IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL EXERCISES.
Education may be divided into two parts, physical and mental. Of the former, Exercises or Gymnastics are the most extensive and the earliest portion.
Their extent is learnt by an enumeration of them, viz., Walking, Running, Leaping, Vaulting, Pole-leaping, Balancing, Skating, Carrying, Climbing, and Swimming. We have added Throwing the Discus; and, in a course of British Exercises, we think Rowing, Sailing, Riding, and Driving, would be very improperly omitted.
The object of these Exercises is to strengthen the muscular system, by subjecting it to a regular process of training, and to teach the means of employing it most advantageously. The expediency of their early acquisition is rendered evident by the first tendency of youth being directed to them, by the rapid progress made in them, and by the delight derived from them, at a period when the body is incapable, with real or solid advantage, of higher acquirements.
Their general utility will be questioned only by those who are not aware that the health and vigour of all the bodily organs depend on the proportioned exercise of each. In active exertion, the member exercised swells with the more frequent and more copious flow of blood, and heat is developed in it with greater abundance; and if we repeat the same motions many times after intervals of repose, all the muscles exercised become permanently developed; a perfection of action ensues in the member exercised, which it did not previously possess, any deformity by which it is affected is corrected, and strength and activity are acquired. That man, therefore, gains the most strength who engages in muscular exercises that require the application of much power, but which are sufficiently separated by intervals of repose.
It must be remembered, however, that, in exercising particular muscles only, the others become weak. The strength of Marshal Saxe was sufficiently great to stop a chariot drawn at speed by four horses, by merely seizing the wheel: he bent pieces of silver with his fingers, made them into boats as he would with paper, and presented them to the ladies. Count Orloff, a Russian general, broke the shoe of a carriage horse in the same manner; and there are innumerable examples of similar feats of extraordinary strength.
Active exercises, at the same time, confer beauty of form; and they even contribute to impart an elegant air and graceful manners. If the exercise of a limb be continued for some time, the member swells, a painful sensation is experienced, which is termed lassitude, and a difficulty of contraction, which is the result of it. If the motion has been excessive, and the organic elements in the member have been acted upon beyond all physiological laws, inflammation would take place, and its functions be performed with great difficulty, if at all.
Such are the effects of exercise on the locomotive system, to all the functions of animated beings, so long as they are exercised with moderation, equality, and at due intervals, working for their own preservation. Of course, the general effect of active exercises is marked in proportion to the number of parts that share in the motion, or are brought into energetic action. In general exercise, the increase of organic action is not confined solely to the parts which are the seat of muscular contraction, but is repeated throughout all parts of the economy, and influences all the functions.
Thus, as to the vital or nutritive system, exercises taken when digestion is not going on, excite the digestive faculty: taken during its progress, they disorder that function. The arterial and venous circulations become more rapid by active exercise, which concludes by giving greater force to the tissue of the heart. It is the same with respiration and calorification. The same takes place with regard to nutrition, a function which exercise increases, not only in the muscles in movement, as we have just seen, but also in the bones, ligaments, vessels, and nerves.
By inducing cutaneous exhalation, it promotes the expulsion of injurious agents, produces a fresh colour in persons who may have become pale through a sedentary life, and, to a certain extent, renders the human constitution, by means of habit, proof against the action of surrounding objects. The local effects of excessive action, or those which take place in the members themselves, are, as before observed, inflammation of the muscles, rheumatism, like that arising from cold, and inflammation of the serous articular membranes. The general effects of excessive exercise may, in the same manner as all physical and moral stimulants, exhaust the vital faculties too quickly, communicate too much rigidity to the fibres, render the vessels varicose, bring on chronic rheumatism, destroy the freshness of the skin, blight the flower of youth, and produce old age and death before the time ordained by nature.
Ancient writers inform us that it was a rare thing to meet with athletes, who, having signalized themselves from their earliest youth in gymnastic combats, were of so excellent a constitution as to be able, when they had reached a more advanced age, to acquire the same honours on contending for the prize with grown men. Aristotle assures us, that amongst the conquerors in the Olympic Games, not more than two or three at the most could be found to whom nature had granted such an advantage.
In relation to the mental or thinking system, “every movement,” says Cabanis, “becomes in its turn the principle or occasion of new impressions, of which the frequent repetition and the varied character must increase more and more the circle of our judgments, or tend unceasingly to rectify them. It hence follows that labour, giving to this word the most general signification, cannot but have an influence infinitely useful on the habits of the understanding, and consequently also on those of the will.” This argument is evidently applicable to varied exercise. On the contrary, “the great division of labour, so favourable to the perfecting of the arts, contracts more and more the understanding of workmen.” Exercises, moreover, inspire confidence in difficult situations, and suggest resources in danger. Their consequent influence upon the moral conduct of man is such, that, by a courage which is well founded, because it springs from a perfect knowledge of his own powers, he is often enabled to render the most important services to others.
Although the direct effect of exercise is not only to confer power on the muscular and other organs, but to multiply external impressions, and to occupy with them all the senses at once; still minds thus disposed, in general occupy themselves rather with objects of imagination and sentiment, than with those which demand more complicated operation. The sense of muscular power impresses determinations which, carrying man perpetually out of himself, scarcely permit him to dwell upon impressions transmitted to his brain. The only action of that organ, during these exercises, seems to be limited to ordering the movements.
Hence, exercise, especially taken in the open air, amidst new and varied objects of sight, is not favourable to reflection—to labours which demand the assemblage and concentration of all the powers of the mind. It is, on the contrary, in the absence of external impressions, that we become more capable of seizing many relations, and of following a long train of purely abstract reasoning. As life spent chiefly in active muscular exercises would leave in a state of repose those central organs that are subservient to the moral qualities and intellectual faculties, I agree with Seneca and Camper, in proscribing all such exercises, or such degrees of exercise, as would exhaust the mind, and render man incapable of aptitude in science, polite literature, and art.
The cultivation of bodily strength, in preference to every thing else, would establish only the right of the strongest, as it is found to exist in the origin of society. To cultivate the faculties of the mind exclusively, would produce only the weakness of sentiment or excess of passion. There is, for every individual, a means of making all these dispositions act in harmony; and the due blending of physical and moral education alone can produce it. Let it be remembered that young persons will much more easily be withdrawn from the application they ought to pay to the study of the sciences, by insipid recreations and trifling games, than by the fatiguing exercises necessary for their developement and the preservation of their health, which, however, habit soon renders easy and delightful. To what vices do not a sedentary life and the practice of gaming give rise?—whilst well-regulated exercises excite ambition to excel, and energy in the performance of every duty.
The philosophers of antiquity, such as Aristotle and Plato, regarded gymnastic exercises as of vast importance, and considered a state defective and badly organized where these exercises were not instituted. Colleges, called Gymnasia, were therefore established everywhere, and superintended by distinguished masters. Accordingly, the illustrious men of the Grecian and Roman republics, even those who shone in literature and the fine arts, received the same physical education. The gymnastic exercises which are here recommended are not intended to produce athletes, but to strengthen the human constitution. One exercise gives solidity, another address; and we may even say that the various kinds of exercise are sometimes opposed to each other. The strongest peasant is far from being the best runner; and the most vigorous dancer would probably be deficient in strength. There is, however, a mean to be found in the disposition of every individual to preserve both skill and strength, and this is what ought to be sought. For this purpose, it will suffice to practise young persons a few hours every day, sometimes at one exercise, and sometimes at another.