gestive than in facts, muscular and motor. Reality is not "sick
lied o'er with the pale cast of thought," but is instinct with energy,
with will. The most diverse writers preach the common gospel:
"Reality is will ;" "Will is work." Schopenhauer, Lotze and Paul
sen ; Carlyle, Arnold and Robertson ; Munsterberg, James and
Ladd, all unite (despite the most far-reaching differences) in the
emphasis of the motor side of our being, in the thought, "Doing is
also an organ of knowing."
The muscular system constitutes a surprisingly large propor-,
tion of the bodily weight. The available figures indicate that
from 46 to 47 per cent. of the total bodily weight is composed of
muscles. This would seem, at once, fact and prophecy as to na
ture's view of the import of the muscular. Matthew Arnold says
conduct is three-fourths of life, Find whether the exact fraction be
accepted or not the preponderance in the direction indicated will
be. In fact, were we inclined to generalize, it might be maintain-.
ed that the so-called modern education, manual, industrial and
technical, as well as the resurrection and glorification of athletic
ideals, are signs that the gospel of muscle has taken complete pos
session of our lives.
The analogy between athletics and life is not a new one. To the
Greeks life was a game, and games their life. They constituted
a bond of unity among all parts of Greece. Wars ceased, says
Grassberger, while the athletes contended for the honors of undy
ing fame. The very walls of cities, the victors' birthplaces, were
clown upon their triumphal entry, only to be at once rebuilt.
Pinclar traces the pedigree of noted athletes as far as possible,
thence by myth attaches them to the gods, as sons. President Frall
says : Pile up all our modern enthusiasm for the muscular, and
our intense appreciation of the beautiful, and you have some no
tion of the glorification by the best of the Greeks of athletic views
of life. Paul, although not thought of as having any athletic
prowess, was saturated with its conceptions. Life 15 a contest for
mastery over contending forces, a game in which victory perches
upon the banner of the truly courageous and faithful. How many
a neophyte has preached his first sermon from that characteristic