LESSON XXIII
Exercise and Re-creation
EXERCISE
Civilization prevents the play instinct
The child from the time it begins to walk until it is ten or twelve years old, or until the pressing hand of necessity forces upon it the power of restraining duty, will in a great measure obey the play instinct or the natural laws of exercise. However, our complex industrial organism forces most of us into its vortex at the very time we are beginning to change the body from the youth to the adult, and the responsibilities with which we are laden, the struggles we carry on, prevent the majority from giving attention to and maintaining a system of development exercises which is so vitally important, and which would provide a great store-house of energy to be drawn upon in after years. Inasmuch, therefore, as the conditions under which we exist prevent the free play of our instincts, and the exercise of our natural desire for certain kinds of play or motion, it becomes necessary for us to devise a method of overcoming the repressing influences that crush out the play instinct of civilized man.
CONSTRUCTIVE EXERCISES
Constructive period of life from ages 15 to 25