KEEPING FIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 19

KEEPING FIT

ITS LINKS WITH WAR

Today there are abundant assurances that a campaign for national fitness need not have any militaristic intentions, but it is true that in the past "fitness" did connote as a rule fitness to bear arms, says the "Manchester Guardian." Becker points out in an "Excursus" to his "Charicles" that the Romans disliked the Grecian games because they themselves "valued such exercises merely for their military and dietetic advantages.... The chief points of the . . . charge made by Romans against the gymnasia were . . . that they induced inactivity and idleness; that what should have been the main objects, the strengthening and exercising the body, were lost sight of; that instead of the use of weapons more unprofitable arts-were taught..:. ." On the other hand,.the same author in his "Gallus," when dealing with Roman ideas of keeping fit, writes:-— "The daily bath and, previous to it, strong exercise, for the purpose of causing perspiration, were inseparable in the minds of the Romans from the idea of la regular and healthy mode of life. They had a multitude of exercises, more or less severe, which were regularly gone through every day before the bath, thus rendering the body strong and active and exciting a greater appetite for the meal that was to fol-low.'V-i' : - ■'•<■-_- -- ■-- ' ; ' ■

; Which, of course^ took for granted the'important detail that' the meal would be forthcoming. But ;there is no doubt that, until luxury began to sap the Roman constitution, the idea of fitness was associated with military prowess.

If we come down to our own seven-teenth-century history we shall find James I proclaiming that Sunday games should be allowed in Lancashire, rebuking those who had forbidden such "lawful recreation and honest ■ exer^ cises after the afternoon sermon or service," and pointing out that such prohibition "barreth the common and j meaner sort of people from taking such | exercise as; may make their bodies ! more fit for war when we or our sue- i cessors shall have occasion to use them." Poor Jamie little guessed to what purpose some, of that fitness would shortly be turned. ■,