the attainment of control over the limbs of the
body reach their full functional activity before, _e.g._, the centres
having control of the lips and speech. The centres, again, which have to
do with the co-ordination of the sensory material derived through the
particular senses are still longer in reaching their full functional
activity, while the higher intellectual centres may not reach their
highest power until well on in life. Hence, since education is the
process of acquiring experiences that shall modify future activity, it
can do little positively to aid the development of the lowest centres;
it can do more to modify the development of the middle centres; while
the highest centres of all are in great part organised as the result of
direct individual experience.

As regards the systems of the lowest level, what we have then to aim at
is to allow them free room for growth, and to correct as far as possible
faults due either to the imperfections of nature or to the unnatural
conditions under which the child lives. So long as these systems are
provided with nutrition and allowed freedom in performing their
functions, we are unaware of their existence. We, _e.g._, only become
aware that we possess a circulatory system or a respiratory or a
digestive system when the functional activity of these organs is
impeded. The opinion, therefore, that physical exercise has for its
chief aim the sustaining and improving of the bodily health is no doubt
true and correct, but it is not the only aim. On this view we are
considering only the lowest system of centres, and devising means by
which we may maintain and improve their functional activity. Moreover,
it is necessary to endeavour to secure the free development of these
centres and their unimpeded functional activity, because otherwise the
development of the higher centres is hindered, and the whole nervous
system rendered unstable and insecure.

But a wise system of physical education must take into account the fact
that a carefully selected and organised system of exercises can do much
for the development of the centres of the middle level which have to do
with the proper co-ordination of various bodily movements. These are
only partly organised at birth, and education--the acquiring and
organising of experiences--is necessary for their due organisation and
their adaptation as systems of means for the attainment of definite
ends. It is for this reason that the beginning of t