Problems of To-day.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 23, 7 December 1910, Page 62

Problems of To-day.

“Millions of people are running wildly, to catch a ball, lifting weights in fullest perspiration, trotting with gasping breath, and doing a hundred other useless stunts simply because a meaningless fashion hae cruelly thrown them: into such a habit,” complains Count Mustenberg in his book “Problems of-To-day.” To wander through the country’ on a fine day is, he continues, a' beautiful inspiration, and healthful for, every-one; to need the walk with mechanical regularity is the product of a. bad training, and" to become the slave of Swedish gymnastic apparatus is rio> better than slavery to cigars. Of course, for certain purposes it is desirable to develop the muscular forces of the body;} then the physical exercise becomes labour. That is an entirely different thing. For certain other, especially- educational, purposes, it is most desirable to have sport and competitive athletics; then the physical effort becomes pleasure and play. But as mere exercise and restoration, it is needless in moderation and harmful in strong doses, and the necessity only- results from the long training in it. For a long time the pedagogue even believed that muscular effort was the best recreation after the intellectual work of the school child. Nowadays we know that the opposite is true. Physical exercise demands the energies of the same brain which learns the school lesson, and the fatigued brain becomes still more strained if its energies are tapped for new activity. There is onlv one source of restitution of usedup brain energy, and that is rest, sleep, fresh air, and good nourishment.” There is the exaggeration of the enthusiast in this, but is there not also morn than a little common sense truth?