Already in the Homeric age, gymnastics, though not as yet so named, constituted the principal object of education, and many branches of the art had even then been carried to a high degree of perfection.[630] The passion for it descended unimpaired to the Spartans, whose polity, framed solely for the preservation of national independence and the acquisition of glory in war, inspired little fondness for mental pursuits, but left the youth chiefly to the influence of the gymnasia, which gradually created in them a temper of mind compounded of insensibility and ferocity,[631] not unlike that of the North American Indians. This, however, they above all things prized, though as has been justly observed their exercises could in no sense be considered among the aids to intellectual cultivation.[632] Footnote 630: Feith, Antiq. Homer. iv. 6. 304. Cramer. p. 35. Footnote 631: Plat. de Rep. t. vi. 154. Footnote 632: Hermann. Polit. Antiq. § 26. n. 2. At Athens they came later into vogue, though common in the age of Solon. When, however, this ardent and enthusiastic people commenced the study of gymnastics, admiring as they did strength and vigour of frame, when united with manly beauty, their plastic genius soon converted it into an art worthy to be enumerated among the studies of youth. In very early ages they imitated the Spartan custom of admitting even boys into the gymnasia. But this was soon abandoned, it being found more profitable first to instruct them in several of the branches of study above described, and a class of men[633] called pædotribæ or gymnasts arose, who taught the gymnastic art privately, in subordination to their other studies, and were regarded as indispensable in the progress of education.[634] These masters gave their instructions in the palæstræ,[635] which generally formed a part of the gymnasia, though not always joined with those edifices, and to be carefully distinguished from them. It is not known with certainty at what age boys commenced their gymnastic exercises, though it appears probable that it was not until their grammatical and musical studies were completed, that is somewhere perhaps, as Plato counsels, about the age of sixteen. For it was not judged advisable to engage them in too many studies at once, since in bodies not yet endowed with all their strength over-exertion was considered injurious. Footnote 633: Cf. Æsch. cont. Tim. § 37. Casaub. ad Theophr. Char. p. 200. Footnote 634: Cramer, p. 36. Footnote 635: Poll. iii. 149.