Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/170

154 charity, and in civic virtue, in short, as he is passing out of the age of individualism into that of fraternalism, evidence is abundant on every side that the body beautiful, the visible expression of a strong and lofty soul, shall no longer be neglected and its care and development left to chance or ignorance. Physical education and civic virtue, which is but an active demonstration of the love of one's fellows, are advancing with equal step. Charity, patience and courage are the attributes of the well-trained and vigorous physique, and these traits of character are daily becoming more common.

Instances similar to those appearing in this paper probably might be multiplied indefinitely, yet enough have been cited, it seems to me, to prove the contention that in nearly every quarter of the earth, pagan and Christian alike, are to be perceived unmistakable signs of the approach of a general "physical renaissance such as the world has only seen twice, or perhaps thrice, and which preceded the most brilliant periods in the intellectual history of mankind." In spite of the lamentations which we so often hear of the sordidness and vulgarity of modern life, of the brazen display of wealth and the venality of public men, there are not wanting many signs that the tide is setting in toward a higher and a nobler manhood and a purer, simpler and more wholesome life, and not the least of these signs is the evidence just cited, gathered from many different sources, that the physical conscience is again, after slumbering for 2,000 years, awaking and asserting itself, and will rule the world again as it did in ancient Greece.

If the coming man will listen to its voice it will lead him into a civilization that will surpass that of Greece by as much as the present age surpasses that of Pericles in the "solid progress of the sciences and their application to the useful arts."