HOW TO GET STRONG
a person is taken; and, by work exactly suited to his weak state, under skilled and intelligent direction, is gradually hardened and strengthened. Then still more is given him to do; and so on; at the rate that is plainly seen to best suit him. Develop every man's body by such a method; teach every American school-boy the erect carriage of the West Pointer; and how many men among us would there be built after the pattern of the typical brother Jonathan; or of the thin-chested, round-shouldered, inerect, and generally weak make; so common in nearly every city, town, and village in our land?
Look, too, at the knowledge such a course brings of the workings of one's own body, of its general structure, of its possibilities! What a lecture on the human body it must prove; and how it must fit the man to keep his strength up; and, if lost, to recover it; for it has uniformly been found that a man once strong needs but little work daily to keep him so. A little reflection on facts like the foregoing must point strongly to the conclusion that the body—at least of any one not yet middle-aged—admits of a variety and degree of culture almost as great as could be desired; certainly sufficient to make reasonably sure of a great accession of strength and health to a person formerly weak; and that with but a little time given each day to the work.
