The best training-school for the body is the gymnasium.  That is the purpose of all its appliances and apparatus.  But it may be dispensed with if one has an adequate desire for physical training.  Give a boy to understand that his body is not impure and vile, but that it is as much worth consideration as his mind, and that if he does not take carte of his body he can not do any thing with his mind, and ways of physical training will not be wanting.

All children should be examined at intervals by a physician, and a record kept of their development.  I measure my little boy every year.  I know how he is growing.  If he has been subject to too much excitement, there will be larger relative growth of the head, and we adjust his manner of life accordingly.  The object of education is to develop the boy, not to put him through so much of arithmetic or so much language.  The object is to get out of the boy all there is in him.  The first thing, then, is to have the boy examined.  If, instead of calling a physician when the children are sick, he is called while they are well, it would be much better.  Is he getting round-shouldered?  Has he a crook in the back?  Is he beginning to stoop?  There are many things which can be stopped in a child which can never be changed after the habits are hardened.  Too late the parent may find that his child is incapacitated for the highest education, because there is no room for the heart and lungs to play their parts.  The boy is limited in his possibilities as a tree planted in unfavorable soil is limited.  He is stunted.  He will reach a certain limit, and no efforts on his part will carry him further.  But if he has been taken in hand in time, and these suggestions acted upon, different results might have been produced.  These efforts to develop the boy’s body will awaken the interest of the boy himself.  It does not awaken animalism.  Let a man have pride in his body, and his morals will look out for themselves.  If a a boy is thus examined, and a record kept, he will take a pride in keeping up his record.  It is not necessary, then, to have appliances.  He can make trees and clothes-horses and gates and fences take their place.  Teach him the value of such opportunities.  Teach him to increase the capacity of his lungs and heart, and what relation they bear to the brain, and thus awaken his interest.  He will soon learn to exercise in the best way.  When the parent has to watch a boy to see that he exercises, exercise is of little or no avail.  But let the father and mother realize the full value and importance of the body, and the results will follow naturally.  Every thing depends primarily upon the parent.  If he simply commands exercise without sharing in it, he is like a father who lectures his sons about smoking and drinking while he smokes and drinks himself.