in praises of liberty are the very cause that one of your committee is in the midst of this assembly, enjoyiug the blessings of this happy land.

Bodily exercises, performed by the noble youth of a free country as a part of their system of education, would be not only new, but it would create a new era in the history of republicanism. These bodily exercises, accompanied with patriotic speeches, songs and hymns of civil and religious liberty, are a terror to every monarch in Europe.

Your committee begs leave to say, that gymnastic exercises are as necessary to the schools of an independent people, in a political view, to keep in check neighboring tyrants, as the standing armies are necessary to the tyrant to keep in check a suppressed people. The gymnastics were flourishing in Prussia where one of your committee was for many years both a teacher and director of these exercises. During this time, he trained more than ten thousand young men in the gymnasium. But as soon as it was discovered that this system was leading to the independence of the people, the monarch and his serviles suppressed it with all manner of cruelty, and therefore reliance may be placed in the truth of the above statement.

The brotherhood which is brought forth by means of these exercises amongst the youth of a nation, is still farther promoted, enlarged and strengthened, by the frequent intercourse of the pupils of one institution with those of another, and by their general union on days of great national events, cemented into one great family of freemen, animated by the spirit of liberty.

In the state of Ohio, and in every state, more than ten thousand such noble youths could be annually assembled at the capital on the fourth of July, in commemoration of our great national birth day, where each would take the other by the hand in their mutual greeting, and give one universal pledge to support and improve the institutions of their country. On such occasions every noble citizen would be proud to extend his hospitality to the guests, and every house would be open for the reception and entertainment of these youths, assembled for such a high and holy purpose.

Uniformity in apparel in the time of exercise takes away the odious caste of poor and rich. The dress is simply brown linen pantaloons, and roundabout, and domestic frock-coat, to keep the body comfortable after the exercises. A nation, thus acquainted from childhood with one another as brothers, will not strive with party spirit.

It is observed that the best scholar in bodily exercises is the most willing to learn the tasks in school, and that he is the good and obedient pupil to his teacher, the warm friend to his fellow student and he loves, and is beloved by every one.

Your committee deems it a duty to say that these bodily exercises may be used as the best means for improving the present national militia system. To enter into an investigation of the best mode of doing this, would carry us from the given task. But if required, can at any other time.

Time has improved those exercises-but still more has christianity brought forth all the great changes of all things which have come to us from ancient times. The name itself is for our time not a fit one-at least not for schools where christianity predominates. One moment's reflection will teach us when we know gyμvos, gymnos, means naked, that it is an inappropriate word for our use for instance, gymnastic pertaining to athletic exercises.

Gymnastic, contest of agility and strength, of which there were five kinds: 1, running, (cursus); 2, leaping, (saltus); .3, boxing, (pugillatus), 4, wrestling, (lacta); 5, throwing the dart, (disci jactus); all these were contended without clothing. Now, we wish not to have any thing to do with exercises of that kind; for even in swimming we perform the exercises in an appropriate dress.

Christianity has changed the performance of these exercises, and also their name. The name which we now have is of AngloSaxon or Teutonic origin; and that new name expresses to perfection what it means. The idea is expressed in the word turnen. This word we find in the old Teutonic dialect, in the Anglo-Saxon, in the Longobardish, Frankish, old Swedish, old Danish, old English, and Icelandish, where it means-to tilt, to joust, to direct, to bestow upon, to spend upon, to address one-self, to turn about, to bend, to direct, to give a direction, to manage, to steer, to swing, to wave, to brandish, to stir, to move, to agitate, to teach upon, to be stirring, to care for a thing, to regard. And that all these meanings hold out in our days, can be proved with one sentence, expressed in modern English, as for instance: in "turn ye and believe. That these exercises are christened, shows the very word turnen, which contains all the above meanings; and christians, not heathens, have chosen t the word turnen for gymnastic, which has no meaning in relation to our turn exercises. find the word already established in the performance of the exercise, as; turner, vorturner, turnerish, turnsystem, turnhistory, turnenjoyment, turninformation,. turninstructer, turnteacher, turndoctrine, turnsociety, turncommunity, turninstitution, turnestablishment, turnplace, turnyard, turnspot, turnduty, turnpath, turnhouse, turnhall, turnroom, turnsaloon, turnbottom, turntime, turnhour, turnday, turnsummer, turnyear, turnschool, turnchoice, turnrest, turnrepose, turnjourney, turnmaster, turnwait, turnwatch, turntower, turnrule, turnorder, turndirector, turnlaw, turncostume, turnmanner, turnutensil, turndress, turnexercise, turnplay, turnfeast, turnlanguage, turnword, turnsen

We

fence, turnrhyme, turnsong, turnbook, turnart ;-so much for the word turner. The father of the turnexercises, and of the name of it, as we have them now in the great christian community, is the great German philanthropist, patriot and philosopher, Frederick Ludwig Jahn-he is the man who invented these exercises as the endless lever by which he, and no other among the living, lifted up and roused the fallen-the sinking-yet more, the already sunken nation in Europe for civil liberty. What Samuel Adams was for America, that is Frederick Ludwig Jahn for Europe, in point of civil liberty.

-Samuel Adams was the first among the Americans who took more from heaven than Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin took only electric fire-but Samuel went beyond the clouds, and took spiritual fire from kind Providence, with which he was enabled to kindle the unquenchable flame of freedom. O, what is the fatherland without liberty! I love my fatherland, (Germany,) but I love the land of freedom, (America,) more!

A turner was, by our Anglo-Saxon. and Teutonic forefathers, a young soldier, a gallant knight, who was renowned for noble deeds.

The turnexercises are performed in summer time, in the open air, at the turnplaces; and in winter time, in turnhouses.

Your committee ask permission to quote some remarks from other writers on the same subject. Frst, from C. G. Salzmann, master of the academy. at Schnepfenthal, in Germany, and author of "Elements of Morality."

“A sound mind. in a strong and healthy body, has been for ages the grand object of education. How is it, then, that we commonly forget the improvement of the body, though we are fully convinced that neither wealth nor title, neither learning nor worth, can protect the feeble, the unhealthy and the infirm, from the lamentable effects of their condition? Should you have nothing to bequeath your child, should you bestow on his mind but a narrow education, still he will bless you if you form his body to health, strength, and activity; whether he can earn his simple meal, sweetened by labor at the plough or, anvil, with the adze or with the hatchet. On the contrary, while you cultivate his understanding to the highest pitch, if you neglect the health and strength of his body, could you leave him the treasures of a Cræsus? the debilitated, suffering, wretched creature, would curse the education he had received, amid all the splendor of reputation, the glare of honors, and even the incense of a throne. Learning and refinement are to health and bodily perfection, what luxuries are to necessaries. Is not then our education depraved, when it aims at luxury, and neglects our greatest and most essential want?

"Our schools, for the most part, pay not the smallest attention to the formation of the body; and this with good reason, for it is

no part of their plan. But, that it is not a part of their plan, is an unpardonable fault; it is a bad sign, that no one can discover the idea of bodily improvements in the compound idea expressed by the word school. Quitting these institutions, let us cast our eyes on the rest of the youthful world. School-time is over; the boys have been sitting at least six hours,; how is the rest of the day employed? In very different ways.

"Some who are by nature of a lively disposition, endeavor to compensate for this: but then they are too frequently left to themselves. If bodily exercises be their choice, they are frequently such as endanger their health and life. That many young men are crippled, or even lose their lives this way, is of sufficient notoriety.*.

"Besides, the object here is merely to pass away the time, not to exercise the body under careful guidance. Notwithstanding this, such boys will be found always the most alert, unconstrained, courageous, strong and active.

"Others, who feel pleasure in learning, employ themselves on the school exercises given to them; exercises frequently not slight, and occupying considerable time. Thus almost the whole of the remainder of the day is spent in sitting still: how then can the energies of the young body be developed ?

"A greater number of those whose parents are in easy circumstances waste their hours of liberty in pleasing idleness, amid visiting, amusements at home, public entertainments, conversation, silly tales, or dull reading. Many are by nature dull; the palsying indolence of old age has already laid hold of their minds and bodies; they spend the valuable hours, in which the youthful faculties should bud and blossom, in dosing and eating. Were due exertion made to rouse these from their bodily languor, it is most probable the mind would be enabled to emerge from the slough that overpowers it.

"As the boy rises into a youth, he will retain the bent he received in his boyish years. Too often before he has reached his seventh year, the roses will have vanished from his cheeks. His meat, his drink, his confined way of life, will have faded them: or if he enter the period of youth with health unimpaired, his body will seldom be what it ought at the termination of this period; it will have completed its growth, but it will not be full of energy; nature has done every thing on her part; he nothing: and what have the parents done?

"People of rank regard nothing but gracefulness and demeanor and health. No sooner has the boy entered his sixth year, than the dancing master appears, to teach him his positions, etc. But there is a great difference between learning to dance and forming

*To how many does bathing prove fatal in summer, and skating in winter? how many receive injuries from fire arms?

the body; between elegance of carriage and muscular strength, between the timid spirit of the young beau and the manly mind of the rising youth. I love dancing: yet I am compelled to avow, that this pedantic measurement of steps on a smooth floor, frequently associated with soft, melting passions, contributes little or nothing as a bodily exercise, to the attainment of a nobler end to the attainment of that, which we would call in a single word MANHOOD; and is frequently rendered extremely prejudicial to the health of both mind and body, by concomitant circumstances. May it ever be used with caution by the young, as a symbol of mirth and gaiety.

"FENCING is an exercise of an admirable utility in itself: it strengthens the body, and infuses courage, but it is applicable only in later years, and has a connexion too dangerous with what is called the point of honor. Much the same may be said of RIDING: suitable as it is to the manly character, we cannot begin with it before the bodily powers are more than half developed. Few parents appreciate funambulation, for it is generally considered, though on the authority of hearsay chiefly, as a very dangerous exercise; yet it is one of the most pleasing, even for childhood.

"We are now carried to the end of the usual exercises admitted into the fashionable world. Every intelligent person will instantly perceive that they are next to nothing; for nothing remains at the bottom but the dance, that can at all times be practised. If many boys of this class had not exercises of their own selection, adapted to their natural gaiety, and did not various circumstances occur, in the process of their lives, to assist the body in some sort, and to compensate in many respects, as far as they possibly can, for this effeminate education, our men of fashion would soon be converted into the women of fashion; and they would be seen only at their knotting, their drawing, or at their piano-fortes.

"In the present situation of things, teaching, NOT EDUCATION, being the office of schoolmasters, the class of working people can do nothing for the bodily formation of their children. The exercises we have mentioned are too expensive for them; consequently all that relates to corporeal improvement before the age of fourteen or sixteen, is left to chance; and so it must be, as long as nothing is done towards it by the public at large, in its scholastic institutions.

"To me it appears evident, that thousands of noble characters would appear still more noble, and thousands that are equivocal and indifferent, would evince themselves honest and worthy, had they not been CRIPPLED by our effeminate mode of education.

"No heroic patriotism, no sacrifices for the common good and the succor of others, no manly courage, no inflexible love of truth, no lofty endeavors at noble actions, can ordinarily be expected from the weak and infirm; from persons habituated to luxury from their youth; who are ever thinking on the gratification of