Athletic And Gymnastic Exercises

Excerpt from Athletic Gymnastic Exercises Gums of every description formed a most important part of the national events of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The principal of the four games publicly solemnised in Greece were the Olympic; but games of different kinds were exercised by the early Romans, which consisted of chariot and horse-racin g, combats, and theatrical sports. They likewise exercised them selves before bathing in leaping, running, throwing the javelin, quoit, &c. The athletic exercises practised among these nations consisted of wrestling, boxing, and other such exercises, requiring great strength. Prizes were given to those who came of victors, likewise many privileges were granted to them. The Olympic games, the chief of the festivals of the Greeks, were celebrated every fifth year, and consisted of religious ceremonies, athletic contests, and races. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from How to Become a Gymnast: Containing Full Instructions for All Kinds of Gymnastic Sports and Athletic Exercises Some generations since, the state of society was so essentially combative, that men valued mere brute force far beyond the more ethereal qualities of the mind, and cultivated it accordingly. To train the body was the grand end of education; and the best-educated man way he who could strike the heaviest blows, and endure the greatest labor. Sometimes a knight and a gentleman possessed the accomplishment of reading, and thereby obtained the character of a great scholar; while, if he could also write sufficiently to sign his name, was in some danger of suspicion as a wizard. As civilization proceeded in its onward march, men began to feel that learning and science did not really degrade human nature, and perceived that a knight might chance to be a better gentleman if his mind were cultivated as well as his body. There seems also to have been a little jealousy at work; for as learning was, as a matter of course, confined to the cloisters, it naturally followed that their inmates exercised a sort of increasing influence over the strong-handed but pudding-brained race that surrounded them. So, by degrees, it happened that the brains of Americans, after being for many generations systematically cramped, began to expand and develop themselves. Then followed a reaction, which has continued nearly to the present day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.