Note 7 — Section I. PREPARATORY INSTRUCTION WITHOUT THE SWORD.

My old friend and instructor set out upon a thoroughly scientific principle, and the able way in which he has worked out his system will entitle him to the gratitude of the posteri. Having established the fact that in all our popular athletic, as opposed to gymnastic, exercises, our walking and running, cricket and football, fives, tennis, and racquets, and especially rowing—which has advanced as an art but has declined as an exercise—we circumscribe the line of muscular operation by giving the greatest share of the work to the lower limbs, and by developing one half to the injury of the other; he resolved to cultivate the whole by a wider and more varied range of training; hence he supplemented “Recreative exercise” by “Educational exercise,” and hence his systematized national gymnasia, which, taken up by H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge and by the late Sidney Herbert, have been introduced into the military stations of the Cardwell system, into Oxford and Cambridge, and into all our public schools, with one “base exception”—Eton.

Mr. MacLaren, in his ‘System of Fencing.’ &c. (p. 9), sensibly advocates “resting the weight of the body equally upon both legs.” He also lowers the right hand in the Lunge (p. 11), and (ibid.) he throws the trunk forward, perhaps with a little exaggeration.