cities. Among the mountains, and even in the country
towns, a special institution for bodily exercise is less necessary, for
the matter takes care of itself. The attractions of the situation and
the games help to foster it. In great cities, however, the houses are
often destitute of halls or open places where the children can take
exercise in their leisure moments. In these cities, therefore, there
must be some gymnastic hall where the sense of fellowship may be
developed. Gymnastics are not so essential for girls. In its place,
dancing is sufficient, and gymnastics should be employed for them only
where there exists any special weakness or deformity, when they may be
used as a restorative or preservative. They are not to become Amazons.
The boy, on the contrary, needs to acquire the feeling of
good-fellowship. It is true that the school develops this in a measure,
but not fully, because it determines the standing of the boy through his
intellectual ambition. The academical youth will not take much interest
in special gymnastics unless he can gain preeminence therein. Running,
leaping, climbing, and lifting, are too meaningless for their more
mature spirits. They can take a lively interest only in the exercises
which have a warlike character. With the Prussians, and some other
German states, the art of Gymnastics identifies itself with military
concerns.--

Sec. 67. The real idea of Gymnastics must always be that the spirit shall
rule over its naturalness, and shall make this an energetic and docile
servant of its will. Strength and adroitness must unite and become
confident skill. Strength, carried to its extreme produces the athlete;
adroitness, to its extreme, the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both. All
immense force, fit only for display, must be held as far away as the
idea of teaching Gymnastics with the motive of utility; e.g. that by
swimming one may save his life when he falls into the water, &c. Among
other things, this may also be a consequence; but the principle in
general must always remain: the necessity of the spirit of subjecting
its organism of the body to the condition of a perfect means, so that it
may never find itself limited by it.

Sec. 68. Gymnastic exercises form a series from simple to compound. There
appears to be so much arbitrariness in them that it is always very
agreeable to the mind to find, on nearer inspection, some reason. The
movements are (1) of the lower, (2) of the upper extremit