When the child was able to read and write with facility, he entered on the course called μουσική, which embraced the study of poetry and music. Passages from Homer, Hesiod, Theognis, Phokylides, and Solon, and from many lyric poets, were read and committed to memory. Xenophon mentions in his Symposium (_Symp._ iii, 5) a certain Nikeratos who had committed to memory the whole of both the Iliad and the Odyssey. The boys were also taught to chant the poems they had learned to the accompaniment of the lyre. Much stress was laid on the moral effects of music. But from no system of Greek education was γυμναστική, the careful and systematic development of the young body excluded. Nor did this training cease in mature years; when young men left the palæstra, they found awaiting them the gymnasium,--an institution that was adapted to social as well as athletic purposes. Nor did any Greek philosopher, as might, perhaps, be expected, ever dream of dropping γυμναστική from his ideal scheme. In the Laws of Plato there is a detailed discussion of the education of children, and the plan is therein advocated of restricting the education of boys to gymnastics until their tenth year; the regular study of letters was not to begin until after the body had been made sound. Aristotle also maintained that gymnastic training should precede as well as accompany that of the mind. Enough has been said to show that the Hellenic ideal of manhood was not the mere scholar and subtle thinker, but the naked athlete with firm flesh and swelling muscle. It may be asserted that the mass of their young men reached during the best age of Greek history a stage of physical perfection which has never been attained in any other age or country. This is attested by thousands of statues of victorious athletes, not only in Olympia but throughout Greece. Although the Greeks had no cricket or football they had on the other hand a far greater variety of games than we have, and this variety made for the symmetrical development of the body. The athletic sports of Greece remained great and respected until excessive training and extreme specialization brought ruin to them; that is, when a boxer devoted all his time to boxing, and a wrestler to wrestling at the expense of a harmonious development of the body. The influence of the old Greek games upon sculpture, painting and poetry, as well as upon athletics, will continue to keep alive for centuries to come the ideal of a sound body for a sound mind. Transcriber’s Notes The following inconsistencies and typos were corrected: Changed +accidently+ to +accidentally+ in “he accidentally killed by an unlucky throw”. Changed +greeves+ to +greaves+ in “helmet, corselet, girdle, greaves and shield”. Changed +greeves+ to +greaves+ in “The greaves, which were made of flexible metal plates”. Changed +ox hide+ to +oxhide+ in “layers of tough oxhide”.