
 vitality, which should now centre in the stomach, to 
 enable it to master the enemy within it — to convert 
 the oppressive load of food it has received into 
 chyme, and prepare it for chyle. Daily assaults of 
 this sort on the brain, (especially the tender brain 
 of children, which is not yet completely organized,) 
 by errors in diet, cannot fail to do it permanent mis- 
 chief. But, as already observed, the regulation of 
 the diet of children belongs chiefly to family gov 
 ernment. As respects the serious evils, however, 
 arising from errors committed in it, teachers should 
 be neither inattentive nor silent. Due representa- 
 tions and remonstrances, made by them to parents 
 and guardians, might be productive of good. They 
 have a better opportunity than most other persons, 
 to witness the unfavorable effect, which the practice 
 objected to, produces on the mind. 
 
 Those organs of the body, to which the attention 
 of teachers should be more immediately and earnest- 
 ly directed, are the lungs, the heart and blood-ves- 
 sels, the muscles of voluntary motion, and the brain 
 and nerves. 
 
 The chief measure requisite, in the education of 
 the lungs, is the procurement, for pupils, of a com- 
 petent supply of salubrious atmospherical air. And 
 I need scarcely add, that to remain salubrious, it 
 must be regularly changed. Independently of any 
 deleterious impregnation it may receive, stagnation 
 alone injures air, as certainly as water. The object 
 5* 
 
54 PHYSICAL EDUCATION". 
 
 here referred to, involves the most important consid- 
 erations, as it is impossible for health to be secured 
 without it. The attainment of it depends principally 
 on the site and construction of school-edifices. The 
 buildings should stand in elevated, dry, and healthy 
 positions, remote from swamps, and low, humid,, 
 alluvial soil. Or, if there be such nuisances in the 
 vicinity, rows of bushy trees should run between 
 them and the houses ; the latter being erected on 
 the windward side ; on that side, I mean, over 
 which the prevailing winds of summer and autumn 
 pass, before they reach the miasmatic ground. On 
 no account, if it can be avoided, should a school- 
 house stand in a flat, damp, alluvial situation. And 
 should there be no preventive of this, let the edifice 
 be erected on an artificial hillock, or in some other 
 way elevated fifteen or twenty feet above the level 
 of the ground. By this means, the pupils being 
 placed beyond the reach of the miasm that may be 
 formed below them, will breathe a wholesome at- 
 mosphere. A stagnant atmosphere, however, as 
 already mentioned, cannot long remain wholesome, 
 more especially if it be charged with animal exhala- 
 tions. To prevent, therefore, in schools, these two 
 sources of mischief, the rooms should never be 
 crowded, and ought to be so constructed, that their 
 ventilation may be perfect, without rendering their 
 temperature uncomfortable in cold weather. This 
 state of things, so highly desirable, and so easily at- 
 tained, is not usually found in houses of instruction, 
 for junior pupils. On the contrary, the rooms are, 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 55 
 
 for the most part, crowded, sometimes jammed with 
 children, too hot in winter, when the windows are 
 closed, and too cold, and swept by currents of chil- 
 ling air, when they are open. In such places, deli- 
 cate children, especially if their lungs be more than 
 commonly sensitive, can scarcely fail to contract 
 disease. Or, should they escape actual disease, their 
 delicacy and feebleness will be increased. For the 
 preservation of health and vigor, when possessed, 
 and their restoration, when lost, a supply of salubri- 
 ous air is as necessary to the lungs, as a supply of 
 sound and nutritious aliment is to the stomach. The 
 one is not more essential to the production of healthy 
 chyle, than the other is to the formation of healthy 
 blood. And we shall endeavor to show presently r 
 that, without such blood, not a single function be- 
 longing to man, whether it be physical, intellectual, 
 or moral, can be in unimpaired health and perfec- 
 tion. For, heterodox as the sentiment may proba- 
 bly appear to some persons, it is, notwithstanding, 
 true, that florid, well vitalized arterial blood, is as 
 necessary to give full vigor to the intellectual and 
 moral powers of the philosopher, statesman, and 
 patriot, as it is to paint the roses on the virgin's 
 cheek, and the coral on her lip. The reason is 
 plain. That they may be in the best condition to 
 perform their functions, the intellectual and moral 
 organs, like other portions of the body, require a 
 supply of well-prepared blood. And to form such 
 blood is the province of the lungs, using, as their 
 principal means, unadulterated atmospherical air. 
 
56 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 But no room, even moderately filled with human 
 beings, can retain a pure atmosphere, however judi- 
 ciously it may be constructed for ventilation. Chil- 
 dren, therefore, should be confined in such a place, 
 but a few hours at a time, and not many hours in 
 the entire day. That they may enjoy perfect 
 health, a considerable portion of their time should 
 be passed in the open air. There, the food of their 
 lungs will be wholesome, and their respiration free , 
 and they will derive from that function, all the ben- 
 efit it is calculated to bestow. 
 
 Another useful measure, in the education of the 
 lungs, is, for pupils to practise declamation and 
 singing. Such training strengthens those organs, as 
 certainly as suitable exercise strengthens the mus- 
 cles; and it does it on the same ground. I again 
 repeat, and it can hardly be too often repeated, that 
 it is well-directed exercise alone, that invigorates 
 and improves every form of living matter. Its effect 
 thus to invigorate and improve, constitutes one of 
 its most important laws. Nor is its ameliorating in- 
 fluence confined to living matter. It improves dead 
 matter also. By judicious use, a bow grows better, 
 and to the improvement of violins, flutes, organs, 
 pianos, and other musical instruments, by being 
 skilfully played on, all experience testifies. 
 
 As respects the salutary influence of singing, 
 declamation, and other forms of loud speaking, on 
 the lungs, Dr. Rush often said, and perhaps has 
 left the fact on record, that, in the experience of a 
 long life, he had never known a singing-schoolmaster, 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 57 
 
 an auction-crier, a watchman who called the hours 
 of the night, or an oysterman, who cried his com- 
 modity through the streets, to be attacked by pul- 
 monary consumption. The influence of declama- 
 tion, by the sea-shore, amidst the roar of the surf, in 
 strengthening the lungs of Demosthenes, might be 
 cited, as testifying to the same effect. 
 
 The mere formation of good blood, however, is 
 not alone sufficient to satisfy all the demands of the 
 system. That fluid must be also circulated actively 
 to every portion of the body, else the purposes of 
 vigorous health are not subserved by it. To this 
 end, the free and competent action of the heart is 
 essential ; and to that again, voluntary muscular ac- 
 tion is no less so. However useful, well vitalized 
 arterial blood is, as a stimulant, to excite the left 
 side of the heart to the requisite degree of motion, 
 experience proves that it is not alone sufficient for 
 the purpose. Every one knows, that when he is 
 motionless, his pulse is slow and comparatively feeble, 
 contrasted with itself, when he is engaged in exer- 
 cise. So is his respiration. Even when our exer- 
 cise is moderate, we inspire a. third or fourth oftener, 
 in a given time, than we do, when we are still. Our 
 inspirations are also deeper and fuller. More air 
 therefore is received, in an equal period, into the 
 lungs. But, other things being alike, the larger the 
 volume of air that enters those organs is, the more 
 completely is the blood vitalized and matured ; and, 
 if correspondingly circulated, the more efficiently 
 does it contribute to the perfection of every function 
 
58 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 of the system. Hence the health, vivacity, strength, 
 and florid complexions of persons, whether children 
 or adults, who exercise and respire freely in the 
 open air, and the comparative paleness, delicate 
 health, languor, and weakness of those, who pass 
 their time in a state of inaction, even in the most 
 spacious and comfortable dwellings. This truih is 
 amply illustrated and confirmed, by contrasting the 
 agriculturalist, who labors in the field, or the hunter, 
 who roams the forest, with the secluded man of let- 
 ters, or with the manufacturer, who closely pursues 
 his occupation in a small and ill ventilated work- 
 shop. 
 
 In all parts of the world, and under all circum- 
 stances, highly studious and literary men have infirm 
 health. The reason is plain. They exercise their 
 brains too much, and their muscles, hearts and 
 lungs, too little. Hence the whole frame is first de- 
 bilitated, and ultimately deranged. The lungs and 
 heart failing somewhat in their functions, the brain 
 does not receive a sufficient amount of well-vitalized 
 blood. Its vigor is diminished, therefore, by a two- 
 fold cause ; exhaustion from its excessive labors, 
 and a defective supply of sound arterial blood, which 
 is its vital food. Though, in a given time, then, a 
 literary man may accomplish a greater amount of 
 work, by inordinate and unremitting cerebral toil, 
 he cannot do it so well. In a particular manner, 
 the product of his mind will have less brilliancy and 
 power. It will be like the fruit of advanced age, 
 contrasted with that of the meridian of life— like the 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION* 59 
 
 Odyssey of Homer, compared to the Iliad, or Mil- 
 ton's Paradise Regained, to his Paradise Lost. 
 Another cause of the infirm health of literary men 
 is, that they eat too much, or indulge in food too 
 difficult of digestion. This renders them dyspeptic. 
 Their stomachs being debilitated, in common with 
 their other organs, the diet used by them should 
 be of the most digestible kind ; and it should be 
 taken sparingly. Let such characters take more 
 muscular exercise in the open air, and eat less ; and 
 they will enjoy much more health of body, and vigor 
 and productiveness of mind. 
 
 As heretofore mentioned, light itself, which acts 
 on us more freely, and to better effect, without 
 doors than within, is friendly to both vegetable and 
 animal perfection. Shut up in entire darkness, 
 either man, quadrupeds, or birds, and you injure and 
 enfeeble them. Casper Hauser, Baron Trenck, and 
 many other persons that might be named, furnish 
 memorable examples of this. Partial darkness, 
 therefore, must produce on them an effect differing 
 only in degree. It has been observed, that, other 
 things being equal, dark work- shops, are less salubri- 
 ous than w e ll-ligh te d ones. To the perfection of 
 our race, then, liberal exercise in the open air — a 
 much larger amount of it than is taken by children 
 at school, especially female children — is essential. 
 Never will mankind attain the high standard, either 
 bodily or mental, of which they are susceptible, un- 
 til females, not only while children, but also during 
 
60 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 adult life, take more and freer exercise, out of 
 doors, than they do at present. I do not mean that 
 they ought to run foot-races, wrestle, spar, fence, 
 vault over six-bar gates, or in any other way hoiden 
 it. Such masculine feats would suit neither their 
 taste, delicacy, nor intended pursuits ; nor are they 
 requisite. No : I mean, that they should, as a duty 
 to themselves, their contemporaries, and posterity, 
 indulge in graceful and becoming exercise, in the 
 streets, gardens, fields, lawns, roads, and pleasure- 
 grounds, to a sufficient extent, to invigorate their 
 frames, heighten their beauty, and strengthen their 
 intellects. Should they even climb lofty bills, and 
 craggy mountains, breathe the pure air, and enjoy 
 the spirit-stirring and inspiring prospects they afford, 
 the excursions would be beneficial both to body and 
 mind. For, 1 repeat, that exercise, judiciously di- 
 rected and indulged in, improves the latter, as cer- 
 tainly as the former. Walking then is one excellent 
 form of exercise for females, and riding on horse- 
 back is another. It is praiseworthy in them, more- 
 ever, to learn to walk elegantly, because graceful 
 motion adds to their accomplishments, and increases 
 their attractiveness. The air of Josephine, in walk- 
 ing, was fascination ; and an American lady, now in 
 London, threw a spell over royalty, by the grace of 
 her movement, in quitting the drawing-room. But, 
 by elegance in walking, I do not mean primness, 
 mincingness, or any thing artificial. Far from it. 
 Let all be natural ; but nature should be cultivated 
 and improved. Let ladies afford reason to have 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 61 
 
 said of them, what the poet of Abbottsford said of 
 his Ellen Douglass. — 
 
 1 A foot more light, a step more true, 
 'Ne'er from the heath-flower brushed the dew, 
 'E'en the slight hare-bell reared its head, 
 ' Elastic from her airy tread.' .«» *ti$i 
 
 In truth, that same lovely Ellen, though reared on a 
 secluded island, amidst the highlands of Scotland, 
 was mistress of many other attributes, several of 
 them the mere result of health, and that health the 
 product of lake and mountain exercise, which the 
 most high-bred and courtly female might be excused 
 for envying. For the same poet, who, had he writ- 
 ten nothing else, has immortalized himself, by im- 
 mortalizing her, farther tells us, that, — 
 
 ' Ne'er did Grecian chisel trace 
 
 ' A nymph, a naiad, or a grace, 
 
 ' With finer form, or lovelier face. 
 
 1 What, though the sun, with ardent frown, 
 
 ' Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown, 
 
 ' The sportive toil which short and light, 
 
 ' Had dyed her glowing hue so bright, 
 
 e Served too, in hastier swell to show, 
 
 ' Short glimpses of a breast of snow. 
 
 'And seldom o'er abreast so fair 
 
 ' Mantled a plaid with modest care ; 
 
 ' And never brooch the folds combined 
 
 4 Above a heart more good and kind. 
 
 ' Her kindness and her worth to spy, 
 
 ' You need but look in Ellen's eye ; 
 
 e Not Katrine, in her mirror blue, 
 
 ' Gives back the shaggy banks more true, 
 
 ' Than every freeborn glance confessed, 
 
 ' The guileless movements of her breast; 
 
 ' Whether joy sparkled in her eye, 
 
 6 
 
62 PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 
 
 * Or wo or pity claimed a sigh, J 
 ( Or filial love was glowing there, 
 
 ' Or meek devotion poured a prayer^ 
 ' Or tale of injury called forth 
 
 * The indignant spirit of the north. — 
 1 One only passion unrevealed, 
 
 ' With maiden pride the maid concealed/ 
 { Yet not less purely felt the flame — 
 1 O ! need I tell that passion's name ! ' 
 
 Carriage-riding is, at best, a semi-sedentary occu- 
 pation, and does but little good, in imparting strength. 
 A lady possessed of a fine figure, who dresses with 
 taste, and rides gracefully, never appears to more 
 advantage, than when seated on an elegant and well 
 gaited horse. Nor can she indulge in a more salu- 
 tary mode of exercise. For younger females, it is 
 equally beneficial. As riding on horseback, more- 
 over, requires some boldness of spirit, the practice 
 tends to lessen that female timidity, which is often 
 inconvenient and injurious to its possessors, as well 
 as to others. However desirable sensibility may be, 
 in a reasonable degree, like all other qualities, it 
 may become excessive, turn to evil, and impair 
 health. Experience teaches us that it often does 
 so, especially in feeble persons, in whom it is most 
 prone to become inordinate, on account of their fee- 
 bleness. To restrain it, therefore, so as to hold it 
 within due bounds, by invigorating exercise, and 
 judicious exposure to something bordering on dan- 
 ger, or at least resembling it, is an end that should 
 be constantly aimed at, in the physical education 
 of females — and also of males, who have any thing of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 63 
 
 feminine susceptibility in their temperaments. Peter 
 the Great had an instinctive dread of water, of which 
 he was cured, by being repeatedly precipitated into 
 rivers. On the same principles, Frederick III. had 
 a troublesome excess of sensitiveness obliterated. 
 
 That it may be useful, in the highest degree, ex- 
 ercise ought not to be very severe. It should not 
 amount to labor or straining. A form of it so vio- 
 lent, if it does no actual organic mischief, diminishes 
 vitality, by an excessive expenditure of it, instead of 
 augmenting it. Like excess in every thing else, it 
 is wrong and injurious, because of its excess. Hence, 
 some of the violent gymnastic exploits, practised oc- 
 casionally in seats of learning, are better calculated 
 to do harm than good. Though they produce salu- 
 tary action in some of the muscles, they strain, ex- 
 haust, and injure others. Those who take exercise, 
 for the sake of health and vigor, especially if they be 
 delicate, should never carry it so far, either in vio- 
 lence or duration, as to induce fatigue. In a higher 
 or lower degree, that is dangerous, and may prove 
 the cause of actual sickness. The manual-labor 
 system connected with some schools, is not only 
 more useful in its objects, but better fitted to sub- 
 serve health, than the common gymnastic one. 
 Still, the moderate and graceful gymnastic exercises 
 are so useful, and desirable, as the source of accom- 
 plishments, that I should regret their abolishment. 
 One of the best forms of them is that of the sword, 
 especially the small sword. It is, at once, elegant, 
 
64 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 invigorating, and manly, giving fine play to all the 
 principal muscles of the body. 
 
 Nor does it, as some imagine, foster a propensity 
 to combat and blood. Far from it. That feeling 
 belongs only to the bully and the ruffian. While a 
 knowledge of the art of defence increases personal 
 firmness and self-reliance, in cases of difficulty and 
 danger, it is usually accompanied by a pacific tem- 
 per, and a gentlemanly disposition. Nor can it well 
 be otherwise. A fencing-school, properly conduct- 
 ed, is a place of polished courtesy, and therefore an 
 institution peculiarly fitted for the cultivation of a 
 graceful deportment, suavity of manners, and amen- 
 ity of disposition.- — Football and handball are useful 
 exercises. So is swimming, when it can be properly 
 practised. Besides giving vigor to the muscles, the 
 latter contributes to health, by promoting cleanliness. 
 It need scarcely be added, that the action of salt 
 water on the skin, when it can be had, is considered 
 preferable to that of fresh. It is a current and prob- 
 ably a well-founded belief, that habitual sea-bathing 
 cooperates with the purity of a marine atmosphere 
 in bestowing on islanders their unbroken healthfulness 
 and great longevity. 
 
 As an in-door exercise, for both males and 
 females, nothing is superior to dancing. Besides 
 the grace of movement, which it teaches, it gives 
 action and excitement to the whole frame, the music 
 and social intercourse contributing their part to the 
 general effect. ; If it sometimes does mischief, by 
 being carried to excess, — that is an abuse of it, and 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 65 
 
 does not justly bring reproach on its proper use, or 
 furnish evidence that it ought to be discarded. As 
 well might the use of food be discarded, because 
 many persons abuse it, by eating too much. Ten 
 thousand people injure themselves by the abuse of 
 eating, for one who does so, by that of dancing. 
 The exercise of swinging by the arms, if judiciously 
 practised, is beneficial, especially to those who have 
 weak chests. So is that of the dumb-bells, with 
 various others, to which time does not allow me to 
 refer. 
 
 It is of moment to observe, that severe exercise 
 should never be taken during hot weather, or imme- 
 diately after a plentiful meal. In the former case, 
 the excitement of the exercise, added to that of the 
 heat, has double force in exhausting vitality, and 
 weakening the body ; and, in the latter, too much 
 cerebral influence, for the time, being expended in 
 muscular action, the amount of it conveyed to the 
 stomach is insufficient for the laborious function 
 that viscus has to perform ; and indigestion is the 
 consequence. This fact constitutes the foundation 
 of the Spaniard's Siesta, and of the repose, which, 
 under the guidance of instinct, most of the inferior 
 animals take after a copious repast. On the same 
 ground, the savage of our forests, after overgorging 
 himself, often consumes a natural day in the sleep of 
 digestion. But it is a dreamy sleep, the brain being 
 disturbed by the toils of the stomach. It is the 
 source of those visions of war and hunting, which, 
 6* 
 
66 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 © 
 
 occurring in a brave, are often received as premoni- 
 tions to action. 
 
 Such are some of the useful effects of muscular 
 exercise, but not the whole of them. To speak 
 summarily of it. By its aid, in maturing, vitalizing, 
 and circulating the blood, that form of exercise con- 
 tributes to the vitality of the whole system, to the 
 size and tone of every organ, and the soundness and 
 vigor of every function of it, the moral and intellec- 
 tual ones not excepted. Nor is this all. Added to 
 its enlarging and strengthening the muscles them- 
 selves, it gives them a promptitude and an adroitness 
 of action, important in most of the concerns of life. 
 What is man, without a vigorous and well-trained 
 system of muscles ? — instruments which he can turn 
 with ease and effect, to any occupation, in which his 
 fortune may summon him to engage ? — which he can 
 apply, at will, to matters of business, pastime, or 
 pleasure ? Without such muscular discipline and 
 power, he would be wretched in himself, and a 
 cipher in the world. Nor is the whole yet told. 
 Elegance and symmetry of person, beauty of com- 
 plexion, vivacity and force of expression^ grace of 
 motion, and all else that is attractive in human na- 
 ture, depend, in a high degree, on well-directed 
 muscular exercise. 
 
 Much is said about matter being a clog on mind ; 
 and that the soul is incarcerated within the body, 
 like a prisoner in his cell. The sentiment is as im- 
 pious, as it is untrue. Matter clog and incarcerate 
 mind, and prevent it from acting in a manner suita- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 67 
 
 ble to its powers ! The assertion is a slander on 
 Him who made and governs both mind and matter. 
 If the inferior substance be thus prejudicial to the 
 superior, and so unworthy of it, as many pronounce 
 it, why did the Deity link them together ? No good 
 motive could have led him to this ; and who will 
 dare to charge him with an evil one ? Did he unite 
 them through inadvertence or mistake, or because 
 he did not know what influence matter would have 
 on mind, until he had made the experiment ? or, did 
 they, when created, rush together forcibly, he hav- 
 ing no power to restrain them ? Did he yoke them, 
 in sport and wantonness, that they might fall to civil 
 war, and try which could do the other most harm, he 
 enjoying their strife and suffering, as an amusement? 
 or, was his motive a desire to show, how unharmoni- 
 ously and incongruously he could pack the works of 
 creation together ? No one will openly impute to 
 him faults or weaknesses like these. Yet all virtu- 
 ally do that, or something worse, who pronounce 
 matter a hindrance to mind, in any of its operations, 
 For aught that man can show to the contrary, mind 
 would be as imbecile without matter, as matter 
 would be, without mind. What can the latter do, 
 without the aid of the former ? Can it see, hear, taste, 
 smell, feel, or move ? Can it lift a pound weight, 
 make a pin or a pen, or use them if already made, 
 think, reason, judge, or perform a single useful act, 
 intellectual or moral, theoretical or practical ? If it 
 can, let that act be specified and proved. I say 
 ( proved,' because I wish for realities, not supposi- 
 
68 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 tions, or fancies. I know we are told that the mind 
 can do wonders, without the body— that it can trav- 
 erse all space, with more than lightning's speed — 
 outstrip light, in journeying from world to world, to 
 study and enjoy the beauties, sublimities, and gran- 
 deur of the universe — that, if disencumbered of the 
 shackles of matter, all creation would be subject to 
 its inspection, ministering immediately to its informa- 
 tion and delight — all these things, and many more, 
 are told to us. But they are only told. They are 
 not proved. Far from it. The contrary is proved, 
 by evidence which we cannot doubt. All that the 
 mind has any knowledge of, is matter. Of spirit, as 
 already stated, it knows nothing. And all the 
 means it employs to acquire knowledge, are matter. 
 It sees with a material eye, hears with a material 
 ear, thinks with a material brain, and moves, from 
 place to place, in quest of information and pleasure, 
 with material muscles and bones. Every imple- 
 ment, moreover, in addition to those received from 
 nature, which it uses, either in science or art, are of 
 matter. The mechanician works with matter, on 
 matter. The chemist analyzes matter, by matter. 
 The navigator triumphs by matter, over the world 
 of waters, which are themselves matter ; and the as- 
 tronomer scans the heavens, with nothing else. Nor 
 does saying and believing all this amount to materi- 
 alism. Or if it does, materialism is truth ; and, re- 
 gardless of names, that is all I want. The entire 
 doctrine comes to this, and nothing more. Mind, 
 being the superior agent, uses matter, to effect pur- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 69 
 
 poses, it could not attain without it ; as the chieftain 
 gains a victory, with his soldiers, which he could not 
 achieve alone. He is as really the governing spirit 
 of his army, as the mind is of the human body. It 
 will be understood and remembered, that I have 
 been speaking of mind, in our present state of being. 
 The discussion of its powers and prerogatives, in a 
 future state, is the province of others. 
 
 The inference to be deduced from the premises 
 just stated, is, that physical education, which consists 
 in the cultivation and improvement of our material 
 organs, is a work infinitely more important than it is 
 generally supposed to be. In fact, it alone, accord- 
 ing as it is well or ill conducted, can raise human 
 nature to the highest pitch of perfection, of which it 
 is susceptible, or sink it to the lowest point of degra- 
 dation. No language, therefore, can too strongly 
 recommend, nor any measures too strictly enforce 
 the duty of practising it. 
 
 The physical education of the brain shall now be 
 the subject of a few remarks. I say ' physical,' for 
 it is as susceptible of that form of education, as any 
 other organ. So true is this, that it is the only form 
 it can receive. And were that brought to perfection, 
 nothing more could be done, nor would aught more 
 be requisite, for the improvement of mind. For, as 
 already mentioned and explained, cerebral and men- 
 tal education are the same. Here, again, I must 
 speak as a phrenologist; for, in no other capacity, 
 can I treat rationally of the subject L am about to 
 consider. 
 
70 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Like all other parts of the system, the brain, by 
 suitable and well-regulated exercise, is enlarged, in- 
 vigorated, rendered more dexterous in action, and 
 therefore improved, in every respect, as the organ 
 of the mind. This is as certain, as it is that the 
 muscles themselves are improved by training. And) 
 as is the case with other organs, it also may be ex* 
 hausted and injured by too much, and enfeebled by 
 too little action. For it should never be forgotten 
 or neglected, as a practical truth, that, as action 
 strengthens and improves living matter, inaction de- 
 teriorates and weakens it. That is one of the lead- 
 ing principles, by which physical education is to be 
 directed. Indeed, it constitutes its foundation. 
 
 The brain is not a simple, but a compound organ. 
 I should rather say, that it is an aggregate of many 
 smaller organs, distinct from each other, yet closely 
 linked in their condition, by sympathy. The sound- 
 ness of one of them aids in giving soundness to the 
 others ; and the converse. These organs, being the 
 instruments of separate mental faculties, are destined 
 to the performance of separate functions, no one of 
 them being able to perform any other function than 
 its own ; as the eye sees, but cannot hear, and the 
 ear hears, but can neither taste nor smell. As these 
 organs, which unite in making up the cerebral mass, 
 execute different sorts of work, so can they work at 
 different times, some of them being active, while 
 others are at rest. In this again, they resemble the 
 external senses ; for the ear may be impressed with 
 sound, while the eyes are closed ; the eye may see, 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 71 
 
 while the ears are closed ; and the sense of smell 
 may be active, while that of touch is dormant. The 
 cerebral, organs moreover, like the external senses, 
 are excited to action, by different objects, and kinds 
 of impression. Thus, the eye is acted on, only by 
 light, the ear by sound, and the smell, taste, and 
 touch, by odorous, sapid, and tangible matter. In 
 like manner, one cerebral organ is acted on and ex- 
 ercised by language ; another, by form or figure; a 
 third by size ; a fourth by number ; a fifth by place ; 
 a sixth by tune ; a seventh and an eighth, by objects 
 and events ; a ninth by color ; and others again, by 
 the agents appropriate to them. Each one, how- 
 ever, can be acted on and exercised only by things in 
 its own line — by such, I mean, as specially corres- 
 pond to it. The same organ, for example, which 
 takes cognizance of size, and is exercised by it, can- 
 not be excited by form, nor can that which is acted 
 on by number, be influenced by tune, time, or place. 
 And thus of all the others. 
 
 The organs I have here named, are intellectual 
 ones. There are organs again, of animal propensity, 
 such as love,* resentment, covetousness, cunning, 
 and others of moral sentiment, as benevolence, ven- 
 eration, justice, and firmness. These may likewise 
 
 * The reader will understand that the cerebral organs here 
 referred to, are named in common language, best suited to 
 those, to whom the Discourse was addressed. Technically, 
 they are Amativeness, Combativeness, Acquisitiveness, Secre- 
 tiveness, Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and 
 Firmness. 
 
72 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 be excited to action, strengthened, and improved, 
 «ach by its own peculiar agent and form of impres- 
 sion ; and they may all be enfeebled, by a state of 
 inaction. For I again repeat, that it is suitable ac- 
 tion alone, which amends living matter, including 
 that of every description, while a want of action de- 
 teriorates it, to the same extent. 
 
 This, though a very defective analysis of the 
 brain, is sufficient, I trust, to render intelligible any 
 remarks I have yet to offer ; whereas, without it, 
 there is reason to believe that I should not have been 
 understood — an apprehension to that effect, is my 
 reason for troubling you with this detail. 
 
 The perfect physical education of the brain con- 
 sists in the competent exercise of every portion of 
 it ; so that each of its organs may possess due 
 strength and activity, and be itself healthy ; and 
 that there may exist between them the equilibrium 
 necessary to the health and regulated action of the 
 whole. If one or more organs be exercised too 
 much, they may become exhausted and debilitated, 
 excited to inflammation, or a condition bordering on 
 it, and not less truly morbid ; while others, being 
 exercised too little, or not at all, will be enfeebled 
 by inaction. And thus must the health, not only 
 of the brain, but of the whole system suffer. Fori 
 have already observed, and need scarcely repeat, 
 that the brain being one of the ruling viscera of the 
 system, any derangement of it, must injure the con- 
 dition of all the others. I shall only add, that 
 cerebral organs are prone to become exhausted, or 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 73 
 
 inflamed, according to their character. Are they 
 small, phlegmatic, and feeble? severe exercise pros- 
 trates them. Are they large, high toned, and 
 vigorous? intense exercise inflames them, or produ- 
 ces in them such irritability and inordinate action, as 
 derange the balance of the brain, excite mental 
 irregularities, and lay the foundation of cerebral dis- 
 ease. 
 
 This view of the subject shows the propriety and 
 advantage of pupils pursuing several studies, or 
 modes of mental exercise, at the same time, instead 
 of being confined exclusively to one. It suggests, 
 moreover the reason of it. By changing from one 
 study to another successively, in the same day, those 
 who are cultivating science and letters, not only 
 learn much more than they could, under confine- 
 ment to a single study, but do so with less exhaus- 
 tion and danger to health. Why ? Because, by 
 closely studying one branch of knowledge only, in 
 other words, by laboring all day with one cerebral 
 organ, it becomes exhausted and dull, as every in- 
 dustrious student must have felt. When thus worn 
 out, therefore, by toil, not only is it unfit to exercise 
 further, with due effect, and master its task ; but its 
 health is endangered, if not, for the time, actually 
 injured. It is in a fatigued condition, which borders 
 on a diseased one, and often excites it. When, on 
 the contrary, the pupil, feeling himself becoming unfit 
 for one study, passes to another, he engages in the lat- 
 ter with a fresh and active organ, and makes rapid 
 progress in it, until, beginning to be again fatigued and 
 7 
 
74 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 dull, he changes to a third, or returns to that pre- 
 viously relinquished, the organ corresponding to it 
 being reinvigorated by rest. To illustrate my views, 
 by examples familiar to every individual, who has 
 received an education. 
 
 If the pupil begin the study of language, say of 
 Greek or Latin, in the morning, and continue it, 
 during the whole day, he will be so toil-worn and 
 dull, by night, as to be scarcely able to distinguish a 
 noun from a verb. But if. instead of this injudicious 
 and unprofitable course, he pursue the study of lan- 
 guage two or three hours, then pass to mathematics, 
 and next to geography or history, continuing each 
 form of exercise, a reasonable time — by thus chang- 
 ing the working organs, and allowing them alternately 
 to refresh themselves by rest, he may study with 
 equal intenseness, and an equal number of hours in 
 the day, and, by night, feeling little or no fatigue, 
 have acquired much more knowledge, at a less risk 
 of health, than he could have done by the protracted 
 toil of a single organ. Independently of the attain- 
 ment made in history and geography, he will have a 
 clearer and better knowledge even of his task in lan- 
 guage, than he would have acquired, had he brooded 
 over it during the whole day. Shifting the toil, in 
 this manner, from one organ to another, is like 
 bringing fresh soldiers into battle, to relieve their 
 exhausted comrades ; or hands not yet fatigued, to 
 the labors of the harvest field. By such changes, 
 judiciously made, success is achieved ; while any 
 other mode of proceeding would result in failure. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 75 
 
 Connected with this topic are two points, on 
 which I am anxious to fix your attention, because I 
 consider them peculiarly important. Much of their 
 importance, moreover, arises from their being exclu- 
 sively practical ; and from the further fact, that seri- 
 ous and eveo fatal errors, in relation to them, are 
 often committed. 
 
 That I may be the more easily and perfectly un- 
 derstood, I shall repeat what has been already stated, 
 that very weak and dull organs, and very powerful 
 and active ones, are differently affected, by exces- 
 sive exercise. The former are prostrated and ren- 
 dered uarlt for action, as a feeble and phlegmatic 
 man is, by danger and oppression ; while, like a 
 brave and powerful man, of a fiery temperament, 
 the latter are roused to high excitement, and per- 
 haps inflammation. Occurrences in illustration and 
 proof of this, are not unfrequent in seats of learning. 
 
 Parents or guardians resolve, {hat a youth, whose 
 organs of language, size, and number, are small and 
 feeble, shall notwithstanding, be made a linguist, and 
 a mathematician. To effect this, the pupil is com- 
 pelled, or in some way induced, to labor to excess, 
 with his feeble organs, which are easily worn out, 
 until the exhaustion and injury they have sustained 
 prove prejudicial and perhaps ruinous to his other 
 organs, which are of a better cast, as well as to his 
 general health. Fatuity and insanity have been thus 
 brought on. Again., — Another pupil has the same 
 organs in fine developement, and highly excitable, 
 apjive, and vigorous. His talents for language and 
 
76 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 mathematics, are discovered to be of the first order, 
 and both he and his friends are ambitious that he 
 should excel in the knowledge of them. Hence he 
 is encouraged and incited to pursue the study of 
 them, with such ardor and perseverance, as to pro- 
 duce in the organs exercised, a state of intense and 
 morbid irritation, and perhaps inflammation. By 
 this imprudent excitement, madness and phrenitis, 
 with other grievous maladies of the brain, have been 
 repeatedly induced. Of the indiscreet and exces- 
 sive exercise of other strong and feeble organs, 
 whether animal, moral, or intellectual, the same is 
 true. 
 
 Is any one inclined to ask me, how he is to know 
 when a youth possesses weak, and- when strong or- 
 gans, for particular studies ? The answer is easy. 
 The practical phrenologist makes the discovery by 
 virtue of his art, and is rarely mistaken. Dr. Spurz- 
 heim did this in Boston, in scores of instances, to the 
 surprise and delight of many of the most enlightened 
 inhabitants of the place. And in Edinburgh, Lon- 
 don, Dublin, and Paris, and other parts of Great 
 Britain and France, the practice has become so 
 common, that it surprises no longer. There being, 
 however, unfortunately but few practical phrenolo- 
 gists in our country, those who are not so, may, 
 from the following consider;: dons, derive some por- 
 tion of the knowledge desired. Every one takes 
 pleasure in the exercise of his well-developed and 
 vigorous organs, and exerts them with good effect ; 
 and the reverse. The exercise of his feeble ones. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 77 
 
 is a matter of indifference, if not dissatisfaction to 
 him ; and be makes but little progress in any study 
 in which they are chiefly concerned. Has a pupil, 
 for example, a predominant taste for language, mu- 
 sic, painting, and mechanical handicraft, or either of 
 them? and does he make attainments in them, with 
 ease and rapidity ? his organs and faculties for them 
 are good. Is the reverse of this the case ? his organs 
 for them are feeble. The practical precept deduci- 
 ble from this statement is plain. Never urge a pupil 
 to an excessive exertion of feeble cerebral organs, it 
 being both useless and dangerous — useless, because 
 he can, in no way, become respectable himself, or 
 render high services to others, by them ; and dan- 
 gerous, because it may impair his intellect, and de- 
 stroy his health. For the same reason, do not 
 encourage or permit a youth to persevere to excess 
 in the exercise of highly sensitive and vigorous 
 organs. The practice is like exposing an irritable 
 or an inflamed eye to a glare of light, or assailing a 
 phrenitic brain with piercing sounds. By a strict 
 observance of these precepts, in seats of education, 
 much time might be saved, which is now wasted, 
 much evil prevented, and much good done. The 
 necessity of their enforcement is strengthened by 
 the fact, that children and youth of precocious and 
 large developments, and unusually active and vigor- 
 ous talents, possess, in general, delicate, and some- 
 times feeble constitutions. Their systems are there- 
 fore the more easily deranged, and should be guarded 
 
 with the greater care. 
 
 7* 
 
78 PHYSICAL ■■ EDUCATION. 
 
 From the preceding facts, another important pre- 
 cept may be drawn. Of a boy, whose whole brain 
 is unusually small, never attempt to make a scholar, 
 a professional character, or a man of science. The 
 effort will not only eventuate in failure, but may 
 prove ruinous to health. In a particular manner, it 
 may induce fatuity, should the feeble-brained indi- 
 vidual become severely studious. As well might 
 you attempt to convert a dwarf into a grenadier, as 
 a person with a very small head, into a man of a 
 powerful and expanded intellect. Nor would it be 
 less vain to endeavor to imbue with learning or sci- 
 ence, a boy, whose brain is unusually large, in the 
 animal compartment, and small in the intellectual 
 and moral ones. Such an individual is formed, by 
 nature, for a low sphere of mind, and no effort in 
 education, can elevate him. Nor, could any train- 
 ing render him studious, would he be less liable to 
 some kind of mental alienation, than the youth, 
 whose entire brain is small. Individuals thus organ- 
 ized, may become great animals, and may even per- 
 form striking and impressive actions ; but they can 
 never attain rank, as men of intellect. In war, they 
 may be brave and useful soldiers, and inferior offi- 
 cers, but must be totally incompetent to high com- 
 mand, 
 
 Does any one doubt, whether the moral organs and 
 faculties can be exercised, and moral feelings in- 
 dulged in to excess ? and whether, in physical edu- 
 cation, they ought to be, in any cases, restrained ? 
 Is it, on the contrary, the belief, that the more high- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 79 
 
 toned every thing belonging to our moral nature is, 
 its perfection is the greater ? Let all doubt and delu- 
 sion, on these points, be removed, by the recollec- 
 tion, that the organ of benevolence becomes, by in- 
 ordinate excitement, so far deranged, in many per- 
 sons, as to induce them to squander their estates, to 
 the ruin of themselves and their families, in wild and 
 unprofitable charities, and other acts of morbid gen- 
 erosity ; while, by the ultra-excitement of veneration, 
 hope, and wonder, others become religiously insane. 
 Castle-building, running into mental derangement, as 
 it often does, is likewise the product of inordinate 
 action in moral organs. Go to a mad-house, and you 
 will find fiery and vociferous religious insanity one 
 of the common affections of its inmates. Every 
 leaning of this sort, inordinately strong, should be 
 moderated in children, by some form of counter-ex- 
 citement. I mean, by giving, as far as possible, the 
 feelings and thoughts a different direction. Yet the 
 practice is too often the reverse of this. The youth- 
 ful are encouraged in their enthusiastic devotions, un- 
 til madness strikes them. Hence, on every occur- 
 rence of a new sect or denomination in religion, as 
 well as in most cases of what are called revivals, 
 religious enthusiasm effervesces, in many instances, 
 into wild insanity. That there is much madness 
 among the new sects of Mormonites, and Immortal- 
 ists, no one can doubt. The cause is, ultra-excite- 
 ment in some portion of the moral compartment of 
 the brain. Even the sentiment of conscientiousness 
 
80 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 may run to excess, and become productive of unrea- 
 sonable scrupulousness and demur. 
 
 The great end of the physical education of the 
 brain, as already intimated, is to strengthen the whole 
 of it, and maintain a due balance between its sev- 
 eral parts. What is commonly called eccentricity, 
 brown study, or absence of mind, is but another name 
 for a want of such balance, and is a true and dan- 
 gerous bent towards madness. Augment it to a suf- 
 ficient extent ; in other words, excite sufficiently the 
 irregular and extravagant organ, and real madness 
 is the result. Hence, most persons, who become 
 insane, especially those who fall into hereditary in- 
 sanity, exhibit in their characters, even from child- 
 hood, some uncommon and ominous traits — some- 
 thing that is called eccentric or queer. In proof of 
 this, the histories of the tenants of Lunatic Hospitals 
 furnish abundant testimony. They show, that a large 
 majority of those unfortunate individuals had been 
 more or less eccentric. The evil consists in a state 
 of supra-excitement and action, in some of the cere- 
 bral organs. And physical education alone can 
 remedy it. Take the following anecdote, as an il- 
 lustration of my meaning. A gentleman of Philadel- 
 phia, highly distinguished for his talents and standing, 
 was subject to fits of extraordinary absence of mind, 
 — in other words, to such entire absorption in the 
 working of one or two of his cerebral organs, as to 
 be insensible to that of all the others. He once in- 
 vited a large number of his friends to dinner. On 
 the appointed day, the guests assembled, in his draw- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 81 
 
 ing-room, where he met ihem with his usual wel- 
 come and courtesy, and conversed with them, with 
 his accustomed sprightlines and good sense. He be- 
 came, at length, silent and abstracted, mused for a 
 minute or two, and then, bowing to the company, 
 begged them to excuse him, as he had an urgent 
 piece of business to transact immediately. One of 
 the gentlemen, well acquainted with the irregularity 
 of his mind, addressing him familiarly, by his chris- 
 tian name, asked him ' Did you not invite us to dine 
 with you to-day ? ' — ' Did I ? ' said he — ' perhaps so — 
 I'll see.' He stepped into his dining-room, where a 
 table was sumptuously spread for him and his friends. 
 Returning to the company, he joined them, first in 
 merriment at his absent fit, and then in the pleasures 
 of the repast. The sequel is melancholy. He be- 
 came deranged in his mind, and died in that condi- 
 tion, in the Pennsylvania Hospital. 
 
 As already suggested, the cure of this evil is to 
 be performed, by giving rest to the over active cere- 
 bral organs, and transferring the excitement to some 
 of the others, that are less irritable. Phrenology 
 teaches the mode of conducting this process, on 
 which a want of time forbids me to dilate. Permit 
 me, however, to observe, that its power to weaken, 
 and, by its continued operation, through successive 
 generations, ultimately eradicate a hereditary predis- 
 position to madness, gives physical education much 
 of its value. In fact, that form of education, (I mean 
 physical) hitherto so much neglected, and still so im- 
 perfectly understood and practised, may be pronoun- 
 
82 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 ced the arbiter of the human mind, no less than of 
 the human body. Its influence in strengthening or 
 weakening, improving or deteriorating, all kinds of 
 mental faculties and operations, is far greater than 
 is commonly imagined. Through its instrumentality 
 alone can man attain, in mind as well as body, the 
 highest perfection of which he is susceptible. It is 
 destined, therefore, to be the chief agent, in the pro- 
 duction of the millennium, at whatever period that 
 improved condition of our race may occur. This is 
 as certain as it is, that a well-directed physical edu- 
 cation is the principal means to improve, to the high- 
 est pitch, the qualities of our domestic animals. 
 And that truth will not be controverted. 
 
 Let it never be forgotten, then, that the physical 
 education of the human race ought not to be confin- 
 ed alone to the humble object of preventing disease. 
 Its aim should be loftier and more in accordance 
 with the destiny and character of its subject — to raise 
 man to the summit of his nature. A«d such will be 
 its scope, in future and more enlightened times. 
 
 In saying, that to promote and secure the health 
 of the human system the brain should be educated 
 and amended, I mean, as already intimated, the 
 whole brain ; its animal and moral, as well as its in- 
 tellectual compartments. It is only by a general 
 and judicious training, that the proper equilibrium 
 between the cerebral organs can be established and 
 maintained. And that equilibrium is as necessary to 
 the sound condition of the whole body, as to that of 
 the brain itself. It produces an equipoise of the 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 83 
 
 entire man, and holds in check the irregularities and 
 excesses of both feeling and action, which prey on 
 life, and tend to shorten it. Hence long-lived indi- 
 viduals ha^e usually possessed a marked calmness 
 and equability of character. Why ? Because their 
 brains have been well balanced. If their feelings 
 were strong, so were their powers to control them. 
 Men of a burning temper and boisterous disposition, 
 w 7 ho are perpetually running into extremes, and who 
 pass much of their time between sinning and repent- 
 ing, rarely attain to a very advanced age. The rea- 
 son is obvious. Their health and strength are con- 
 sumed in their own fires ; and those fires come from 
 the brain ; I mean its animal compartment. That 
 portion is the seat of what is usually termed pas- 
 sion, which, when fierce and unrestrained, resembles 
 intemperance in the use of strong drink. It inflames 
 or otherwise deranges the brain, hastens the approach 
 of old age, and curtails life, on the same principles. 
 In delicate and irritable systems, it often excites con- 
 vulsions, and sometimes palsy, apoplexy, and mad- 
 ness. 
 
 The following facts testify to the truth of the prin- 
 ciples just laid down. The life of women is more se- 
 cure than that of men. In other words, fewer of 
 them die in a given period. In each census of the 
 British empire, the number of women is found to be 
 greater than that of men. Yet there are more males 
 than females born in the empire, in the proportion 
 of 105 to 100. Though war, casualty, migration 
 and death in foreign and sickly countries, account for 
 
84 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 this in part, they are insufficient for the solution of 
 the entire problem. The greater strength, more fre- 
 quent and unrestrained bursts, and more constant 
 burning of the passions, of men, contribute to the 
 event. 
 
 Again. The less impassionate the pursuits of men 
 of genius are, the greater is the average longevity of 
 each class of them. Mathematicians and natural 
 philosophers have but little in their studies to excite 
 feeling or stir up passion. The tenor of their lives 
 is generally tranquil. Hence the aggregate age of 
 twenty of them, taken promiscuously, has been 
 found to amount to 1504 years, giving to each the 
 average of 75. 
 
 Poets, on the contrary, are proverbially an £ irri- 
 table genus? — men of strong and easily excited 
 feelings, and a burning imagination. Their produc- 
 tions, moreover, being works of passion, their minds 
 must be in tumult, during their composition. From 
 these causes, the aggregate age of twenty distinguish- 
 ed poets has been ascertained to be 1144 years, giv- 
 ing to each an average of 57 — a very striking bal- 
 ance in favor of a mind free from passion! 
 
 In our efforts to produce an equipoise in the brain, 
 one fact should be held in remembrance, and ob- 
 served, as a leading ground of action. By nature, 
 the animal organs are larger and more powerful than 
 the moral or intellectual. This is the case in every 
 one, but in some individuals much more strikingly so 
 than in others. It is true of man, therefore, that he 
 possesses, naturally, more of animality, than of real 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 85 
 
 humanity. Hence the comparative ferocity and sav- 
 ageism of the uneducated. Why ? Because their an- 
 mal organs, never having been restrained and tamed, 
 predominate greatly over their moral and intellectu- 
 al, more especially over their reflective ones. This 
 constitutes the chief difference between the culti- 
 vated and the uncultivated portions of our race. The 
 latter are more of animals ; the- former more of men. 
 
 This view of the subject indicates clearly the 
 leading purpose of the physical education of the brain. 
 It is to strengthen the moral and intellectual organs, 
 by exciting them to action, each in a manner corres- 
 ponding to its nature, and to weaken comparatively 
 the animal organs, by restraining their action. Thus 
 will the former attain, by degrees, such an ascenden- 
 cy over the latter, as to be able to control them, and 
 give calmness and equability to the character of the 
 individual — to convert the rude animal into the cul- 
 tivated. man. Nor is the condition of the brain thus 
 produced, less friendly to the welfare of the body, 
 than to the sound operations of the min.d. 
 
 The influence of strong and well-cultivated morals 
 and intellectual organs on the general health of the 
 system is soothing and salutary, and feeds and 
 strengthens it, instead of ruffling and wearing it 
 out. Compared to the influence of the organs of 
 passion, it is as mild and wholesome nourishment, 
 contrasted with alcohol : or like the genial warmth 
 of the spring and autumn, to the burning heats of 
 summer. Life, and health, and comfort may last 
 long under the former, while all is parched and with- 
 8 
 
OO PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 ered by the latter. Finally : a well-cultivated and 
 well-balanced brain, does much to produce and 
 maintain, a sound mind in a sound body. Let the 
 attainment of it therefore be a leading aim, in phys- 
 ical education. 
 
 Of innumerable instances that might be cited, in 
 proof of the principle here contended for, I shall refer 
 to but one ; and that is memorable in the history 
 of our country. The Declaration of Independence 
 was signed by fifty-six Delegates, all of them men 
 of well-cultivated and well-balanced minds. In oth- 
 er words, their moral and intellectual had gained the 
 requisite ascendency over their animal organs. Of 
 these, two died of casualties, in the prime of man- 
 hood. The aggregate of the years of the other fifty- 
 four was 3,609, giving to each an average of 66 years 
 and 9 months ; an illustrious example of the influ- 
 ence of well-cultivated and regulated brains, in con- 
 ferring longevity on those who possess them. Sev- 
 eral of these great and good men lived beyond their 
 eightieth year, and some of them passed the age of 
 ninety. It is not to be doubted that the avoidance 
 of all forms of excess, and the general correctness of 
 the habits produced, by this condition of the brain, 
 contributes materially to the prolongation of life. 
 The venerable Madison, of a feeble frame, posses- 
 es one of the best-cultivated and balanced minds that 
 ever existed ; and he is now in his eighty-fifth year. 
 
 The importance of the judicious education and 
 general management of the brain, and the serious 
 evils arising from neglect and errors in them, lead 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 87 
 
 me, though somewhat out of my immediate track, 
 to make a few further remarks on the subject. My 
 sense of duty, and therefore my ruling motive to 
 this effect is the stronger, in consideration of the 
 fact, that the thoughts I have to offer apply more 
 forcibly to our own country than to any other. 
 
 Dyspepsia and mental derangement are among the 
 most grievous maladies that affect the human race ; 
 and they are much more nearly allied to each other 
 than'they are generally supposed to be. So true is 
 this, that the one is not unfrequently converted into 
 the other, and often alternates with it. The lunatic 
 is usually a dyspeptic, during his lucid intervals ; and 
 complaints, which begin in some form of gastric de- 
 rangement, turn, in many instances, to madness. 
 Nor is this all. In families, where mental derange- 
 ment is hereditary, the members, who escape that 
 complaint, are more than usually obnoxious to dys- 
 pepsia. It may be added, that dyspeptics and lu- 
 natics are relieved by the same modes of treatment, 
 and that their maladies are induced, for the most 
 part, by the same causes. 
 
 Somewhat in confirmation of these views, it may 
 be further stated, that dyspepsia and madness pre- 
 vail more extensively in the United States, in pro- 
 portion to the number of our inhabitants, than among 
 the people of any other nation. Of the amount of 
 our dyspeptics no estimate can be formed ; but it is 
 immense. Whether we inquire in cities, towns, vil- 
 lages, or country places, among the rich, the poor, 
 or those in moderate circumstances, we find dyspep- 
 
88 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 sia more or less prevalent throughout the land. In 
 other countries, this is not the case — -not, I mean, 
 to any thing near the same extent. True, in Great 
 Britain, Germany, and France, the complaint assails 
 the higher classes of society ; but there it stops, — 
 the common and lower classes scarcely knowing it, r 
 except by name. In Italy, Spain, and Portugal, it 
 is still less common among all ranks of the people. 
 The apparent cause of these things will be referred 
 to presently. 
 
 Insanity prevails in our country to an alarming ex- 
 tent, and, in common, with dyspepsia, is on the in- 
 crease. The entire number of the insane, in the 
 United States, is computed at fifty thousand — a 
 most startling aggregate, and, I trust, beyond the 
 real one — yet the real one, were it ascertained, would 
 be very great ; sufficient to excite strict inquiries into 
 the cause, accompanied by strenuous efforts for its re- 
 moval. According to a late and very intelligent wri- 
 ter, * whose information and accuracy deserve our 
 confidence, there are a thousand lunatics in the 
 State of Connecticut.- This is in the ratio of one 
 to every two hundred and sixty-two of the inhab- 
 itants of the State. In England, the number of in- 
 sane persons does not exceed twelve or thirteen thou- 
 sand. In the agricultural districts, there, the average 
 ratio is about one in eight hundred and twenty of the 
 whole population, being to that of Connecticut less 
 than one to three. Yet in England the disease pre- 
 
 * Dr. Brigham. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 89 
 
 vails to a greater extent, than in any other nation of 
 Europe. In Scotland, the general proportion, includ- 
 ing towns and cities, as well as country places, is 
 one in Jive hundred and seventy-four. There is ev- 
 ery where more madness according to the amount of 
 population, in cities, than in the country. In Spain 
 and Russia, the large cities excepted, there is very 
 little; in Turkey, Persia, and China, still less. Of 
 Hindostan 1 believe the same is true. And in sav- 
 age nations, especially where no ardent spirits are 
 used, the complaint is scarcely known. Such is the 
 report of all travellers among the Indians of North 
 and South America. To this may be subjoined that 
 the insanity of a people is increased, by the occur- 
 rence among them of any deep and extensive men- 
 tal commotion, whether from theological or political 
 causes. Such, as history informs us, was the effect 
 of the Reformation by Luther, of the Revolution by 
 Cromwell, of the American Revolution, and more 
 especially of the first Revolution in France. During 
 the convulsions of the latter event, the frequency of 
 insanity in Paris was frightful. 
 
 From these facts it appears, that in proportion to 
 the freedom of action of the humam mind in any 
 country, more especially in proportion as it is tossed 
 and perplexed by strong passions and emotions, is 
 the amount of madness, by which that country is vis- 
 ited. This result we should expect, from calcula- 
 tion on well-known principles ; and observation tes- 
 tifies to its truth. In common times, there is more 
 mental agitation in Great Britain, than in France ; 
 8* 
 
90 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 more in France, than in Spain or Russia ; and much 
 more in either of them, than in Turkey, Persia, or 
 China. And, in savage tribes, except during the 
 hours of hunting and battle, there is no mental agita- 
 tion at all — none certainly of a distracting charac- 
 ter. The causes of these several facts are plain. It 
 clearly appears that, in civilized nations, the degree 
 of distracting mental emotion, which the people gen- 
 erally experience, is in proportion to the amount of 
 the freedom they enjoy. And that again depends 
 on the more or less popular characters of their gov- 
 ernments. The people of England and Scotland 
 enjoy more freedom than the people of France ; and 
 the latter more/than those of Spain or Russia. In 
 Turkey, Persia, and China, political freedom is un- 
 known. The despotism of government compresses 
 the minds of the subjects into a dead and hopeless 
 calm. Unable to render their condition any better, 
 the degraded population cease, in appearance, to wish 
 it so, or even to disquiet themselves by a thought on 
 the subject. 
 
 Very different is ^the condition of things in the 
 United States. Our freedom, both political and re- 
 ligious is ample ; and we push and enjoy it to its ut- 
 most limits. Our institutions, moreover, of every de- 
 scription, are as popular as comports with social order 
 and sound government. State and church prefer- 
 ment and office are open to every one, and the ardor, 
 keenness and constancy of competition and struggle 
 for them, have no example in the practices of the 
 present, or the history of the past. The fervor and 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 91 
 
 commotion of electioneering intrigue has no respite. 
 Under some form, the country is agitated, I might al- 
 most say convulsed by it, from the beginning to the 
 end of the year — and of every year. Thus are the 
 angry and burning passions kept forever awake among 
 the people, and often urged to the most intense ac- 
 tion. My present allusion is chiefly to the intermin- 
 able and embittered war of party politics. 
 
 Of party religion nearly the sam6 is true. Secta- 
 rian embroilment, battle, and intrigue are constant, 
 furious and vengeful. Sometimes the strife is about 
 a doctrinal tenet, at other times about a formal rite 
 or ceremony, and again for the achievement of power 
 and influence, — one sect struggling for the mastery 
 over the rest- — at least to outstrip them in schemes 
 of ambition. Nor must I forget the fervid and un- 
 ceasing labors of the pastor and preacher for the 
 conversion and edification of his flock, and the wild 
 and convulsive emotion he often produces in their 
 minds. In no other nation are these several forms 
 of excitement half so high and agitating as in the 
 United States. A similar condition of things exists 
 in the congregation of the celebrated Irvine, of Lon- 
 don, many of whose hearers are occasionally de- 
 ranged. 
 
 Another source of deep disquietude to the inhabit- 
 ants of our country, is the desire and pursuit of 
 wealth. A more ardently money-loving and keenly 
 money-seeking people than the Americans does not 
 exist. I doubt much, whether, in these respects, 
 any equals them. The reason of this is plain. The 
 
92 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 nature of our government and of all our institutions 
 encourages and urges every one to. aim at standing 
 and power ; and the possession of wealth aids greatly 
 in the attainment of them. Indeed, hereditary titles 
 and standing being unknown to us, the only actual 
 elements of rank and power in the United States 
 are wealth and place. Without these, talents how- 
 ever splendid, and knowledge however varied and 
 extensive, give to their possessor but little influence. 
 Nor is this all. Owing to our youthful and unsettled 
 character, as a people, the modes of acquiring wealth 
 are not so well established in the United States, as 
 in the countries of Europe. Business does not run 
 in so regular a channel. There is more of random 
 traffic and speculation in it. And these forms of 
 transacting it, being often suddenly productive of 
 great profit, and at other times of ruinous losses, and 
 keeping the mind constantly on the stretch of the 
 calculation of chances, are much more exciting and 
 harassing, than they would be, were they more uni- 
 form and certain. Men engaged in regular and well- 
 settled business pursue it mechanically, are calm 
 during the day, and sleep soundly at night. But 
 dealers and speculators, besides being constantly dis- 
 quieted while awake, are tossed between sudden 
 wealth and ruin in their dreams. They are equally 
 distracted by the uncertainty and the unexpected 
 occurrence of events. 
 
 Such are the three leading sources of mental 
 commotion in our country — party politics, party re- 
 ligion, and the love of wealth. Nor is it to be doubt- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 93 
 
 ed, that they produce in the minds of the people, a 
 greater amount of harassing and giddy excitement, 
 than exists, perhaps, in all other nations united. But 
 mental excitement is only another name for cere- 
 bral exeitement/ Nor must it be forgotten, that the 
 early mismanagement and debilitating practice of 
 overworking the brains of children, in infant and 
 other early schools, disqualify them to maintain their 
 soundness, in after life, under a degree of irrita- 
 tion, which they might have otherwise sustained, 
 without much injury. If the lungs be injured and 
 weakened, in infancy or childhood, no one doubts 
 that the individual thus affected, will be more than 
 usually liable to pulmonary complaints. Why? 
 Because the lungs are not only more susceptible of 
 malign impressions, but less able to resist them, and 
 escape the mischief they are calculated to produce. 
 Of the brain, the same is true. If it be weakened 
 in childhood, it will be afterwards inordinately liable 
 to morbid affections, and too feeble to contend with 
 them. 
 
 That these- causes contribute to the production of 
 the inordinate sum of insanity, which prevails in the 
 United States, is too plain to be held in doubt. For 
 madness is the result of cerebral excitement, rendered 
 deleterious by the excess in quantity, or the malign 
 qualities of the irritants that produce it. Nor can 
 any cerebral irritant be more noxious, either in kind 
 or degree, than the cankered and fierce religious and 
 political passions, which are constantly goading the 
 American brain. Under such circumstances, it 
 
94 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 would be wonderful, if attacks of insanity were not 
 unusually frequent among us. 
 
 But can the same Causes prove also instrumental, 
 in the production of dyspepsia ? — No doubt of it. 
 That complaint commences, perhaps, as often in the 
 brain, as in the stomach. Possibly oftener. That 
 this is true of the disease in Europe, will scarcely be 
 denied, after a fair examination of the facts connected 
 with it. It is there, almost exclusively, a complaint 
 of the studious and the scheming, who, overtasking 
 their brains, injure them by toil. Among the hus- 
 bandmen of England, who steadily pursue their tran- 
 quil mode of life, regardless of the fluctuations of stock, 
 the bickerings of party, the fate of political measures, 
 and the changes of place, dyspepsia is almost a stran- 
 ger. Yet many of those men are great eaters, and 
 far from being very choice as to the quality of their 
 food. In the cities, the same is in a great measure 
 true of merchants, manufacturers, and mechanics, 
 who are engaged in a regular and well-established 
 business, which is fully understood by them, where 
 the risk is slight, and. the profits sure, and no disqui- 
 eting anxiety attends it. Such individuals have a 
 good digestion, and bear the marks of it. But, with 
 literary men, officers of state, dealers in scrip, dar- 
 ing adventurers, and anxious and ambitious project- 
 ors of improvements — with these, and every other 
 brain-worn class of persons, the case is different. 
 Dyspepsia is their torment ; and they exhibit deep 
 traces of it, in their lean frames, and haggard coun- 
 tenances. Yet are they much more select in their 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 95 
 
 diet, both as respects quantity, quality, and cooking, 
 than the classes to whom dyspepsia is unknown. 
 This fact is notorious, and has been so for centuries. 
 Nor can it be attributed, I think, to any other 
 cause, but excessive and deleterious cerebral irrita- 
 tion, in the one case, and an exemption from it, in 
 the other. And this cause seems sufficient to solve 
 the problem. 
 
 That it is not exclusively the labor and irritation 
 of the stomach that produces dyspepsia, appears from 
 innumerable other facts, a few of which, I shall re- 
 cite. Children not too much confined in school, or 
 otherwise mistreated, though great and often pro- 
 miscuous eaters, are rarely dyspeptic. The reason 
 is plain. Their brains are neither toil-worn nor 
 care-worn ; and they enjoy the requisite amount of 
 sleep. Their brains are not irritated and exhausted 
 by burdensome tasks. The North American Indians 
 eat, at times, enormously, and that after a long fast, 
 which, on well-known principles, increases the dan- 
 ger of overloading the stomach. It is said that, on 
 these occasions, the meal of a single Indian, is equal 
 to that of from four to six white men. The food, 
 moreover, is badly cooked, and therefore indigestible. 
 Yet the savage escapes dyspepsia. 
 
 Of the Esquimaux Indians, the same is true, to a 
 still greater extent. An individual of that tribe, as 
 we are confidently assured by Captain Parry and 
 Captain Lyon, eats with impunity from ten to twelve 
 pounds of solid animal food, in the course of a day, 
 and swallows along with it, in the form of drink, a 
 gallon of oil. Captain Lyon further relates, that a 
 
96 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 young female Esquimaux ate a large amount of can- 
 dles and their wicks, without sustaining either sick- 
 ness or dyspepsia. These statements we are com- 
 pelled to believe, on account of the high respect- 
 ability of the authors. of them. 
 
 Of the gluttony of the Siberians, stories are told, 
 not perhaps altogether so worthy of credit. Were 
 not that people, however, enormous eaters, such 
 stories would not be invented. The accounts are 
 but exaggerations of extraordinary gormandizing. 
 It is asserted by travellers, that a Siberian often eats, 
 in a day, forty 'pounds of solid food; and Admiral 
 Saritchaff reports, that he saw one of that people, 
 eat, immediately after breakfast, twenty- five pounds 
 of boiled rice, and three pounds of butter. Yet, as 
 already stated, neither Siberians nor Esquimaux, 
 are annoyed by dyspepsia. And they, no doubt, owe 
 their safety, in part, to their freedom from wasting 
 cerebral irritation. 
 
 For the same reason the inferior animals have no 
 dyspepsia, though they often gorge themselves to 
 great excess. When they thus violate moderation, 
 nature teaches them what to do for safety. They 
 instinctively lie down and sleep, giving entire free- 
 dom and rest to their brains. A common black 
 snake swallows a rabbit or a squirrel nearly as 
 weighty as itself, and goes into a partial torpor, until 
 its meal is digested. A boa-constrictor swallows a 
 goat or an antelope, sleeps nearU T a week, and wakes 
 without dyspepsia or uneasiness, prepared for another 
 similar exploit. Two dogs of the same age, size, 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 97 
 
 &nd strength, having eaten the same amount of the 
 same food, one of them goes to sleep, and the other 
 enters on the chase. In from three to four hours, 
 the meal of the sleeper is digested, while that of the 
 runner is unchanged in his stomach — and the latter 
 dog is probably disordered, while the former retains 
 iiis health. These facts show, that tranquillity of the 
 brain is favorable at least, if not essential to the pro- 
 cess of easy and sound digestion. 
 
 The powerful influence of a disordered brain, over 
 the digestive system, is manifested in the effects of a 
 severe blow on the head. These are vomiting, gas- 
 tric inflammation, hepatic derangement, amounting 
 at times, to abscess, and again, to torpor of the liver, 
 with other forms of abdominal disease. Sea-sick- 
 ness, moreover, is a cerebral affection, thrown on 
 the stomach. So is the sickness produced in many 
 persons, by whirling the body, and riding in a car- 
 riage, with the back toward the horses. The em- 
 peror Napoleon died of a gastric affection, in St. 
 Helena, where such complaints are scarcely known. 
 He was, moreover, a very temperate eater. But he 
 had deep sensibility and powerful passions. The 
 most probable cause of his disease, therefore, was 
 mortification at the loss of empire, resentment and 
 chagrin at his exile and confinement, vexation at the 
 treatment he received from the governor of the island, 
 and inconsolable grief at being separated from his 
 family. These causes, goading his brain almost to 
 madness, threw their influence sympathetically on 
 his stomach, and destroyed him. 
 9 
 
98 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Nor is the whole yet told. Grief is nothing but 
 a painful and deleterious cerebral irritation. Females 
 experience that passion in its greatest intensity ; and 
 it is, to them, a very productive cause of dyspepsia. 
 So is jealousy, a passion which they also feel, with 
 peculiar acuteness and distress. And every painful 
 passion and emotion, is but another name for exces- 
 sive and hurtful irritation of the brain, which, if long 
 continued, never fails to injure digestion. Even 
 anger arrests the process of digestion. Nor are fe- 
 males the only sufferers from such irritation. Males, 
 also, are its victims. 
 
 A man in perfect health, and with a fine appetite, 
 seats himself at table ; but, before he has began his 
 meal, a messenger communicates to him, some dis- 
 tressing news. His appetite vanishes ; and the very 
 sight and odor of the food becomes offensive to him. 
 Or, has he just finished his repast, when the message- 
 is delivered ? If he be not actually sickened by it, 
 and forced to discharge the contents of his stomach, 
 indigestion, sick headache, and perhaps feverishness, 
 are the result. And-what student does not know, 
 that effects, somewhat similar, are produced by 
 severe intellectual toil, immediately after a plentiful 
 meal ? That dyspepsia, moreover, is proverbially 
 one of the morbi studiosorum, one of the complaints 
 of the studious, is a truth familiar to every one. 
 Nor is it less notorious, that men who think but 
 little, and are exempt from care, seldom suffer from 
 it. The cheerful and jolly do not often become 
 dyspeptic — the grave and care-worn, very frequently. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 99 
 
 This truth has been long, and familiarly known. 
 Caesar manifested his acquaintance with it, when he 
 spoke of the countenances of the gay and cheerful 
 Antony, and the deeply thoughtful Brutus and Cas- 
 sius : the former fresh, full, and ruddy, the latter 
 pale, sallow, and care-worn. 
 
 But my argument is not yet closed. The most 
 successful mode of treating dyspepsia, favors the 
 belief, that it often arises from cerebral irritation, and 
 is always perhaps connected with it. Am I asked, 
 in what this treatment consists ? I reply, in regulat- 
 ing the passions, taking muscular exercise, in the 
 open air, abandoning intellectual toil, and retreating, 
 for a time, from business and care. Unless the 
 complaint be so inveterate and deep-rooted as to 
 have produced some serious organic lesion, this 
 course of treatment, steadily pursued, will cure it, 
 without either the use of much medicine, or confine- 
 ment to a very strict diet ; and it can often be cured 
 in no other way. To him, whose brain is constantly 
 on the rack, dyspeptic medicine and diet are of little 
 use. 
 
 How often do we find the efficacy of this mode 
 of treatment, verified. An individual deeply devoted 
 to books and study, becomes dyspeptic. Without 
 mitigating his intellectual labors, he tries various 
 remedies for the restoration of his health. For 
 months, and perhaps years, he eats by weight, of 
 prescribed articles, and dresses and exercises by 
 measurement and rule. During this trial of his pa- 
 tience, tea and coffee are rejected ; new milk, boiled 
 
100 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 rice, and bread, stale, or made of unbolted flour, 
 with fresh eggs, and well-prepared mutton chops, 
 being his only food, and water his only drink ; and 
 he walks every day, at stated hours, a given number 
 of miles. Finding this treatment ineffectual, he re- 
 sorts to daily horse-exercise, under an assurance 
 from some very ' skilful doctor,' or perhaps a 
 1 knowing nurse,' that that will cure him. But, in- 
 stead of being removed, or even lightened, his com- 
 plaint grows worse. During these experiments, he 
 has continued to return regularly from his meals, 
 and his horse and foot exercise, to his books and his 
 pen, thus irritating and exhausting his brain, by un- 
 interrupted labor. At length, impatient of trials, 
 that have proved so unavailing, he renounces medi- 
 cine and regimen, resolves to become master of him- 
 self and his movements, and takes his case into his 
 own hands. Under this determination, he shuts up 
 his study, mounts his horse, and sets out on a jour- 
 ney, to visit a friend, a couple of hundred miles dis- 
 tant, riding during wet weather, as well as dry, and 
 living on the common fare of travellers. Before he 
 has proceeded a hundred miles, his health is much 
 improved ; and, on reaching the dwelling of his 
 friend, he finds himself well. 
 
 This is no fancy-case, but one that has innumer- 
 able examples in life. To what is the cure to be 
 attributed ? The dyspeptic has previously conformed 
 most strictly to dieteetic rules, and travelled, on foot 
 and on horseback, some thousands of miles, in fine 
 weather, and through a pure atmosphere, without 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 101 
 
 any benefit to health ; yet he is now cured, by riding 
 two hundred miles, a part of the way in bad 
 weather, and living, in the mean time, on indifferent 
 food. The cause of the salutary effect of his jour- 
 ney, is easily rendered. Having relinquished his 
 intellectual toils, his brain is at ease, and no longer 
 injures his digestive organs, or any other part of his 
 system. On the contrary, by acting salutarily on 
 them, it benefits them, and enables them to perform 
 their respective functions. Let him immediately 
 return to his studies, with his usual intensity, and his 
 complaint will revisit him. — Instead of a man of let- 
 ters, suppose the dyspeptic to be a statesman, an 
 artist, or a man of business; the result of the speci- 
 fied measures will be the same. Cerebral quietude 
 will contribute much to the restoration of his health. 
 Again. It is well known, that individuals, who, 
 under all sorts of treatment, have been tormented by 
 dyspepsia, from the age of twenty-five or thirty, to 
 forty or forty-five, very often recover their health, 
 and from having been thin, become fleshy, about 
 the latter period, after having abandoned medicine 
 entirely, and relaxed not a little, in the strictness of 
 their regimen. To use their own language, they 
 seem to have 6 gotten well, without any cause.' A 
 satisfactory cause, however, is not wanting. They 
 are less harassed and corroded by care, passion, and 
 mental labor — in simpler and more philosophical 
 language — they experience less cerebral irritation, 
 for one of the two following reasons, or both united. 
 They have attained the object, for which they had 
 9* 
 
102 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 previously toiled, and disquieted themselves; or, age 
 and experience have somewhat blunted their sensi- 
 bilities, and calmed their passions ; or both causes, 
 have cooperated to the same end. For similar rea- 
 sons, dyspepsia rarely commences in an individual, 
 after his forty-fifth or fiftieth year. Time has dimin- 
 ished the susceptibility of his brain. 
 
 Such appear to be the leading causes of the 
 alarming frequency and increase of madness and 
 dyspepsia, in the United States. The same irrita- 
 tion which, in some cases, produces the former com- 
 plaint, in others gives rise to the latter, by not only 
 disqualifying the brain for acting beneficially on the 
 stomach and the other digestive organs, but by ren- 
 dering its influence injurious to them. Nor can it 
 be doubted, as already intimated, that Infant Schools, 
 under their present administration, are calculated to 
 increase the evil, by giving a morbid growth and 
 susceptibility to the brain. So, as heretofore men- 
 tioned, are intemperate eating, and other improprie- 
 ties in diet and drink. The only effectual remedy, 
 is a well-directed physical education. 
 
 Were I asked, how severe cerebral irritation and 
 labor injure the stomach and other digestive organs, 
 my reply would be, In a two-fold way ; sympathet- 
 ically and functionally. In the latter mode, the 
 brain, being unfitted for its healthy action, and in 
 some degree exhausted itself, withholds from the 
 whole digestive system that measure of influence 
 and aid, known to be essential to the performance 
 of its functions. In what this influence consists, is 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 103 
 
 not exactly known. Jt is probably, however the 
 product of a subtle and peculiar form of matter, 
 which the brain prepares from the blood, and trans- 
 mits, by the nerves, to the other parts of the body. 
 That a communication between the stomach and 
 the brain is necessary to digestion, experiment 
 proves. When that formed by the nerves is inter- 
 rupted, the digestive action is suspended ; when re- 
 stored, the process again goes on. Since, therefore, 
 the entire want of the cerebral influence injures the 
 stomach, any irregularities or bad qualities in it can 
 scarcely fail to do the same. • 
 
 Did time permit, it would be gratifying to me to 
 revert to the consideration of the moral influence of 
 the brain, and to speak of it more fully, and in a 
 manner more worthy of its importance than I have 
 heretofore done. That a sound, well-developed, 
 and well-regulated condition of that organ is as truly 
 the source of correct morals, as a healthy condition 
 of the heart and the lungs is of the due circulation 
 and arteriolization of the blood, is a truth admitted 
 now by all who have thoroughly studied the subject, 
 and which is destined, at no very distant period, to 
 be without an opponent. On this ground alone can 
 moral education and reform be rationally and suc- 
 cessfully conducted, and brought to the perfection 
 of which they are susceptible. The moral organs 
 of the brain, and the reflecting ones, as their adju- 
 tants, must be strengthened by regular and. well-di- 
 rected exercise, and thus rendered more ready in 
 action, as well as more vigorous. Immorality and 
 
104 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 crime are the product of the animal organs ; and the 
 reason of their being committed is obvious. These 
 organs preponderate, if not habitually, at least for the 
 time, over the moral and reflecting organs. Instead 
 of being subordinate, as they ought to be, they take 
 the mastery, and, by running into excess, bring guilt 
 on the individual ; precisely as the crew of a vessel 
 sometimes mutiny, break from the control of their of- 
 ficers, and perhaps murder them and plunder the 
 ship, The source of every crime is the same, the 
 preponderance of the animal portion of the brain ; 
 and the radical extinguishment must be also the 
 same, the reduction of the strength of that portion, 
 and its being brought to a state of subordination to 
 the higher organs. Every habitual offender has a 
 brain in some way unsound. There is a want of 
 balance and harmony between his cerebral organs, 
 which amounts to derangement, and calls for skilful 
 treatment to remove it. And, without such treat- 
 ment, his moral malady will as necessarily continue, 
 as must a dislocated joint remain in a deranged con- 
 dition, if it be not reduced. To carry out the figure, 
 except in far-gone cases, the moral disease can be 
 remedied by judicious treatment, as certainly as 
 the articular. The remedy, moreover, is simple. It 
 consists in bringing the offending animal organs to a 
 state of comparative inaction, which will diminish 
 their strength, and giving constant exercise to the 
 moral and reflecting organs, by which their power 
 and promptitude in acting will be increased. Thus 
 will the truly human portion of the brain attain an 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 105 
 
 ascendency over the animal, and man will advance 
 toward the perfection of his nature. 
 
 Is any one inclined to request me to be more ex- 
 plicit in pointing out the means of moral education 
 and reform, and in specifying the mode in which the 
 process is to be conducted ? If so, I could not an- 
 swer him better than by directing his attention to 
 several of the penitentiary establishments, and all 
 the Houses of Correction for juvenile offenders in 
 the United States. There, to a certain extent, the 
 means are already in operation, and in some of the 
 institutions, the prospects are very nattering. In 
 many cases, vicious and criminal propensities have 
 been extinguished, and habits of morality and virtue 
 established. In other words, the inordinate action 
 of the animal organs has been allayed, and that of 
 the moral and reflecting invigorated. 
 
 The means of effecting this are few and simple. 
 By being withdrawn from the community, and, m 
 many cases, by solitary confinement, the culprits are 
 strictly guarded not only from the commission of 
 crime, but from all temptation to it. Thus are their 
 animal organs, which are prone to offend, reduced to 
 a state of comparative inaction, which, in time, de- 
 prives them of much of their strength, and weakens, 
 in a corresponding degree, the appetite for vice. For 
 the propensity to transgress is but the craving of a 
 powerful and highly excited organ. But this alone 
 could not be denominated moral reform. At most, 
 it would be but negatively so. To weaken one class 
 of organs is not exactly tantamount to the strength- 
 
106 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 ening of another, even though they be antagonists. 
 Other measures therefore are added. The offenders 
 are strictly practised in some form of useful industry, 
 which not only occupies the mind, and withdraws it 
 from thoughts of vice, but is itself a moral duty. 
 Nor is this all. Moral and religious instruction is 
 directly inculcated on them by reading, preaching, 
 conversation, remonstrance, advice, example, and 
 practice. This, by exciting and exercising their 
 moral and reflecting organs, confers on them positive 
 strength, and except in the worst class of cases, gives 
 them ultimately an ascendency over the animal. 
 Then is the permanent bias of the mind turned to- 
 ward virtue, and the reformation of the offenders is 
 complete. 
 
 When established on correct principles, and skilful- 
 ly administered, Penitentiaries and Houses of Cor- 
 rection are moral hospitals, where criminal propensi- 
 ties are treated as diseases, consisting in unsound 
 conditions of the brain. And in such conditions 
 they do consist, as certainly as hepatitis does in a 
 morbid state of the liver, or dyspepsia, in a similar 
 state with the stomach. And, by judicious treat- 
 ment, they can be as certainly removed. Nor is it 
 possible, on any. other principles, to purify and 
 strengthen our moral nature, and raise it to the 
 height and confer on it the dignity, of which it is 
 susceptible. Yet all this amounts to nothing more 
 than the application of physical education to the 
 moral organs of the brain. In treating of it, therefore, 
 I have not in any degree departed from my subject. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 107 
 
 I have only brought to bear on it matter of illustra- 
 tion not usually employed, but not, on that account 
 the less appropriate and useful. I shall only add, 
 that the time and treatment necessary for the removal 
 of a malady must be apportioned and accommodated 
 to its strength, fixity and aggravating circumstances. 
 And as there are cases of incurable derangement in 
 other parts of the body, so are there in the brain, of 
 that which creates a propensity to crime. In such 
 instances, the interests of society can be duly pro- 
 tected, only by the confinement of the culprits for 
 life, or their capital punishment. 
 
 In the training of the brain, the proper manage- 
 ment of sleep is of considerable moment. Children 
 require more sleep than adults, and some children 
 more than others. Young infants should be allowed 
 to sleep a greater portion of their time. As they 
 advance in years, a less proportion will be not only 
 sufficient, but more salutary to them. For children 
 and youth pursuing their education, from seven to 
 nine hours of sleep, out of twenty-four is enough. 
 Many do not require more than six. Less than that 
 might prove injurious, especially if the abstinence 
 were long continued. Too little sleep weakens the 
 brain, and consequently the entire system, by exhaus- 
 tion; too much, by inaction. For sleep consists in 
 the quietude of the brain. Of this, as of other things, 
 a mean quantity is best. An excess of sleep has 
 produced idiotism ; a deprivation of it, madness — 
 and sometimes inflammation of the brain. 
 
 It is not unimportant to observe, that a life of strict 
 
108 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 temperance curtails materially the time necessary to 
 be spent in sleep. For this ihere are sundry rea- 
 sons, two of them leading ones. The intemperate 
 require a greater amount of actual sleep, on account 
 of the deeper exhaustion of their systems. But their 
 sleep, never healthy, is broken, dreamy, and compar- 
 atively unrefreshing. It is the sleep of bad digestion, 
 their stomachs being oppressed, by a superabundance 
 of food. Hence they are compelled to consume a 
 greater length of time, in acquiring the necessary 
 degree of repose. The temperate and regular, on 
 the contrary, are comparatively strangers to dreams. 
 They rest profoundly, and enjoy a fuller measure of 
 sound and refreshing sleep, in six hours, than the in- 
 temperate do in nine. In this way, they save, in 
 the course of a life-time, several years of active and 
 useful existence, which, to those of contrary habits, 
 are lost in sleep and drowsiness. 
 
 As neither their bones nor muscles are yet con- 
 firmed in strength, the manner in which children hold 
 themselves in school, is not unimportant. They 
 should sit as erect as their employments will admit, 
 lest they contract ungraceful and pernicious habits of 
 stooping or distortion ; and they ought not to be per- 
 mitted, much less compelled, to sit long in one posi- 
 tion, but be directed to change it, by standing, or in 
 some other way. This will prevent numbness of 
 their limbs, and other unpleasant effects from stillness 
 and compression. Want of motion, produces in 
 many, a coldness of the feet, which weakens their at- 
 tention to study, and brings on headache and dys- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 109 
 
 pepsia. In a special manner, children should not be 
 allowed to lean heavily, on the breast or stomach, 
 against desks or tables. Gastric derangement and 
 pulmonary consumption have been the issue of such 
 practices. Pupils have often suffered, in their eyes, 
 from a strong glare of light, through a window in 
 front of them. Such accidents should be carefully 
 guarded aga ; nst. 
 
 The practice of self- pollution, among youth at 
 school, especially in boarding schools, is much more 
 frequent than is generally imagined.^ And no vice 
 is more detestable or ruinous. Health, intellect, 
 morals — all purity, dignity, and self-respect sinks 
 beneath it, in promiscuous and hopeless ruin. When 
 carried to excess, it produces idiotism, in the most 
 deplorable and disgusting form, accompanied by im- 
 paired vision and hearing, paralysis, and other dis- 
 tressing infirmities, and terminates in death. No 
 vigilance to prevent it therefore can be too strict; 
 and, when it is detected, no remonstrance against it 
 can be too solemn, no representation of its direful 
 effects too strong, no denunciation of it too stern, and, 
 if persevered in, no penalty for it too heavy. But 
 it inflicts its own penalty, in the entire desolation of 
 the being, who perpetrates it. Not confined, in its 
 effects, to the offenders, it falls as a lasting blight on 
 their posterity. In boarding-schools, moreover, the 
 practice is contagious, spreading from one to another, 
 until many, if not the whole, are polluted. The first 
 culprit detected, therefore, should be removed from 
 the institution, as a moral lazar, dangerous alike to 
 10 
 
110 PHYSICAL EDUCATION, 
 
 purity and soundness of mind and body. But he 
 ought not to be hopelessly abandoned to his fate. 
 Every practicable expedient to reform him should 
 be adopted and persevered in. And the best plan 
 of reform consists in some active and interesting em- 
 ployment, engaged in with alacrity and industriously 
 pursued — so industriously as to banish idleness, and 
 allow but little time even for amusement; for lei- 
 sure and idleness are often the source and always one 
 of the nurses of the evil to be corrected. And if 
 all other means fail, marriage should be resorted to y 
 as soon as the individual has arrived at maturity, and 
 is in a condition to form that alliance. This vice 
 occurs in families, as well as in schools. Every where, 
 therefore, in the physical education of youth, its pre- 
 vention is a point of infinite moment. I shall only 
 add, that, in proportion as the temperament is active, 
 the development of Amativeness full, the moral and 
 reflecting developements deficient, and the individual 
 diffident and easily abashed, is the danger of his 
 contracting the vice. In the same proportion, there- 
 fore, should be the exertions made to protect him 
 from it. :••"- 
 
 Of dress, as a means in physical education, I have 
 already spoken. A few further remarks on it, and 
 I shall close my discourse. No article of dress 
 should so compress any portion of the body, as to 
 injure the skin, diminish the size and vigor of a 
 muscle, restrict the flexibility of a joint, oppose a 
 hindrance to the innervation of the part, or prevent 
 the free circulation of the blood. If any thing be 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. Ill 
 
 benefited by unlimited freedom of action, it is the 
 system of man, in its organized capacity — I mean 
 the whole system. 
 
 Pinching shoes and boots do much mischief. 
 That they produce tormenting and crippling corns, 
 every body knows in theory, and too many by woful 
 experience. But this is not all, nor even the worst. 
 They check the circulation of the pedal blood, make 
 the feet cold, and sometimes aid in chilblaining them, 
 diminish the size of the muscles of the part, and take 
 from them their strength, and impede their action, 
 by compressing them. Hence no one too tightly 
 shod, walks either with elasticity or grace, or receives 
 from the exercise half the benefit it would otherwise 
 bestow. In truth, he is often injured by it. That 
 an individual may move lightly or firmly with grace 
 or usefulness, his feet must be springy and free. 
 But cramping and torturing them by pressure, does 
 further mischief. It produces, sympathetically, dys- 
 pepsia and headache, and sometimes troublesome 
 affections of the breast. Hemorrhagy from the nos- 
 trils and lungs, and even apoplexy and pulmonary 
 consumption are occasionally excited by it. I shall 
 only add, that tight shoes disfigure the foot. The 
 ancients were strangers to such torturing articles. 
 Their sandals were light and easy. Hence the free 
 and elegant form of their feet. This is seen in the 
 Venus de Medici, the Perseus, the Anlinous, the 
 Apollo Belvidere, and many other choice relics of 
 antiquity. Let the feet of those statues be compared 
 with the feet of elegantes and dandies, of the pres- 
 
112 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 ent day, and the beauty of the former will be found 
 to be transcendent. 
 
 The time was, but has fortunately gone by, for 
 the present, when buckskin inexpressibles, far 
 tighter than the skins of those whom they torment- 
 ed, were nearly as bad, in the effects they produced. 
 Though not equally painful, they were, in some re- 
 spects, even more annoying and discomfortable. 
 The first ' trying-on' of those articles, in which the 
 strength and skill of the maker of them, backed by 
 one or two able-bodied assistants, were indispensa- 
 ble, was a fearful job — especially if the weather had 
 sudorific qualities in it. And when, by a horse 
 power or two, the garment was at length dragged 
 home, buttoned over the knees, and strapped round 
 the legs, then began the tug for motion. The vic- 
 tim of fashion walked as if some of his joints were- 
 anchylosed, and others tightly bandaged, on account 
 of recent dislocation. From the waist downward,, 
 there was less pliability in him than in the limbs of 
 a centenarian, or a gourmand, stiffened by chronic 
 gout. Nor was this all. His brood,, being denied a 
 free passage, in a downward direction, like that of 
 the Plantagenets, 'mounted' upwards, made his 
 neck and face swell, and his eyes protrude, and 
 turned his cheeks as red as the gills of a fish. This 
 inquisition-work, long persisted in, eould not fail to be 
 productive of mischief. The whole, however, being 
 an act of homage, at the shrine of fashion, the dandy 
 submitted to it, with the devotion of a new-made 
 saint, and the imperturbable firmness of a martyr. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 113 
 
 And, to test to the uttermost his truth and constancy, 
 getting out of his trammels, was sometimes a more 
 awful trial than getting into them. 
 
 Most earthly things, like the earth herself on her 
 axis, whirl in a circle. Though cramping inexpres- 
 sibles, therefore, are with our antipodes now, they 
 will no doubt come back again. It is, therefore, 
 that I have thought it right to enter my protest 
 against them. They are a sad contrivance in phys- 
 ical education. 
 
 Tight cravats, by preventing a full flow of blood 
 to the brain, through the arteries, and retarding its 
 return, by the veins, do mischief. They operate 
 prejudiciously in several ways. That they com- 
 press the muscles of the neck, and diminish their 
 size, cannot be doubted. Hence, the necks of the 
 moderns, who wear them, are smaller and less 
 comely, than those of the ancients, to whom they 
 were unknown. The manly and elegant form and 
 dimensions, as well as the fine attitude and bearing, 
 of the necks of ancient statues, are themes of univer- 
 sal admiration and praise. And they are, no doubt, 
 chiefly, if not exclusively, attributable to the free 
 and uncompressed condition of the necks of their 
 originals. It is observed, by travellers, that the 
 peasantry of Lombardy have finer necks than any 
 other peasantry in Europe ; and they wear nothing 
 round them. 
 
 The diminution of the size of the neck, however, 
 is neither the only, nor the greatest evil, which tight 
 cravats produce. If, in any case, they restrict the 
 10* 
 
I 14 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 nourishment and vitalization of the brain, by with- 
 holding from it a competent supply of arterial, and 
 too long retaining in it an accumulation of venous 
 blood, they necessarily weaken the operations of the 
 mind. This is as certain, as that the reduction of 
 the natural flux of blood to a muscle lessens its vig- 
 or. As heretofore slated, the vitality of the brain is 
 derived from the arterial blood j and, other things 
 being equal, as is its vitality, so is its perfection, as 
 the organ of the mind. Were it possible, without 
 doing an injury to other parts, to augment the con- 
 stant afflux of healthy arterial blood to the brain, 
 the mental operations would be invigorated by it. I 
 state this opinion confidently, because we often wit- 
 ness its verification. When a public speaker is 
 flushed and heated in debate, his mind works more 
 freely and powerfully than at any other time. Why ? 
 Because his brain is in better tune. What has thus 
 suddenly improved its condition ? An increased 
 current of blood into it, produced by the excitement 
 of its own increased action. That the blood does, 
 on such occasions, flow more copiously into the 
 brain, no one can doubt, who is at all acquainted 
 with the cerebral sensations, which the orator him- 
 self experiences at the time, or who witnesses the 
 unusual fulness and flush of his countenance, the 
 dewiness, flashing, and protrusion of his eye, and 
 the throbbing of his carotid and temporal; arteries. 
 It is well known, that, while intensely engaged in a 
 memorable debate, last winter, in Washington, a 
 distinguished senator became so giddy, by the mar- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 115 
 
 dinate rushing of blood into his brain, that he was 
 obliged to sit down ; and the senate adjourned, to 
 give him time to recover. And, more recently, a 
 new member of the House of Representatives fell, 
 while speaking, and suddenly expired from the same 
 cause. A member of the Law Class of Transylva- 
 nia, moreover, experienced, a few weeks ago, a 
 convulsive affection, from a congestion of blood in 
 the head, induced by excessive excitement of the 
 brain, in rhe ardor of debate. Nor is this all. In 
 several individuals, whose brain had been denuded, 
 and brought into view, by accident or disease, the 
 movement and swelling of the organ were rendered 
 palpable, by the flux of blood into it, during intense 
 feeling, and active thought. A remarkable case of 
 this description, occurred in Montpelier, in 1822 ; 
 and others, somewhat similar, are mentioned by Sir 
 Astley Cooper, in his Lectures on Surgery. Had T 
 leisure, and were it requisite, 1 could cite numerous 
 instances of a like description. Sudden and deep 
 emotion, as well as the vigorous working of the in- 
 tellectual powers, has produced phrenitis, palsy, and 
 apoplexy, by a superabundant rushing of blood into 
 the brain. Inordinate excitement, of whatever kind 
 it may be, draws an unusual amount of blood into 
 that organ; and such an amount is essential to the 
 maintenance of the excitement thus brought on. 
 
 Believing that a cravat had a bad effect on the 
 operations of his mind, Lord Byron never wore one. 
 Report indeed says, that his reason for this was, his 
 desire to show his neck uncovered, on account of 
 
116 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 its uncommon beauty. This, however, is probably, 
 but a petty slander. His motives were best known 
 to himself. Nor can any one doubt, that immoder- 
 ate compression of the neck does mischief. Head- 
 ache, impaired vision, and hemorrhagy from the 
 nose, are among its effects. So, we are told, is 
 apoplexy. 
 
 An article of dress remains to be noticed, which 
 is immeasurably worse, in its effects, than all those 
 whose influence 1 have considered. Motives of 
 prudence, if not of gallantry, might impose silence 
 on me respecting it, did not a regard for truth and 
 duty, and a wish to be useful, invoke me to speak 
 out. The article makes a part of the apparel, I 
 may not say the ornament of woman, whose delica- 
 cy I would, in no case, willingly offend, and whose 
 displeasure I would never intentionally incur, except 
 in an effort to do her good. It is probably already 
 conjectured, that my allusion is to corsets. If so, 
 the conjecture is correct. I do allude to corsets, 
 and prouounce them, most seriously, an alarming 
 evil. The crippling machinery, with which the 
 females of China compress and disfigure their feet 
 and ancles, making the former too small, and the lat- 
 ter too thick and clumsy, are innocent to them. 
 Corsets compress and disfigure a portion of the sys- 
 tem infinitely more important, than the mere termin-* 
 ation of the lower extremities. While the Pagan 
 ladies, confine their attack to the out-posts of life, 
 the fair Christians assault the citadel. By curtailing 
 the dimensions of two of the great cavities of the 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 117 
 
 body, corsets obstruct the growth, and impair the 
 functions of the organs they contain. And it has 
 been already stated, that these are among the gov- 
 erning organs of the body, whose injury or unsound 
 condition proves prejudical to every other portion of 
 it. I allude to the stomach, liver, and all the other 
 chyle-making and chyle-carrying viscera, and to the 
 heart, lungs, and large blood-vessels. These are all 
 compressed and deranged in their functions, and 
 most of them reduced in their size, removed from 
 their places, and altered in their shape, by tight cor- 
 setting. It is in vain to deny the truth of this, as an 
 excuse for disregarding the warning it imparts. The 
 fact can be, and has repeatedly been demonstrated, 
 in anatomical researches. I shall exhibit to you, 
 presently, satisfactory proof of it. 
 
 To secure to adult females what are called fine 
 figures — which mean waists, shoulders, and hips, 
 quite out of symmetry with each other, and with the 
 rest of the body — the corset-screws are applied to 
 them, while they are young girls, their whole sys- 
 tems being tender, and their bones comparatively 
 soft and flexible. The consequence is, that, when 
 the lacing is tight — and it is always too tight, for 
 there should be none at all of it — 'their ribs, espe- 
 cially the false ones, are pressed inwardly, to such an 
 extent, that their front ends nearly touch each other,- 
 if they do not actually overlap ; whereas, in their 
 natural position, they are wide apart. Even the 
 upper ribs are, at times, so pressed on, as to be flat- 
 tened, or rather straightened, in their lateral arches, 
 
i 18 PHYSICAL EbtiCAtlOtf* 
 
 and protruded forward, carrying along with them the 
 breast-bone, to which they are attached* Thus is 
 the whole trunk of the body altered) in its figure and 
 dimensions^ but not improved. Far from it. All is 
 For the worse, as well in appearance, as effect. 
 The abdominal cavity, being, in this way, preternat- 
 urally straightened in a horizontal direction, its vis- 
 cera are pressed inordinately upward against the di- 
 aphragm. That membrane being thus , forced up- 
 ward also, compresses, in its turn, the lungs, heart, 
 and large blood-vessels, and brings them more or 
 less into collision with the thoracic duct, obstructing 
 in some degree the movement of the chyle. In this 
 forced and unnatural condition of things, all the func- 
 tions of these viscera, so fundamentally necessary, 
 not merely to the well-being of the system, but its 
 very existence, are deranged by compression. Let 
 us glance, in detail, at the mass of mischief thence 
 arising. 
 
 The whole digestive apparatus being impaired in 
 its action, dyspeptic affections follow; neither is a 
 sufficient amount of wholesome chyle formed, nor of 
 bile secreted, both of which are so indispensable to 
 a sound state of the blood, and in other respects -so 
 important to the system ; and the sympathetic influ- 
 ence of the unhealthy organs, on the other parts of 
 the body, is rendered deleterious. Add to this, that 
 the compressed organs themselves, being weakened, 
 are unusually liable to further disease, from the ac- 
 tion of any morbific cause. 
 
 The lungs being enfeebled and deranged, not only 
 
PHYSICAL, EDUCATION, 119 
 
 is respiration defective, and the blood imperfectly 
 matured and vitalized, but they themselves, in com- 
 mon with the stomach, liver, and other associated 
 parts, are in a state of increased liability to additional 
 suffering. Hence homopthisis, pulmonary consump- 
 tion, and dropsy of the chest often ensue, I knew 
 a young female of some distinction, as respected 
 both her mind and family, in the city of New York, 
 who, some years ago, became known, from tight cor- 
 setting, by the name of the ' Lady with the small 
 waist 1' Notwithstanding her good sense in other 
 things, this excited her ambition to render herself 
 still more worthy of the title, and to prevent, if pos- 
 sible, in others, all competition for it. She therefore 
 increased the tightness of her corsets, until she be- 
 came hump-shouldered, and died in consumption. 
 Nor did any one doubt that her corsets were the 
 cause. She was married, and left an infant son, 
 who, from the slenderness of his frame, and the del- 
 icacy of his constitution, is threatened with his moth- 
 er's complaint. He inherits her corset-broken con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Of the heart, the same is true. From its com- 
 pressed and debilitated condition, it becomes affected 
 with palpitation, dropsy, inflammation, or some other 
 malady — perhaps aneurism — and is incompetent 
 to the vigorous circulation of the blood. Hence 
 every portion of the system suffers — the brain and 
 nerves not excepted, they depending, like other 
 organs, on the arterial blood, for their health and 
 power of action. Even the nerves of the organs 
 
120 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 subjected to pressure are mechanically injured. Since 
 the introduction of corsets, as an article of dress, 
 diseases of the heart, among females, are much more 
 frequent than formerly ; and they have been traced 
 to that cause, in innumerable instances. Cases of 
 the kind could be easily cited. Respecting schir- 
 rous and cancerous affections of the breasts, in wo- 
 men advanced in life, the same is true. Those 
 complaints are far more prevalent now, than they 
 were before the present ruinous style of lacing. 
 
 From the foregoing view of their destructive ef- 
 fects on the female system, added to another, which 
 motives of delicacy forbids me to mention,* it is 
 
 * My allusion will be readily understood to be to that dimi- 
 nution of the abdominal cavity, which prevents the full ex- 
 pansion of the gravid uterus. This necessarily diminishes the 
 size and vigor of the foetus, in a corresponding degree, and 
 implants in it the elements of future disease. For unnatural 
 compression can scarcely injure it less before birth, than after 
 it. Premature parturition, is often the effect of this forced 
 and restricted condition of the organs. 
 
 Let me not be told, that females lay aside their corsets, or 
 ioosenthem greatly, during gestation. That matters but little. 
 The damage is already done, and cannot be repaired. The 
 diminution, I mean, of the abdominal cavity is already produced, 
 and rendered permanent, by the pressure of the ribs inwardly, 
 and their having become fully ossified, and fixed in that posi- 
 tion. So confident were the Spartans of the importance at- 
 tached to the full dimension of the abdominal cavity of fe- 
 males, that they prescribed, by law, the form of dress they 
 were to wear, during pregnancy; and its leading feature was 
 its looseness, that it might produce no injurious pressure. I 
 need scarcely add, that the Spartans surpassed the other inhab- 
 itants of Greece, in their size, strength, and hardihood, as well 
 as in their fine personal proportions. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 12 L 
 
 neither unjust nor extravagant, to say of corsets, 
 that they threaten a degeneracy of the human race. 
 And, were they worn by all females, as they are by 
 many, they would as certainly produce it, as an 
 impaired fruit-tree yields faded fruit — and on the 
 same ground. The descendants of tight-corsetting 
 mothers, will never become the luminaries and leaders 
 of the world. The mothers of Alexander and 
 Hannibal, Caesar and Napoleon, never distorted 
 their persons by such a practice. Nor is the whole 
 mischief of those articles yet summed up. 
 
 The straightness of the spinal column depends on 
 tbe strength of the muscles that support it. But 
 those muscles are enfeebled by the pressure of cor- 
 sets. Hence the spine bends and becomes distorted. 
 Instances of crooked spine have been fearfully mul- 
 tiplied in the fashionable female circles of Europe 
 and America, since the beginning of the present 
 century ; while in Greece, Turkey, Persia, Arabia, 
 and other parts of Asia, as well as in Africa, where 
 no tight forms of dress are thought of, it is almost 
 unknown. Nor does it appear among our own 
 countrywomen, whose persons are suffered to retain 
 
 An agriculturist has a stock of beautiful and valuable horses. 
 What effect would he produce on their progeny, by so band- 
 aging the females, when young, as to take from their abdomi- 
 nal cavities a third of their size ? — I answer, deep deteriora- 
 tion. Nor is that produced on the human family, by a similar 
 practice, less striking. Were the higher classes of the inhab- 
 itants of Europe larger and stronger, a few centuries ago, than 
 they are now ? They were not the descendants of corse tted 
 mothers. 
 
 11 
 
122 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 the shape, which God intended for them. This 
 breach of his law, therefore, inflicts the penalty in- 
 curred by the fault. 
 
 It appears, from actual computation, that, of the 
 females, who have been accustomed, from early life, 
 to tight corsetting, nearly one fourth have some un- 
 natural and disfiguring flexure of the spine ! By not 
 a few observers and calculators, the proportion is 
 maintained to be much greater. A Scottish gentle- 
 man, of distinction, assures us, that he has examined 
 about two hundred young females, in fashionable 
 boarding-schools, and that scarcely one of them was 
 free from some sort of corset-injury. Those, whose 
 spines were not distorted, had unsightly effects pro- 
 duced on their shoulder-blades, collar-bones, or 
 some other part of the chest, which stuffing and 
 wadding would be requisite to conceal. Some were 
 hunch-backed, and, in not a few, one shoulder was 
 higher than the other ; effects, which, in our own 
 country, are much more frequent, than is generally 
 suspected. In no individual, was true personal 
 symmetry amended by the practice ; while, in almost 
 every one it was impaired, and, in many, destroyed. 
 In fact, such pressure cannot fail to injure the sym- 
 metry of the trunk, that being its direct tendency. 
 The custom, therefore, is as foreign from correct 
 taste, as from sound philosophy — and I was near 
 saying, from humanity and moral rectitude. 
 
 Woman was not intended to be turned, by artifi- 
 cial means, into an insect, with broad square shoul- 
 ders, and a spindle waist. The latter portion of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 123 
 
 her body was designed to be something more than 
 skin and bone. For her benefit as well as for the 
 elegance of her form, nature has surrounded it with 
 substantial muscles, and cellular tissue, which ought 
 not to be sported with and wasted, in compliance 
 with fashion and a spurious taste. And she may 
 rest assured, that she is not only more healthy, vig- 
 orous, and comfortable, but also an object of greater 
 attraction, with a flexible and fleshy, than with a 
 shrivelled, stiffened, and skinny waist. Nor are the 
 female shoulders broad and square, by nature, which 
 alone gives patterns of real beauty. An attempt to 
 render them so, by art, therefore, is equally repug- 
 nant to correct taste, and sound judgment. Yet, 
 such is the effect of tight corsetting. Preventing the 
 blood from circulating freely through the muscles of 
 the lower part of the trunk, or rather of its middle, 
 it throws it into those of its upper portion, preternat- 
 urally nourishing and enlarging them, and raising and 
 squaring the shoulders, and rendering them pointed. 
 The mere mechanical action of corsets contributes 
 to the latter effect, by forcing upward the muscles 
 of the chest, together with the upper ribs, shoulder- 
 blades, and collar-bones. And time renders the 
 deformity permanent. No woman, who has worn 
 tight corsets, from her girlhood, has, or ever will 
 have, those important parts of her frame in their 
 proper places: they are all more or less dislocated; 
 and the effect produced, is a direct deviation from 
 beauty of form. Burke, in speaking of the fascinat- 
 ing elegance of the female bust, in his treatise on 
 
124 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 the ' Sublime and Beautiful,' gives a description of 
 it extremely different from the bust of a well-corset- 
 ted fashionable, of the present day. His just and 
 glowing picture is made up entirely of easy slopes 
 and graceful curve lines. We have too much now 
 of points, angles, and masculine squarenesses. Yet 
 the female figure, when not put out of shape, is as 
 beautiful now as it was then. Independently of the 
 injury done to health, the personal disfiguration pro- 
 duced by tight corsets, hogshead skirts, and shoulder 
 balloons, is a lasting reproach on the taste of the 
 times. 
 
 It is to man, that nature has given broad, square, 
 and brawny shoulders, and a waist comparatively 
 narrow. And, so far as tight corsets and other arti- 
 cles of dress may avail, woman is usurping his 
 figure. I need scarcely add, that, in grace and 
 beauty of person, which confer on her much of her 
 attractiveness and power, and should therefore be 
 among the cherished objects of her ambition, she is 
 losing greatly by the change. Man submits to 
 woman, and courts her approbation and smiles ; his 
 best affections cling to her, and his arm and life 
 protect her, on account of her womanly qualities. 
 Any thing masculine in her, excites his dissatisfac* 
 tion, not to give the feeling a stronger name. And 
 broad, square shoulders are masculine, suited only 
 to a man, and a virago. There is in them nothing 
 of that delieacy, appeal for protection, and all-sub- 
 duing loveliness, which we instinctively attach to the 
 word feminine. Instead of doing aught, therefore, 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 125 
 
 to create in herself such a form of person, woman 
 should shun it, as she would deformity, of any other 
 kind. 
 
 T have said that tight corsetting, obstructing the 
 free passage of the blood downward, throws it into 
 the superior portion of the trunk. But it does more ; 
 it forces it, in preternatural quantities, but impaired 
 in quality, into the head, and produces there, many 
 forms of disease that are painful and annoying, and 
 some that are dangerous. Among these are head- 
 ache, giddiness, bleeding from the nose, imperfect 
 vision and other affections of the eyes, noise in the 
 ears, convulsions, and apoplexy. Fainting is an- 
 other effect of this preternatural accumulation of 
 blood in the brain, the reason of which is plain. 
 While the corsets are on and laced, a sufficient 
 quantity of blood is sent to the brain, to enable that 
 organ to sustain, by its influence, the heart and mus- 
 cles of voluntary motion, and hold them to their func- 
 tions. As soon, however, as the corsets are unlaced, 
 the blood forsakes the brain, in part, and flows natur- 
 ally through its downward channels. The conse- 
 quence is obvious. The brain being thus enfeebled, 
 for want of the blood necessary for its vitality, and 
 the functions it performs, and its invigorating influ- 
 ence being no longer extended to the system gener- 
 ally, the heart and muscles fail in their action, and 
 the individual faints. This occurrence takes place 
 on the same ground with fainting from venesection, 
 or any other form of hemorrhagy. Too much blood 
 is withdrawn from the brain. That viscus is de- 
 ll* 
 
126 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 priveeL of course, of much of its own vitality and 
 power to act. Nor is this all. It is deprived, also, 
 of much of the material, from which it prepares its 
 sustaining influence, for the body generally. For 
 whatever the matter of cerebral influence may be,, 
 it is prepared from the blood, as certainly as bile and 
 saliva are. 
 
 Almost all females who lace tightly, complain of 
 weakness, when their corsets are removed ; and 
 many of them are obliged to assume a horizontal 
 posture, to escape asphyxia. Worse still. Some 
 are compelled to wear their corsets, as a part of their 
 night-dress ! Even a horizontal posture, does not 
 secure them from a tendency to faint. This is so 
 deplorable a condition, that the practice which in- 
 duces it, involves criminality. Many acts are called 
 felonious, and made punishable by law, which, con- 
 trasted with it, are innocent. By permitting it, 
 parents, especially mothers, assume a responsibility, 
 which might well make them tremble. They are 
 accessory to its consequences, however fatal. In- 
 deed, possessing, as they do, full powers of preven- 
 tion, they should be considered principals. 
 
 Perhaps all females, who wear corsets, though 
 they may not faint on removing them, nor even feel 
 a tendency to that effect, complain of uneasiness and 
 debility in the back, or some other part of the trunk. 
 The reason is plain. The muscles of the part being 
 weakened by pressure, require the continuance of it, 
 as the sot does the stimulus of his dram,, to give 
 them tone and strength sufficient to sustain the 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 127 
 
 weight of the body, in an erect position. Hence the 
 individual bends the trunk ungracefully ; and, unless 
 vigor of the muscles be restored, she is threatened 
 with a spinal curvature. * 
 
 Even beauty of countenance is impaired, and, in 
 time, destroyed, by tight corsets. Do you ask me 
 in what way ? I answer, that those instruments of 
 mischief wither in the complexion, the freshness of 
 health, and substitute for it the sallowness of dis- 
 ease — on the spots, where the rose and the ruby 
 had shed their lustre, they pour bile, and sprinkle 
 ashes. They do still more, and worse. They dap- 
 ple the cheek with unsightly blotches, convert its 
 fine cuticle into a motley scurf, blear the eyes, dis- 
 color the teeth, and dissolve them by caries, and tip 
 
 * Many women of intelligence and experience are inclined 
 to believe, that some form of bracing around the female waist 
 is, if not essential, highly useful, in giving support to the body, 
 and maintaining its erect posture. This is a mistake. Such 
 artificial support is required, only as a consequence of disease, 
 or from the debilitated condition of the muscles, by previous 
 tight lacing. True, — the muscles of the female body are fee- 
 bler than those of the male. But, corresponding to this, the 
 weight of the body is less. In consequence of this fitness, 
 the trunk of woman requires, by nature, no more artificial aid 
 to keep it straight, than the trunk of man. Hence the elegance 
 of the female form, in Georgia, Circasia, and other parts of 
 Asia where tightness of dress is unfashionable and unknown. 
 The necessity of corsets, therefore, to sustain the person, arises 
 from the misfortune of having ever worn them. And, unless 
 the practice be abandoned, that misfortune, like other consti- 
 tutional defects, will pass from mother to daughter, in an in- 
 creasing ratio, until it shall result in a fearful degeneracy of 
 our race. 
 
128 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 the nose with cranberry red. That effects of this 
 description often result from gastric and hepatic de- 
 rangement, every practitioner of medicine knows. 
 And it has been already shown, that such derange- 
 ment is produced by corsets. 
 
 But those articles make still more fatal havoc of 
 female beauty, by imprinting on the countenance — 
 not premature wrinkles — that could be borne — but 
 marks of the decay of mental beauty — I mean deep 
 and indelible lines of peevishness, fretfulness, and 
 ill-temper, the bitter result of impaired health. No 
 form of indisposition so incurably ruins the temper of 
 woman, as that which prematurely destroys her beau- 
 ty, especially if she feels conscious that her own in- 
 discretions have been instrumental in its production. 
 To the truth of this, experience testifies. Indepen- 
 dently, moreover, of their cause, no other complaints 
 pour into the temper such acerbity and bitterness, as 
 those of the digestive organs. This is also the re- 
 sult of experience. Man, but more especially wo- 
 man, bears fever, pulmonary consumption, fractures, 
 wounds, and other forms of injury and disease, with 
 a patience and mildness, which, if they do not im- 
 prove her personal beauty, increase her loveliness, 
 and add tenfold to the sympathy and sorrow felt for 
 her suffering. But dyspeptic affections, especially, 
 I repeat, if a busy and tormenting consciousness 
 whispers hourly into her ear, that she has herself 
 contributed to their production, by a practice she 
 might have avoided, and of the ruinous effects of 
 which she was repeatedly warned — complaints of 
 this description are submitted to, by her, in a differ- 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 129 
 
 ent spirit. She becomes irritable, capricious, gloomy, 
 and full of complaints and fearful imaginings. Un- 
 happy in herself, she seems, in contradiction with 
 her nature, to forget or disregard the happiness of 
 others, and does not even shrink from proving the 
 bane of it. I intend not these remarks, as a censure 
 on woman. Far from it. I mean them as a denun- 
 ciation — and would that it were exterminating — of 
 the abominable practice, that destroys her peace, 
 and mars her loveliness. 
 
 Under this head, I shall only add, that, in the 
 higher walks of life, our fair countrywomen, espe- 
 cially in the Southern States, are more delicate and 
 feeble in constitution, and therefore less robust in 
 health, than they are in Europe — more so, certainly, 
 than they are in Great Britain, France, or Germany, 
 The slenderness of their frames, and the semi-pal- 
 lidness of their complexions testify to this. It is 
 noticed by all strangers of observation, and cannot 
 be otherwise regarded, than as an evil, ominous of 
 the degeneracy of our descendants. Women con- 
 stitutionally feeble cannot be the mothers of a vig- 
 orous offspring. There is reason to fear, that this 
 fragile delicateness will, by means of a spurious 
 taste, pass into an element of female beauty, in the 
 United States ; and that will render it a national 
 evil to endure for ages. That this will be the case, 
 is not to be doubted, unless the proper remedy be 
 applied. Nor is that remedy unknown, of difficult 
 application, or dubious effect. It consists in a well- 
 directed physical education. That that will remove 
 the evil, appears from the fact, that the females of our 
 
130 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 country, in the middle and lower ranks of life, who 
 take sufficient exercise in the open air, and do not 
 injure themselves by their modes of dress, are as 
 healthy and vigorous as any in the world. No man 
 of taste wishes to see our highly-cultivated women, 
 with milk-maid complexions, or harvest-field persons. 
 But had they a little more of both than they now 
 possess, they would be not only more comfortable 
 in themselves, but more lovely in the eyes of others. 
 In the European countries referred to, cultivated fe- 
 males neither house themselves so much, nor marry 
 at so early an age, as they do in the United States. 
 Hence their health is better, and their frames stronger. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Before I close my discourse, allow me to exhibit 
 to you two figures. No. I. is a correct outline of 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 131 
 
 the Venus de Medici, the beau ideal of female sym- 
 metry, and No. II. that of a well-corsetted modern 
 beauty. And it might be sufficient comment, sim- 
 ply to say, ' Look on this picture, and on this.' One 
 has an artificial insect waist ; the other the natural 
 waist of woman. One has sloping and graceful 
 shoulders; while the shoulders of the other are 
 comparatively elevated, square, and angular. The 
 proportion of the corsetted female below the waist 
 is also a departure from the symmetry of nature. 
 
 Suppose two statues, as large as life, accurately 
 executed, one of them resembling the ancient, and 
 the other the modern beauty ; which would be pre- 
 ferred, even by the taste of the present day ? The 
 question requires no reply. A suitable answer rises 
 spontaneously in the mind of every one. The mod- 
 ern statue would be pronounced ' deformity' — per- 
 haps a ( fright ;' the other a miracle of beauty. And 
 the decision would be just. 
 
 1 know of but one other custom, so perfectly cal- 
 culated to produce a degeneracy of the human race,, 
 as that of contracting the dimensions of the waist 
 of woman, weakening her constitution, and distorting 
 her spine ; and even that is, in some respects, less 
 injurious. I allude to the practice of the Caribs, 
 the most brutal and ferocious tribe of American In- 
 dians, in flattening their heads. Nor does the cus- 
 tom of the savage produce deformity more real, than 
 that of the civilized and fashionable female. Yet 
 the effects of the one are looked on with professed 
 admiration ; while those of the other are regarded 
 
132 PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 with horror. Compared to either of them, the prac- 
 tice of the Chinese ladies, as already stated, in dis- 
 figuring their feet and ancles, is taste and innocence. 
 
 Finally. — One of the leading benefits to be be- 
 stowed on our race, by Physical Education judicious- 
 ly practised, and carried to the requisite extent, is 
 the production and preservation of a well-adjusted 
 balance, not only between the different portions of 
 the brain, but of the whole body. Few persons, if 
 any at all, bring into life with them, a system per- 
 fectly balanced, in all its parts. Some organs pre- 
 dominate in size and strength, while others are com- 
 paratively small and feeble. This is a tendency to 
 disease, and can be removed or amended, only by 
 competent training. Let it never be forgotten, that 
 the proper exercise of a part, and that alone, in- 
 creases both its bulk and power, and, at the same 
 time, diminishes any excess of sensitiveness it may 
 possess. And this is precisely what small and feeble 
 parts require, to place them on a par with others, 
 and secure their health. To illustrate my meaning, 
 and show it to be true : — 
 
 Is the chest of a boy narrow, and are his lungs 
 weak and irritable ? Let those parts be habitually 
 exercised, according to the directions already given, 
 and such a change may be produced in him, as will 
 give an equipoise to his body, and prevent disease. 
 His chest and lungs may be enlarged, not a little, 
 and as well secured from complaints, as his other 
 organs. From the free and constant exercise which 
 their calling gives to their arms, shoulders, and 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 133 
 
 thoracic walls and viscera. London boatmen have 
 large chests, and are strangers to consumption. The 
 loud and habitual call, moreover, by which they an- 
 nounce their business, and solicit employment, aids 
 in the development and strengthening of their lungs. 
 From these causes, though perpetually exposed to 
 the damp and chilling air of the Thames, they rarely 
 experience any form of pectoral disease. 
 
 Of every small and feeble part of the system the 
 same is true. A judicious scheme of training will 
 enlarge and strengthen it. But hereditary predis- 
 position lo disease is nothing else than the want of 
 an equipoise between all the different portions of 
 the body. Some organs being comparatively weak 
 and sensitive, are prematurely prone to actual de- 
 rangement. By well directed exercise, therefore, 
 continued through successive generations, may every 
 predisposition of the kind be eradicated. 
 
 Such is the best outline of my views of Physical 
 Education, that my other engagements have allowed 
 me to prepare. Sensible of its imperfections, but 
 unable at present to remove or lessen them, I must 
 throw it, for acceptance, on the indulgence of those 
 to whom it has been presented. 
 12