ately concerns him; and by this plan you will find him
capable of perception, memory, and even reasoning; this is the order of
nature.[16] In proportion as a creature endowed with sensation becomes
active, it acquires discernment suited to its powers, and the surplus
of strength needed to preserve it is absolutely necessary in developing
that speculative faculty which uses the same surplus for other ends.
If, then, you mean to cultivate your pupil's understanding, cultivate
the strength it is intended to govern. Give him constant physical
exercise; make his body sound and robust, that you may make him wise
and reasonable. Let him be at work doing something; let him run,
shout, be always in motion; let him be a man in vigor, and he will the
sooner become one in reason.

You would indeed make a mere animal of him by this method if you are
continually directing him, and saying, "Go; come; stay; do this; stop
doing that." If your head is always to guide his arm, his own head
will be of no use to him. But recollect our agreement; if you are a
mere pedant, there is no use in your reading what I write.

To imagine that physical exercise injures mental operations is a
wretched mistake; the two should move in unison, and one ought to
regulate the other.

My pupil, or rather nature's pupil, trained from the first to depend as
much as possible on himself, is not continually running to others for
advice. Still less does he make a display of his knowledge. On the
other hand, he judges, he foresees, he reasons, upon everything that
immediately concerns him; he does not prate, but acts. He is little
informed as to what is going on in the world, but knows very well what
he ought to do, and how to do it. Incessantly in motion, he cannot
avoid observing many things, and knowing many effects. He early gains
a wide experience, and takes his lessons from nature, not from men. He
instructs himself all the better for discovering nowhere any intention
of instructing him. Thus, at the same time, body and mind are
exercised. Always carrying out his own ideas, and not another
person's, two processes are simultaneously going on within him. As he
grows robust and strong, he becomes intelligent and judicious.

In this way he will one day have those two excellences,--thought
incompatible indeed, but characteristic of nearly all great
men,--strength of body and strength of mind, the reason of a sage and
the vigor of an athlete.

I