The Bohemian Sokols
By Dr. L. J. Fisher
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NE may safely assert that systematic physical training is an infallible sign of the high cultural level of a people. History abounds with examples proving that wherever national consciousness grew up, there also developed a fondness for serious and purposeful cultivation of the human body, so as to reach a harmony of physical and intellectual qualities which would serve as a foundation for mental equipoise and moral worth. Serious physical training implies necessarily a higher degree of intelligence and altruistic feeling in that it subordinates the pleasure of the individual to the interest of posterity, of the nation, of all humanity.
The aim of serious physical training was well brought out long ago by the Grecian philosopher Lucian in the dialogue of Anacharses and Solon: “In our public contests more is at stake than the prizes that are to be won; we aim at greater things both for the athletes and the country. Another contest, common to us all, awaits all brave citizens, and the crown is not made of pine branches, of laurel, or olive. It is a crown containing in itself all that a man values highest—the freedom of every individual and of country, well-being and glory, the preservation of families, in short, all the best things within the gift of the gods.”
So high a value did the Greeks put upon bodily training, in the days when the ancient Hellene started his hardy education in the gymnasium, when in the arena he exercised his muscles to acquire manly beauty and grace, when in the contests he practiced physical fitness and power which was united with a high degree of intellectual and moral cultivation. As long as that was true, ancient Hellas did not fear for its freedom, because her sons possessed matchless bravery and perseverance; and Greek art produced its most wonderful gems, while the learning of Greece enriched forever the entire human race.
Then the sun of Hellas set, and with it the noble striving for the cultivation of the body, until in the dark centuries of the Middle Ages asceticism was magnified
