er. It is no longer the spontaneous activity of an unreasoning
existence; it is the resistance and attack of intelligence itself with
which he has to deal. Fighting, or single combat, is the truly
chivalrous exercise, and this may be combined with horsemanship.

--In the single combat there is found also a qualitative modification,
whence we have three systems: (_a_) boxing and wrestling; (_b_) fencing
with sticks; and (_c_) rapier and broad-sword fencing. In the first,
which was cultivated to its highest point among the Greeks, direct
immediateness rules. In the boxing of the English, a sailor-like
propensity of this nation, fist-fighting is still retained as a custom.
Fencing with a stick is found among the French mechanics, the so-called
_compagnons_. Men often use the cane in their contests; it is a sort of
refined club. When we use the sword or rapier, the weapon becomes
deadly. The Southern Europeans excel in the use of the rapier, the
Germans in that of the sword. But the art of single combat is much
degenerated, and the pistol-duel, through its increasing frequency,
proves this degeneration.--

THIRD CHAPTER.

_Sexual Education._

NOTE.--The paragraphs relating to Sexual Education are
designed for parents rather than for teachers, the parent
being the natural educator of the family and sexual
education relating to the preservation and continuance of
the family. This chapter is accordingly, for the most
part, omitted here. It contains judicious reflections,
invaluable to parents and guardians.--_Tr._

Sec. 72. Gymnastic exercises fall naturally into a systematic arrangement
determined by the chronological order of development through infancy,
childhood, and youth. Walking, running, and leaping belong, to the first
period; lifting, swinging, and throwing, to the second; swimming,
riding, and bodily contests, to the third, and these last may also be
continued into manhood. But with the arrival at youth, a new epoch makes
its appearance in the organism. It prepares itself for the propagation
of the species. It expands the individual through the need which he
feels of uniting himself with another individual of the same species,
but who is a polar opposite to him, in order to preserve the two in a
new individual. The blood rushes more vigorously; the muscular strength
becomes more easily roused into activity; an indefinable impulse, a
sweet melancholy takes possession of the being. This period