Hence we may infer that what is noble, not what is
brutal, should have the first place; no wolf or other wild animal will
face a really noble danger; such dangers are for the brave man. And
parents who devote their children to gymnastics while they neglect
their necessary education, in reality vulgarize them; for they make
them useful to the art of statesmanship in one quality only, and
even in this the argument proves them to be inferior to others. We
should judge the Lacedaemonians not from what they have been, but from
what they are; for now they have rivals who compete with their
education; formerly they had none.
It is an admitted principle, that gymnastic exercises should be
employed in education, and that for children they should be of a
lighter kind, avoiding severe diet or painful toil, lest the growth of
the body be impaired. The evil of excessive training in early years is
strikingly proved by the example of the Olympic victors; for not
more than two or three of them have gained a prize both as boys and as
men; their early training and severe gymnastic exercises exhausted
their constitutions. When boyhood is over, three years should be spent
in other studies; the period of life which follows may then be devoted
to hard exercise and strict diet. Men ought not to labor at the same
time with their minds and with their bodies; for the two kinds of
labor are opposed to one another; the labor of the body impedes the
mind, and the labor of the mind the body.
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