nature as deep-seated and radical as that of Calvinism for the unregenerate heart,
against which modern common sense, so often the best muse of both
psychophysics and pedagogy, protests. Individual prescription is here as
imperative as it is difficult. Wonders that now seem to be most incredible, both
of hurt and help, can undoubtedly be wrought, but analysis should always be for
the sake of synthesis and never be beyond its need and assured completion. No
thoughtful student fully informed of the facts and tentatives in this field can
doubt that here lies one of the most promising fields of future development, full
of far-reaching and rich results for those, as yet far too few, experts in physical
training, who have philosophic minds, command the facts of modern
psychology, and whom the world awaits now as never before.
C. Another yet closely correlated ideal is that of economic postures and
movements. The system of Ling is less orthopedic than orthogenic, although he
sought primarily to correct bad attitudes and perverted growth. Starting from the
respiratory and proceeding to the muscular system, he and his immediate pupils
were content to refer to the ill-shapen bodies of most men about them. One of
their important aims was to relax the flexor and tone up the extensor muscles and
to open the human form into postures as opposite as possible to those of the
embryo, which it tends so persistently to approximate in sitting, and in fatigue
and collapse attitudes generally. The head must balance on the cervical vertebra
and not call upon the muscles of the neck to keep it from rolling off; the weight
of the shoulders must be thrown back off the thorax; the spine be erect to allow
the abdomen free action; the joints of the thigh extended; the hand and arm
supinated, etc. Bones must relieve muscles and nerves. Thus an erect, self-
respecting carriage must be given, and the unfortunate association, so difficult to
overcome, between effort and an involuted posture must be broken up. This
means economy and a great saving of vital energy. Extensor action goes with
expansive, flexor with depressive states of mind; hence courage, buoyancy,
hope, are favored and handicaps removed. All that is done with great effort
causes wide irradiation of tensions to the other half of the body and also
sympathetic activities in those not involved; the law of maximal ease and
minimal expenditure of energy must be always striven for, and the interests of
the viscera never lost sight of. This involves educating weak and neglected
muscles, and like the next ideal, often shades over by almost imperceptible
gradation into the passive movements by the Zander machines. Realizing that
certain activities are sufficiently or too much emphasized in ordinary life, stress
is laid upon those which are complemental to them, so that there is no pretense
of taking charge of the totality of motor processes, the intention being