s
practice on a truer conception of the relations between mind and body.
The greater part of the body is composed of muscles, and it is with
muscles that physical training is concerned. On our principles, then,
any system of physical training worth a straw must have primary
reference to the brain, since the body, including the muscles, is only
the servant of the ego or self which resides in the brain. For this
reason, if for no other, the development of muscle as an end in itself
is beneath human dignity; the value of a muscle lies not in its size or
strength, but in its capacity to be a useful and skilful agent of the
brain.

The exceptions to this rule are furnished by precisely those muscles
which the usual forms of physical training and gymnastics ignore and
subordinate to the development of the muscles of the limbs. It does
matter very much that man or woman shall have the heart, which is the
most important muscle in the body, and the muscles of respiration in
good order. These muscles are directly necessary for life, and are
therefore servants of the brain, even though they are not in any
appreciable degree the direct agents of its purposes. Any kind of
physical exercise then which, while developing the muscles of the arm,
for instance, throws undue strain upon the heart or involves the
fixation of the chest for a considerable period--as occurs in various
feats of strength, whether with weights or upon bars or the like--is
_ipso facto_ to be condemned. It is now recognized that in the training
of soldiers much harm is often done in this way to the essential
muscles, while others, more conspicuous but of relatively no importance,
are being developed.

But before we consider in detail what kinds of exercise and with what
accompaniment may be permitted for the muscles of the limbs, it is well
that we should agree upon some method of deciding as to the quantity of
such exercise. We cannot go by such measures as hours per week, for
individuals vary. We must find some criterion which will guide us for
each individual. The pendulum has swung in this regard from one extreme
to another. Both extremes were adopted and permitted because in our
guidance of girlhood we ignored facts of physiology, and, notably,
because educators had not a clear conception of what it was that they
desired to attain. By the consent of all who have given any attention to
the subject, the great educational reformer of the nineteenth century
was