Hitherto training has been, and still is, largely regarded as a sort of monopoly of the few, and is considered by many to be mysteriously connected with beefsteaks and a total abstinence from tobacco. That such practices come under the head of certain special species of training, and no doubt in many cases are admirably fitted for the production of the highest possible excellence in one or other branch of athletics, is quite possible; but what we mean by Training, by the sort of Training, that is, which is within the reach, and lies almost in the sphere of duty, of everyone, is a less specialized and infinitely more important condition, for it means, as we have said before, a condition of body that will enable one to get the most possible out of oneself, whether the work in hand is mental, spiritual, or merely physical. But in the ensuing pages it is to be hoped that the reader will find an absence of dogmatism; such at any rate has been one of the chief objects of the authors. Theories and suggestions will be put forward, for instance, about the use of simpler foods; but it is to be remembered that they are, though supported by solid evidence, only meant to be theories and suggestions worth trying, we venture to hope, in those cases where the ordinary heavy meat meal produces on its consumer somnolence and disinclination to activity. Again, in the way of exercises, certain brisk full movements instead of dumb-bells, the use of which many find laborious, monotonous and wearying, are put forward as worth a trial, seeing that in many instances they have given satisfactory results. The book, in fact, is meant to be anything rather than a beaten hedged-in path beyond the bounds of which none may stray, for this is exactly what seems to the authors to be the defect in most existing systems of training. It is meant rather to show a not unpleasant track leading, as it were, through fields, and mainly, it is hoped, in the right direction. Finally, even at the risk of wearisome reiteration, the word “Training” throughout is to be understood not in the sense of Training for merely some special athletic event, though it includes such, but Training for the ordinary work-a-day businesses of life, so that we may be able to do them better, quicker, with more taste for them, and with less fatigue. CHAPTER II. FALLACIES AND DEFECTS IN PRESENT SYSTEMS OF TRAINING.