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is a coherence of bodily action, just as there is a
coherence of speech. And the one is no less essential
than the other, either for expressing our thoughts or
accomplishing our wishes.
We commonly speak of a man’s
utterances being incoherent, meaning by that that they
are unintelligible or inarticulate. In the radical sense
of the word, of course, we mean that the man’s
speech does not cohere, does not “hang together,”
as we say. One part of it has no logical relation with
another part.
So
in bodily action; many of us are afflicted with an incoherency
of motion, and do not relate the different movements
or acts of the body. One man has an excellent chest
development [Page 81] and strong arms,
with a miserable pair of legs. Another has good legs
and feet, but a weakly upper body; a third, all arms
and no back; a fourth, all back and no arms. And these
defects our physical training (under the evil influence
of college and professional athletics) does little to
help. True, the best teacher of physical education are
wholly against the sort of training fostered by competition,
intercollegiate and international, but public sentiment
is too strong for them. The men want the prizes and
the victory more than they want wholesome, all-round
development. So they continue to over-exercise their
strong muscles and neglect their weak ones. As a consequence,
they lack coherence of strength.
But
there is a worse defect, the result of competitive emulation,
and that is incoherence of action. Even when a man is
well developed, he is very often without prompt and
intelligent coherence of action. He has no coördination;
does not act as a single being, with his will and mind
and muscles at once. If there [Page 82] is
a step to be taken, he steps with his leg alone, the
rest of his body having nothing to do with it. If anything
is to be lifted from a shelf, he allows his hand and
arm to do it, while his body is almost inert. You perceive
at once that he is not an alert, complete individual,
thoroughly vitalized from top to toe, but rather a bundle
of arms and legs and fingers, all equally strong, but
all working at haphazard, under separate impulses. There
seems to be no central determination, no indwelling
and directing purpose. The man has no coherence of muscular
action.
If
this truth is not obvious in others, it becomes quite
clear, I think, when we observe ourselves, and if we
note the different ways of doing things. And it is easy,
with a little care and training, to note the improvement
in ourselves in this matter of physical coördination.
It is a means of economy of force and increase of power
not to be overlooked. To cultivate physical coherence
implies, too, the culture of more than bodily powers.
It [Page 83] implies the culture of
the powers of spirit and mind as well. For we cannot
improve our physique, in strength, in promptness, in
skill, without necessarily improving our faculties of
determination and judgement at the same time.
You
may be quite sure that a man of slovenly, shambling
appearance has a slovenly, careless character; that
a sturdy and trim figure houses a reliable being, and
so forth. This, of course, we all commonly recognize.
But we fail, I think, to act on the truth. We fail to
make the further deduction, which is so obvious, that,
since person and personality are so closely related,
we can educate the one by means of the other. Yet, as
a matter of fact, this is the very thing we can do in
physical training. By training the person in better
modes of motion and carriage and speech, we educate
the personality behind it, and give that personality
new endowments of graciousness and beauty and charm.
This
better education of the individual, indeed, should constitute
the aim of physical [Page 84] training.
The mere culture of muscularity or bodily power alone
is not enough. And as long as athletics remain the sole
end and aim of gymnastics, just so long will they remain
in the inferior position they now hold. But gymnastics
in education are as important as philosophy, or languages,
or science, or the fine arts. And under wise provision,
they must come to hold a more and more important position
in all curricula of training of the young.
The
range of physical culture is not limited, but almost
illimitable; and we are only on the threshold of our
knowledge in regard to it. Physical culture engenders
and develops not only physical coherence, but personal
coherence, personal poise and power. It helps forward
that perfection of the character for which we are all
striving, and helps it as nothing else can. It is the
foundation on which all our education must be built.
Our bodies in which we live are the media through which
we must communicate with others. [Page 85] All
our thoughts and actions, sorrows, joys, and fears,
desires and demands, can only be conveyed to our fellows
through these bodies we inhabit. We can accomplish nothing
without their assistance. It is just as true, too, that
all information comes to us through them. To attempt
to educate the mind and heart, without educating the
body, is more foolish than it would be to give a man
all the learning of the ages, and then doom him to solitary
confinement for the term of his natural life.
I
fancy we have not often enough considered the beauty
of a coherent personality. Yet think how powerful it
may be! Even in the one realm of the physical personality,
how full of power and charm coherent action is! You
may see it in a juggler or a tight-rope walker, in exhibitions
of great skill and sleight-of-hand, and it never fails
to delight and entrance. We cannot all be jugglers;
we cannot all be even skilful; but certainly we can
all be less slovenly and unwieldy than [Page
86] we are — and add to the pleasure
of life thereby. For life is a good deal like walking
up the bed of a rocky stream, after all. You must step
always with precision and intelligence, or you break
your shins and wet your skin. A wise foot makes an easy
journey.
Then,
too, is it not coherence of character that makes success?
Is it not the power of holding ourselves together, and
having an aim, and insisting on one thing at a time,
that brings us what we want? The flabby, wobbling, uncertain
character accomplishes none of its objects, however
determined it may be. There are some people with as
little coherence as a jelly-fish — aimless organisms
afloat in the tide of circumstance — pulpy nonentities
stranded by a single wave, torn asunder at a blow. We
must do better than that.
And
as our progress in the world is so greatly dependent
on this power of just coherence, this pulling of ourselves
together, and holding our powers in command, who shall
say that the very possibility of a continued [Page
87] life for the spirit may not depend on something
of the same power? If I am content to live and stand
and walk and occupy furniture like a mould of blanc-mange
on a dish of china, does it seem that I shall be well
prepared for immortality? I fancy that when old, familiar,
friendly Death came by, he would find in me a mound
of glutinous plasticity, nothing more. It must be another
sort of coherence which is to stand the test of change
and growth and joy. [Page
88]
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