[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Title-page of “Gymnastik für die Jugend” (1793).] Joseph Röckl, a professor of pedagogy, passed nine days at the school in 1805, and in a published record of his observations commends the frugal diet there, the light and simple clothing, the unusually airy rooms for sleeping and study, the regard for personal cleanliness, the active outdoor life, regular walks, work in the garden, and especially the gymnastic exercises. He visited, with GutsMuths, the newly erected riding school, the grounds for jumping and vaulting, and the swimming pool; watched the pupils handling saw, plane, and chisel, or engaged in paste work; and learned of the occasional festivals and the yearly excursions. He doubts whether anywhere in all Germany there is an educational institution which devotes more care to the physical well-being of its scholars. [Illustration: FIG. 13.—One of the plates in “Gymnastik für die Jugend” (1793).] Other visitors also came to Schnepfenthal, and went away to spread the news of what was undertaken and accomplished there. The lasting fame of GutsMuths, however, depends less upon the example furnished by his fifty years of teaching than upon his books, two of which, at least, the “Gymnastics for the Young” (1793), and its continuation, the “Games” (1796), not only constitute the first modern manuals on those subjects, but deserve to rank as classics. The former[25] was issued in two volumes, which contain altogether about seven hundred pages, nine copper-plate illustrations of various exercises, and a folding sheet with explanatory drawings of apparatus. The first volume is divided into five chapters: 1, We are weak because it does not occur to us that we could be strong if we only would. 2, Consequences of the common method of education, and especially the neglect of bodily training. 3, All the means hitherto employed against lack of hardihood are insufficient. 4, Gymnastics proposed and objections answered. 5, The effects and object of gymnastics. The second and larger volume is a practical handbook, arranged as follows: Chapter 6, Gymnastics defined, the open-air gymnasium described, the exercises classified. 7-15, Different sorts of jumping, running, throwing, wrestling, climbing, balancing, lifting, carrying, pulling, dancing, walking, military exercises, bathing and swimming. 16, Behavior in case of fire, keeping watch at night, fasting. 17, Loud reading and declaiming. 18, Exercises of the senses. 19, The exercises classified, according to the different parts of the body which each affects. 20, Method, use of time, general rules. 21, Manual labor and training. A second edition of the work, so much altered that it is virtually a new treatise, was published in 1804.[26]