DO WE INHERIT SHAPELY BODIES?
this way: now that the day's work is done, no matter whether it leaves as strong or weak; let us be content with things as they are. If it keeps us one-handed, so be it. If it stoops the back over, so be it. If it does little or nothing for the lower limbs; or cramps the chest; or never half fills the lungs; or aids digestion not a whit; so be it. If it keeps some thin and tired-looking; and lets others get too fleshy; it never occurs to most of them that a little knowledge and effort of the right sort would work wonders; and in a way not only valuable but attractive.
Most of us get, then, from our parents a one-sided and partial development; and are contented with it. Unless we ourselves correct our condition; unless we single out the weak spots; mark out the work and the amount of it; and then do that work; we shall not remedy the evil. More than this, if we do not cure these defects, we will go through life with small physical resources; with their disorders and ailments; and will cruelly entail upon our children defects and tendencies which might have readily been spared them; and for which they can fairly blame us. Yet the remedy is within our reach; and so plain is this, that before long, if the interest now well aroused in this direction becomes general, those after us will know far better than we do that the body can be educated, as well as the mind or the moral nature; that, instead of interfering with these; the body, when properly trained, will aid them; and, that from any stand-point, such training will pay; and handsomely at that. They will wonder how we overlooked what Plato taught more than two thousand years ago; that he who is educated in mind and in moral nature only; and not in body also,—is a cripple.
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