2. The Effect Of The Soul Upon Physical Man

In Greece as you know, great value was attached to Gymnastics. Gymnastics was regarded as the most essential part of a child’s education because through training and causing the body to be used and manipulated in a particular way, an effect was made upon the nature of spirit-and-soul by methods characteristic of the Greeks. But the method used by the Spartans was different from that used by the Athenians. The Spartans were primarily concerned to ensure that by means of their gymnastic exercises the boys’ development should depend as completely as possible upon what the body—the body by itself alone—can achieve. Hence the Spartan boy was obliged to carry out his exercises no matter what the weather might be.