21. For those who live near streams or bodies of water, there are the delightful recreations of boating, swimming, and skating. Certain of these exercises have a practical importance aside from and above their use in increasing the physical vigor. This is especially true of boating and swimming, since they are often the means of saving life. Practice in these exercises also teaches self-reliance, courage, and presence of mind. Persons who have become proficient in these vigorous exercises are generally the ones, {33} who, in times of danger, are the quickest to act and the most certain to do so with judgment. [Sidenote: 22. What kind of exercise yields the best results? What advice is given?] 22. PHYSICAL CULTURE.--That form of exercise which interests and excites the mind, will yield the best results; but to some persons no kind of exertion whatever is, at first, agreeable. They should, nevertheless, make a trial of some exercise, in the expectation that, as they become proficient in it, it will become more pleasant. In exercise, as many sets of muscles should be employed as possible, open-air exercise being the best. Parlor gymnastics, and the discipline of the gymnasium are desirable, but they should not be the sole reliance for physical culture. No in-door exercise, however excellent in itself, can fill the place of hearty and vigorous activity in the open air. [Sidenote: 23. Physical culture among the ancients? In Greece? In schools and colleges at the present time? Result to the body and mind?] 23. GYMNASTIC EXERCISES FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.--In the system of education among the ancients, physical culture predominated. In ancient Greece, physical exercises in schools were prescribed and regulated by law, and hence these schools were called _gymnasia_. At the present time, on the contrary, this culture is almost wholly unknown, as a part of the course of education, in our schools and colleges. In a few of our institutions of learning, however, physical exercises have been introduced, with manifest advantage to the students, and they form a part of the regular curriculum of exercises,--as much so as the recitations in geography, grammar, or Greek. The good effect of the experiments, as shown in improved scholarship as well as increased bodily vigor, in the institutions where the plan has been tried, will, it is hoped, lead to its universal adoption. We should then hear less frequently of parents being obliged to withdraw their children from school, because they become exhausted {34} or, perchance, have lost their health from intense and protracted mental application. [Sidenote: 24. The result of gymnastics in our colleges and other institutions of learning?]