The practises of the gymnasium may be traced backward to the remotest antiquity, and probably commenced among the warriors of the heroic ages,[625] in the peaceful intervals occurring between expeditions, from the desire to amuse their leisure by mimic representations of more serious contests. At first, no doubt, the exercises, frequently performed in honour of the gods,[626] were few and rude; but by the age of Homer they had assumed an artificial and regular form, and comprehended nearly all such divisions of the art as prevailed in later times. Other views than those with which they were instituted, caused them to be kept up. When reflection awoke, it was perceived that in these amicable contests men acquired not only force and agility, a martial bearing, the confidence of strength, beauty, and lightness of form; but, along with them, that easy cheerfulness into which robust health naturally blossoms.[627] In fact, so far were the legislators of Greece from designing by gymnastics to create, as Montesquieu[628] supposes, a nation of mere athletes and combatants, that they expressly repudiate the idea, affirming that lightness, agility, a compactly knit frame, health, but chiefly a well-poised and vigorous mind, were the object of this part of education. In order the better to attain this point, Plato in his republic ordains that boys be completed in their intellectual studies, which in his ideal state they were to be at the age of sixteen, before they entered the gymnasium, the exercises of which were to be the companions of simple music. From converting their citizens into athletes they were prevented by experience; for it was quickly discovered that those men who made a profession of gymnastics acquired, indeed, by their diet and peculiar discipline a huge stature and enormous strength, but were altogether useless in war, being sleepy, lethargic, prodigious eaters, incapable of enduring thirst or hunger, and liable to the attacks of sudden and fatal diseases if they departed in the least degree from their usual habits and regimen.[629] Footnote 625: Cf. Athen. i. 16. Footnote 626: Hom. Hymn. Apoll. 149. Footnote 627: Plat. Gorg. t. iii. p. 14. Footnote 628: Esprit des Loix, l. iv. c. 8. Footnote 629: Cf. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 151.—To express the sweat gained by exercise or labour, the Greeks used to say ξηρὸς ἱδρὼς, or ‘dry sweat.’—Phæd. t. i. p. 26. Runners, it was observed, had large legs; wrestlers small.—Xenoph. Conv. ii. 17.