Strength, and how to obtain it / by Eugen Sandow.

  • Eugen Sandow
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Strength, and how to obtain it / by Eugen Sandow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    indeed, all forms of manly sport and exercise, are admir- able things in their way, but they are not physical culture. A part of it, if you like; but physical culture is something far wider in its scope, infinitely loftier in its ideals. What was the ideal of the Greeks ? They were ardent athletes, but their pastimes were only regarded as a means to an end. The Greeks regarded the culture of the body as a sacred duty; their aim was to bring it to the highest possible state of power and beauty, and we know how they succeeded. Surely what they suc- ceeded in doing cannot be impossible for us. Does the reader now begin to get a clearer idea of what is meant by physical culture? As I have pre- viously said, it is to the body what culture, in the ac- cepted sense of the word, is to the mind. To constantly and persistently cultivate the whole of the body so that at last it shall be capable of anything that sound organs and perfectly developed muscles can accomplish—that is physical culture. The production, in short, of an absolutely perfect body—that is physical culture. To undo the evil for which civilization, and all the draw- backs it has brought in its train, have been responsible in making man regard his body lightly—that is the aim of physical culture. I think I am justified in saybig that while it embraces every variety of athletics it goes very much further. Possibly there are people who will refuse to admit that this aim is in itself a desirable one. They may say that the sound body is only valuable in so far as it en- ables the sound mind to perform its work. This I regard as nonsensical cant. I absolutely and strenuously refuse to allow for an instant that the cultivation of the body is, per se, a comparatively valueless thing. On the contrary, I maintain that he who neglects his body—and not to cultivate it is to neglect it—is guilty of the worst sin ; for he sins against Nature. I take my stand upon this then—that the care of the body is in itself an absolutely good thing, and its neglect is no more to be excused than is the neglect of the opportunities of mental
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