PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.
Boys—Above all things endeavor to be "manly." Canadians are rapidly taking their place in all athletic competitions. Our oarsmen, swimmers, runners, fencers, and athletes generally, will compare favorably with the best the world can produce ; while in lacrosse, cricket, baseball, lawn tennis, and other games, we frequently take the lead. In order to become an athlete, it is absolutely necessary that all kinds of intemperance and excesses should be avoided. When possible, the morning bath in cold water, immediately on rising, should begin the clay's exercises ; a handful or two of salt thrown into the water will prevent your taking cold ; rub vigorously with a coarse Turkish towel, until the body and limbs are in a healthy glow. If time permits, a short Walk before breakfast will restore the circulation and produce a keen appetite for the morning meal.
For the development of the chest, the horizontal bar is very valuable. Constant practice will enable you to increase the number of times you can breast the bar consecutively without touching the ground, when suspended at arms' length. The author, after four years' practice, was able to do this twenty-seven times without resting. Nature permits no vacuum, and as this exercise tends to expand the chest, the lungs are proportionately inflated. Some of my pupils have been able to increase their chest measurement fully four inches by this method of training.
Rowing machines, dumb-bells, Indian clubs, parallel bars, and other gymnastic appliances, when used regularly, all contribute to the development of the human frame. These, however, must be used
systematically, and not spasmodically, in order to obtain any actual benefit. The following anecdote may here prove interesting. Shortly after the Declaration of Independence by the American Colonists, the officials of a Nev England college asked permission from a celebrated Indian chief to train six boys belonging to his tribe. This permission was readily granted, the boys remaining under their white tutors five or six years. Shortly after their return to their own tribe, the Indian chief appeared at the white settlement. "Friends," said he, "we are grateful for your intended kindness, but when our boys came back to us they were poor runners, unable endure fatigue ; poor hunters, unskilled in the use of the bow and arrow ; and were entirely unfit for life in the woods. To show our appreciation of your kindness, however, I would ask you, in the name of my tribe, to let us have a number of your boys, for several years,. that we may make men of them." While I would not underrate the value of education, still we must remember that " All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Wellington used to say that the school play-ground was the nucleus from which Great Britain drew her heroes. The same may be said of every nation.