inoculation of the
spirit in which they ought to be played. It is absolutely necessary
that the highest ideals connected with games should be handed down,
for thus the children who perhaps do not always have the highest
ideals before them in real life may learn through this mimic warfare
how the battle of life must be fought and what are the characters of
mind and body that deserve and ensure success. It has been well said
that those who make the songs of a nation help largely to make its
character, and equally surely those who teach and control the games of
the adolescents are making or marring a national destiny.

Among the means of physical and moral advancement may be claimed
gymnastics. And here, alas, this nation can by no means claim to be
_facile princeps_. Not only have we been relatively slow in adopting
properly systematised exercises, but even to the present day the
majority of elementary schools are without properly fitted gymnasia
and duly qualified teachers. The small and relatively poor
Scandinavian nations have admirably fitted gymnasia in connection with
their _Folkschule_, which correspond to our elementary schools. The
exercises are based on those systematised by Ling; each series is
varied, and is therefore the more interesting, and each lesson
commences with simple, easily performed movements, leading on to those
that are more elaborate and fatiguing, and finally passing through a
descending series to the condition of repose.

The gymnasia where such exercises are taught in England are relatively
few and far between, and it is lamentable to find that many excellent
and well-appointed schools for children, whose parents pay large sums
of money for their education, have no properly equipped gymnasia nor
adequately trained teachers. When the question is put, "How often do
you have gymnastics at your school?" the answer is frequently, "We
have none," or, "Half an hour once a week." Exercises such as Ling's
not only exercise every muscle in the body in a scientific and
well-regulated fashion, but being performed by a number of pupils at
once in obedience to words of command, discipline, co-operation,
obedience to teachers, and loyalty to comrades, are taught at the same
time. The deepest interest attaches to many of the more complex
exercises, while some of them make large demands on the courage and
endurance of the young people.

In Scandinavia the State provides knickerbockers, tunics, and
gymnasi