In England there is not much physical education of a formal and methodical nature; the English are not remarkable for a love of gymnastic exercises, and they seldom train or develop the body scientifically except when they prepare themselves for boat races. In saying this I leave out of consideration the small class of professional athletes, which is not numerous enough to affect the nation generally. It has been said, and by a French author, that of all modern races the English come nearest, in the physical life, to the existence of the ancient Greeks. The difference, however, between the modern English and the Greeks of classic antiquity is mainly in this, that the Greeks were a systematically trained people and the English are not. [Sidenote: Activity of the English.] [Sidenote: Their irregular Training.] [Sidenote: Advantage of Amusements.] Still, the English are a remarkably active people, and they owe their activity chiefly to a love of rural amusements and of the open air. Thus, in an informal manner, they get a kind of unscientific training which is of immense advantage to their health and vigour. A criticism of this irregular training (which is not mine, as it comes from a scientific gymnast) affirms that it develops the legs better than the arms and chest, and that although it increases strength it does not much cultivate suppleness. According to scientific opinion, more might be made of the English people if they took as much interest in gymnastic training as they do in their active amusements. The advantage of these amusements is that they divert the mind, and so in turn have a healthy influence on the body, independently of muscular exertion. [Sidenote: Professor Clifford.] There are exceptions to the usual English indifference about gymnastics, and it may happen that the lover of gymnastics cares less than others for the usual English sports. This was the case with Professor Clifford. His biographer says: “At school he showed little taste for the ordinary games, but made himself proficient in gymnastics; a pursuit which at Cambridge he carried out, in fellowship with a few like-minded companions,[2] not only into the performance of the most difficult feats habitual to the gymnasium, but into the invention of other new and adventurous ones. His accomplishments of this kind were the only ones in which he ever manifested pride.” [Sidenote: Choice of Physical Pursuits.] [Sidenote: Gladstone.] [Sidenote: Wordsworth. Scott. Byron.] [Sidenote: Keats.] [Sidenote: Shelley.] [Sidenote: Tyndall.] [Sidenote: Millais. Bright.] [Sidenote: Trollope.] [Sidenote: Palmerston.]