lar of Dr. Jahn, in the principal gymnasium, at Berlin; and has also, for a considerable time past, superintended the department of gymnastics, at the school of Messieurs Cogswell and Bancroft, at Northampton, which has obtained so deserved a reputation. As he is a man of talent and learning, we may have confidence in the correctness of his notions on this branch of education. We see with pleasure a work in our own language on this subject; for we doubt not that it will contribute to give to the culture of our physical powers, a more prominent place in the education of youth.

We have selected the above-mentioned book, as the basis of some observations on gymnastics, intending to speak of points which have hitherto been treated not at all, or very slightly. The whole system of modern gymnastics, is of so late a date, that we cannot reasonably expect it to be fully developed.

Before entering on the principal subject of our remarks, we have thought it might be not uninteresting to our readers, to have a short historical sketch of the gymnastic art; more particularly the modern, which, like so many other institutions of our times, had its origin in the great revolution of things, which has of late years taken place in Europe.

The word gymnastics, is sometimes used in a very wide sense, embracing all bodily exercises, which may be most conveniently divided into-1. Military exercises: 2. Exercises systematically adapted to develop the physical powers, and preserve them in perfection, which constitute the art of gymnastics, properly so called: 3. Exercises for the sick.

We shall speak principally of the second branch, and offer some remarks upon the third. The ancients divided their gymnastics into-1. Gymnastica militaria: 2. Gymnastica medica, including under this head our second and third classes; and gymnastica athletica, or, as Galenas calls them, vitiosa, which were practised by professional athletes at the gymnastic festivals; and were in bad repute among many reflecting men in those times, on account of their injurious effects on the health and morals. We have nothing to do with these in later times; but may consider them as falling under our second division.

Gymnastics, considered as an art which has for its object the development of the frame, and the establishment of the health, have their origin in the exercises of war, and the chase. As soon as man begins to hunt, or fight, he perceives the advantage of preparing himself for both pursuits, by appropriate exercises in his leisure hours. In fact, hunting itself is often pursued by nations, at an early stage of their progress, as preparatory to war. The Spartans and American Indians, might be cited as instances. It is more doubtful at what time gymnastics began to be methodically cultivated. The ancients themselves do not inform us;

nor is this strange-for the system must have been slowly matured. The difficulty is of the same sort, as that which would attend the inquiry, at what time architecture began to rise from a merely useful, to a beautiful art. The art of gymnastics, may be considered as having had its origin at the time when it was adopted as a branch of education, or when the first gymnasium was erected; but of the date of this event, we are ignorant. We find it first existing in a systematic form among the Greeks. Other nations, indeed, practised military exercises; and some, for instance, the Persians, had a few which were taught to the young; but the Greeks alone reduced gymnastics to an organized system. The first notice which we have of Greek gymnastics, is, as far as we recollect, Homer's account of Achilles engaged in athletic sports with his followers. They run, wrestle, whirl the sling, and throw the discus. These games were probably practised, sometimes as useful exercises, at other times for amusement, like the ludi castrenses of the Romans. We read in Suetonius,* that even combats of wild beasts were sometimes exhibited in the Roman camps. These shows, considering the distance to which the Roman armies were often led from home, and the difficulties by which they were surrounded, had perhaps the same object as the sports introduced by Captain Parry among his sailors, when frozen up in the Arctic Ocean.

The first gymnasium is said to have been established in Sparta; while in Athens, always disposed to mingle the element of the beautiful in whatever she undertook, gymnastics were refined from the rude military character which they had among the Spartans, into an art; and the gymnasia became temples of the Graces. They are known to have existed at Athens, in the time of Solon; and we find among his laws, one which makes stealing in a gymnasium a capital crime. In the time of Plato, Athens contained five gymnasia, three of which were very famous. The Athenian gymnasia were not merely places of exercise for the young, but drew to their halls, porticos, and baths, the men of leisure, and the philosophers, with their followers, as well as the teachers of other arts; for instance, music and declamation. The most celebrated gymnasia, it is well known, were the academy where Plato taught, from which his school of philosophy takes its name, the lyceum where Aristotle lectured, and the kynosargy.

The one of most reputation in Sparta was called Craneum. All the gymnasia of the ancients were public institutions, provided with officers of various sorts, for the maintenance of order, and the conduct of instruction, together with teachers of the several exercises. Perhaps the Sophronists deserve particular mention.

Tiberius, 72.

These were officers chosen by the people, to preserve decorum; the more needed, inasmuch as the exercises were carried on naked; and the laws, even in the time of Solon, show that many improprieties were to be guarded against. The reader, who wishes to gain more particular information respecting the plan of the ancient gymnasia, must read Vitruvius, lib. v. Pausanias speaks obscurely of the manner in which these establishments were laid out. In every gymnasium there was a place called the palæstra, in which wrestling, boxing, running, leaping, throwing the discus, and other exercises of this kind, were taught, which were comprised under the name of névrahov. Gymnastics were afterwards divided into two principal branches-the palæstric, taking its name from the palæstra, and the orchestric. The former embraced the whole class of athletic exercises; the latter, dancing and the art of gesticulation. We do not know, with accuracy, what particular exercises were usually practised in the gymnasia. Some, as swimming and pedestrian excursions, must naturally be taken elsewhere. Among a people, where every free citizen was a soldier, and often called upon to engage in war, then esteemed the most honourable occupation, bodily strength and hardihood were of great political importance. This alone would be a sufficient reason for the high esteem in which gymnastics were held among the Greeks. Another reason was, their fondness for the beautiful, which was gratified, in gymnasia, by the sight of the finest figures, in the prime of youth, exercising amid scenes of beauty. The eye was here delighted by the charms of nature, as in temples and halls, by that of art. On this account, they were favourite resorts of the citizens; so much the more, as they were adorned with statues and pictures, and contained halls for instructers in the various branches of knowledge. In fact, it would be difficult to imagine a more pleasant place than an Athenian gymnasium, where the young were seen warmed with athletic sports, and the old giving lessons of wisdom, amid the noble forms of ideal beauty.

All these circumstances contributed to give gymnastics the high reputation which we know they enjoyed among the Greeks, varying in degree, indeed, among the different tribes. But religion, as well as the love of the beautiful, contributed to their cultivation. The Greeks, like all the other nations of antiquity, considering the gods as partaking largely of the nature of man, thought to gain their favour by festivals in their honour, and for this reason instituted religious games. Among other nations, these games were merely rude combats, or, as among the Jews, simple and probably not graceful dances. Among the Greeks, all the forms of gymnastic exercises were introduced on these occasions. We need not wonder, then, that bodily exercises were held in such estimation, and that the successful athlete at the

Olympic Games, the most splendid national festivals ever celebrated, was almost adored. The Greek found there all which most enraptured him,-strength, beauty, and religion, and we may truly say, that the beautiful was the animating spirit of the Greek religion, as pure, celestial love, is of the Christian. Besides, the Greeks had nothing, except the poems of Homer, so animating to a liberal patriotism and a proud feeling of national dignity, as their festivals, to which Greeks only were admitted; but Greeks, from even the most distant colonies, came to enjoy the honour of a Grecian descent, at the great festival of their nation, which put a stop to the hostilities of warring tribes, and showed kings contending with republicans for the olive garland. It is true, that the competitors at the Olympic Games soon became a class educated for these exhibitions; they were not, however, wholly so. Moreover, this festival had a powerful influence on the pupils at all the gymnasia throughout the land, seeing as they did their art so highly honoured. After a while, the character of the competitors at the Olympian, Isthmian, Nemean, and other great games of Greece, degenerated, as they became more and more a separate class, exercising, at least in many cases, in buildings exclusively devoted to them. Euripides sharply chides them as useless and troublesome members of the state. It is not well understood, to what extent their exercises were practised in the gymnasia. The inquiry, however, is of little consequence to us, as we regard gymnastics only as an accomplishment. A few of the more important exercises we will mention.

The Greeks, as well as the Romans, set a very high value upon the art of swimming. In Sparta, even the maidens swam in the Eurotas; and the common phrase of contempt, untε VED UNTE reappara iЯioradai, (he can neither read nor swim,) is well known. How the art was taught we are not told. Perhaps it was acquired without much regular instruction-each one learning from his companions. Porcius Cato, for instance, we are informed, taught his children to swim. They were right in esteeming swimming indispensable, for there is no branch of gymnastics of such immediate use, on many occasions occurring both in peace and in war, ministering, moreover, both to health and pleasure, and equally salubrious and agreeable to men of every age. It is worth the while to read the observations of Mercurialis on this subject, lib. iii. cap. 13. This work is a very valuable treatise on the various branches of gymnastics. Running was also very much esteemed; and the Olympiads were for a long time named after the victors in the race. Perhaps its estimation arose from its

Artis gymnasticæ apud antiquos celeberrimæ libri sex. Auctore Hieronymo Mercuriali. Venetiis, MDLXIX.

*

great utility to the warriors of those times, or from its indicating general excellence in the bodily structure, which is necessary to a swift and long-continuing runner. Riding was deemed an exercise well becoming a freeman. Much is said of it in old authors, as in Plato's Hippias. Dancing, whereby we are not to understand the modern dance of the two sexes intermingled, but the art of graceful motion, including oratorial gesture, together with certain formal dances performed at festivals, was likewise esteemed indispensable to an accomplished man. See Lucian я EWO.* Wrestling was also much valued.

There are not many materials remaining, to enable us to judge of the exercises practised by the Grecian women. We know that they danced, and at several festivals, in various towns, ran races, and not unfrequently knew how to swim. In later and more corrupt times, they took part in the public games with men.

In the decline of Greece, gymnastics naturally degenerated, as the art can exist in perfection only among a free and active people. By degrees it became reduced to the exercises of the professional athletæ, which survived for a long time the ruin of the land of their birth. The Olympic Games were celebrated several centuries after Christ. Some late travellers have thought to find traces of them remaining even in our day. During our own stay in Greece, we could discover no relics of the ancient gymnastics, though we were not, negligent in our inquiries.

The Romans, under the emperors, imitated the gymnasia, as they did every thing Grecian. Nero, if we rightly remember, introduced the first into Italy. The copy, however, cannot be compared with the original. On the contrary, the Roman establishments were little better than places of vicious gratification. The thermæ, or baths, in Italy, took the place of the gymnasia in Greece. In the old gymnasia, baths were in use to purify the body after the heat of the exercises, and the Roman therma contained, like the gymnasia, gardens, together with places for running, riding, and swimming.

Among the Romans, gymnastics never became a national artan integral part of education, sanctioned by the government. We find, indeed, festal games exhibited in the earliest periods of their history; for instance, the Consualia, said to have been celebrated by Romulus, in honour of Neptune, at which the competitors were not professional athletæ, but young men of every class.

* The modern art of dancing is to be divided into the social dance, and the theatrical dance or ballet. The latter, as it appears on the stage in our day, was first systematically described by J. G. Noverre, born in Paris, in the year 1727. His first work on this subject was, "Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets," Lyons, 1760,-a work highly esteemed in Europe. In the year 1803, a complete edition of his, works was published in Petersburg. Noverre was a man of great taste, and always endeavoured to elevate the theatrical dance to the rank

of an art.