But, so far as there is a deficiency in these respects among us, this generation must not shrink from the responsibility.  It is unfair to charge it on the Puritans.  They are not even answerable for Massachusetts; for there is no doubt that athletic exercises, of some sort, were far more generally practised in this community before the Revolution than at present.  A state of almost constant Indian warfare then created an obvious demand for muscle and agility.  At present there is no such immediate necessity.  And it has been supposed that a race of shopkeepers, brokers, and lawyers could live without bodies.  Now that the terrible records of dyspepsia and paralysis are disproving this, we may hope for a reaction in favor of bodily exercises.  And when we once begin the competition, there seems no reason why any other nation should surpass us.  The wide area of our country, and its variety of surface and shore, offer a corresponding range of physical training.  Take our coasts and inland waters alone.  It is one thing to steer a pleasure-boat with a rudder, and another to steer a dory with an oar; one thing to paddle a birch-canoe, and another to paddle a ducking-float; in a Charles River club-boat, the post of honor is in the stern,—­in a Penobscot bateau, in the bow; and each of these experiences educates a different set of muscles.  Add to this the constitutional American receptiveness, which welcomes new pursuits without distinction of origin,—­unites German gymnastics with English sports and sparring, and takes the red Indians for instructors in paddling and running.  With these various aptitudes, we certainly ought to become a nation of athletes.

We have shown, that, in one way or another, American schoolboys obtain active exercise.  The same is true, in a very limited degree, even of girls.  They are occasionally, in our larger cities, sent to gymnasiums,—­the more the better.  Dancing-schools are better than nothing, though all the attendant circumstances are usually unfavorable.  A fashionable young lady is estimated to traverse her three hundred miles a season on foot; and this needs training.  But out-door exercise for girls is terribly restricted, first by their costume, and secondly by the remarks of Mrs. Grundy.  All young female animals unquestionably require as much motion as their brothers, and naturally make as much noise; but what mother would not be shocked, in the case of her girl of twelve, by one-tenth part the activity and uproar which are recognized as being the breath of life to her twin brother?  Still, there is a change going on, which is tantamount to an admission that there is an evil to be remedied.  Twenty years ago, if we mistake not, it was by no means considered “proper” for little girls to play with their hoops and balls on Boston Common; and swimming and skating have hardly been recognized as “ladylike” for half that period of time.