Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

THE RACE AND THE ATHLETE. IF we would run the race of life so as to " obtain " the prize, we must submit to a course of strenuous self-preparation. The athlete before he enters on his struggle undergoes a rigorous training. The soldier is useless for the purposes of war until he has learned to submit himself to discipline.

Who are we that we should take up our life-work before we have made any efforts to fit ourselves for it ? We all of us need preparation, and preparation which may be said to assume three aspects — the physical, the intellectual, the spiritual.

On each of these it may be useful to say a few plain words : I. Physical. — The relations between the body and the soul are such that the condition of the former closely affects the well-being of the latter. It is a matter of Christian duty to attend to the physical health because the spiritual depends so largely upon it.

The mind is often strong enough to conquer the body, and to assert its supremacy over the influences of disease ; but, as a rule, an enfeebled or diseased physical frame means an enfeebled or diseased intellect, a weakened judgment, a disordered imagination.

It may be that the mind prevails against the body, with all its maladies, for months or years, but 252 THE RACE AND THE ATHLETE. suddenly there comes a time when the flesh conquers, and the spirit gives way unexpectedly. Some of Napoleon's later de- feats have been with justice attributed to the baneful effects of an aggravated dyspepsia.

Many an outburst of irritability and ill-temper is explained by a disordered stomach. Time was when it was thought an admirable thing to treat the body as a worthless and despised slave ; when the student was exhorted to burn the midnight oil to the imminent ruin of his constitution ; when, in truth, the pallid countenance, the bowed shoulders, and the shrunken limbs, were regarded as the outward and visible signs of genius.

It seemed to be almost a belief that no man could be a poet whose cheek did not flush with the hectic of consumption, or a scholar whose brow was not haggard with unhealthy vigils. The expression " rude health " has a sig- nificance in this direction which must not be overlooked.

The popular opinion was that muscles and mind were absolutely antagonistic, and that a good cricketer must necessarily be a bad Ciceronian. The reversion to a more sensible view is owing in no small degree to the wise preaching of Kingsley and other prophets of muscular Christianity,' and to the better understanding that now obtains of the mysterious interdepend- ence of body and soul.

It is now seen that a system which produces Henry Kirke Whites cannot be described as a suc- cessful system. It is now felt that the culture of the body is, in fact, an important part of the education of the mind ; that the body has rights which must be respected, if we would not goad it into rebellion.

A man does not think the less deeply or judge the less clearly because he can walk, and row, and ride, and leap, and swim. The pale, sickly student, who sits up o' nights, and allows the rosy dawn to surprise him at his BRAIN AND BODY. 253 Studies, makes a very pretty figure in poetry, but no figure at all in real life.