tem was again made the subject of associated investigation. After the subject had been ripely considered and investigated in the Turning council, and opinions had been compared, experience cited, and views corrected, a beginning was made in collecting in one whole all the results of earlier and later labors on the subject, and all the separate fragments and contributions relative to it; a labor which has lastly been revised by my own pen.

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Although it was only one architect who at first drew the plan, yet master, associates, pupils, and workmen have all labored faithfully and honestly upon the structure, and have all contributed their shares to it. These shares can not now be separated again. Nor shall I be so unreasonable as to praise the living to their faces.

"This is a brief account of my work, my words, and my book. Neither of the three is perfect; but the book may serve to promote a recognition of its ideal. It is put forth only by way of rendering an account to the fatherland of what we have done and endeavored.

"This information will be welcome to many educators and teachers, friends of youth and respectable people, who know well what are the needs of the fatherland. And our former pupils, scattered throughout all ranks of civil life, will gladly hear an account of the present state of the system. From all sides have come repeated requests for a work on Turning. To this desire we have responded in writing as well as the circumstances and our own abilities would permit. We have held an active correspondence, even to the distance of beyond the Rhine and the Vistula. We have sent copies of portions of the third section to all who applied for them. The increasing diffusion of the system, and of improvements in it, are so rapid that it is impossible for the work to be perfectly complete in it. It was impossible for us to remain indifferent to the fact that the German Turning system, developed and brought out with so much labor, would receive injury from any half-knowledge, careless writing, or half-done work. From mere hearsay and looking on one can no more write on Turning than the blind on colors."

With the Turning system came up a peculiar language. This must be understood by any one who intends to acquire a full knowledge of Jahn and his system. He says, in speaking of it:

"In science or art, the German language will never leave those who know and admire it in difficulty. The proper words will never be found wanting in it to express all degrees and all results. It will keep step with the real course of development, will be found sufficient for every new phase of our people, for every occasion of life, and will keep up with every advance of our people in refinement. But it must avoid the affectation of cosmopolitan folly. No single language

has any thing to do with cosmopolitanism; its soul is the characteristic life of that one people.

"Any one setting about a new enterprise is not so much inclined to ask, Has any one ever attempted this before, or begun or finished the like? The question is, Ought this thing to be done? And the same is true of one who makes words. If he has proper regard for the fundamental laws of language, he is not open to blame. No carping critic is entitled to ask, Did any one ever say that before? The question is, Ought this expression to be used? Can not a better one be found? For every living language advances, with an irresistible movement; and grammarians and dictionaries come along in its track behind, judging of it.

"The maker of technical words ought to be an interpreter of the spirit which permanently governs the whole language. For this reason he must look back to the primitive times of the language, and must follow in the true path of its course of development. If, in investigating these original sources, he discovers any early-forgotten word, he should bring this into public notice and use again. To reproduce an ancient word, apparently dead, is a real increase and strengthening of the language. No word should be considered dead, while the language is not dead; nor obsolete, as long as the language retains its youthful strength. Buried roots, which are still alive, and can throw out a vigorous growth of new stems, twigs, and leaves, bring blessing and prosperity. The shoots and sprouts of the old roots proclaim a new spring, after the long cold of winter. Thus the language will free itself from botching and patchwork, and will again become pure and strong. Without such protection of its original roots, the language will become overburdened, like a baggage-horse or beast of burthen, and must at last succumb under its heavy load of unsuitable additions. Every ancient word brought into use anew is an abundant fountain, which feeds the navigable rivers, digs deeper the mountain-valley, and indicates the coming of the floods. The word Turn' may serve as an example. From this word have been formed, and are now in use, turnen, mitturnen, vorturnen, einturnen, wetturnen; Turner, Mitturner, Vorturner, turnerisch; turnlustig, turnfertig, turnmüde, turnfaul, turnreif, turnstark; Turnkunst, Turnkunstler, turnkunstlerisch; Turnkunde, Turnlehre, Turngeschichte, Turnanstalt; and many others."

This preface is followed by a valuable and clear description of the separate Turning exercises, and of the games practiced; and instructions on the establishment and organization of a Turning-ground.

After these come valuable general information and instruction on Turning institutions, teachers, &c. If the proverb is ever true, it is

true of Jahn, that the style is the man. Whoever would characterize him, must do it by giving matter from his works, in his own words. Accordingly, I give the following extracts from him :

"The Turning system would re-establish the lost symmetry of human development; would connect a proper bodily training with mere exclusive intellectual cultivation; would supply the proper counteracting influence to the prevailing over-refinement; and would comprehend and influence the whole man, by means of a social mode of living for the young.

"As long as men here below have a body, and while a corporeal life is necessary to their earthly existence-which, if without strength and capacity, endurance and power of continued exertion, skill, and adaptability, becomes a mere inefficient shadow-so long must the Turning system be an important department of human education. It is incomprehensible how this art-so useful for health and life, a protection, a shield, and a preparation for war-should have been so long neglected. But these sins of an earlier rude and thoughtless time have now been more or less visited upon every man. And thus the Turning system is a subject of universal human interest, and is important every where, where mortal men live upon the earth. But still its special form and discipline must be peculiarly subject to the requirements of national and popular character. It must assume such a form as is given it by the time and the people; by the influences of climate, locality, country, and nation. It is intimately connected with people and fatherland; and must remain in the closest connection with them. Nor can it prosper except among an independent people; it is appropriate only to freemen. A slave's body is a constraint and a prison to a human soul.

"Every Turning institution is a place for exercising the bodily powers, a school of industry in manly activity, a place of chivalrous contest, an aid to education, a protection to the health, and a public benefit. It is constantly and interchangeably a place of teaching and of learning. In an unbroken circle, follow constantly after each other direction, exemplification, instruction, independent investigation, practice, emulation, and further instruction. Thus the Turners learn their occupation, not from hearsay, nor from following after some transient expression. They have lived in and with their work; have investigated it, proved it, demonstrated it, experienced it, and perfected it. It awakens all the dormant powers, and secures a self-confidence and readiness which are never found at a loss. The powers grow only slowly; the strength increases gradually; activity is gained by little and little; a difficult feat is often attempted in vain, until it is at last attained by harder labor, greater effort, and unwearied industry.

Thus the will is brought past the wrong path of obstinacy, to the habit of perseverance, in which is based all success. We carry a divine consciousness in the breast, when we realize that we can do whatever we choose, if we only will. To see what others have at last found possible, arouses the pleasant hope of also accomplishing the same. In the Turning association, boldness is at home. Where others are exercising in emulation with us, all exertion is easy, all labor is pleasure. Each at the same time strengthens the others by his labor, and confirms his own powers, and encourages and elevates himself. Thus the example of each becomes a model for the rest, and accomplishes more than a thousand lessons. No real deed was ever without result.

"The director of a Turning institution undertakes a high duty; and should approve himself thoroughly whether he is competent to so important an office. He must cherish and protect the simplicity of the young, that it may not be injured by untimely precocity. The youthful heart will be more open to him than to any one else. He will see, without concealment, the thoughts and feelings of the young, their wishes and tendencies, their impulses and passions, all the morning-dreams of youthful life. He stands nearest to the young; and therefore should be their guardian and counselor, their protection and support, and their adviser for future life. Future men are intrusted to his care; future pillars of the state, lights of the church, ornaments of the fatherland. He must be subservient to no temporary spirit of the age, nor to the condition of the great world, so often plunged in error. He who is not thoroughly penetrated with a childlike spirit, and national feelings, should never take charge of a Turning institution. It is a holy work and life.

"His reward will consist merely in the consciousness of having performed his duty. Old age comes more slowly upon us among the sports of the young. Even in the worst of times we can keep our faith, love, and hope when we see the fatherland renewing itself in the growth of the young. The teacher of Turning must abstain from pretenses; for every juggler can better deceive the outer world than

he can.

"Good morals must be more implicitly the rule of action in the Turning-ground than even wise laws elsewhere. The highest penalty inflicted must always be exclusion from the Turning association.

"It can not be too often nor too deeply impressed upon the mind of every Turner, who lives such a life as he ought and who shows himself an able man, that no one is under heavier obligations than he to live a noble life, both in body and in mind. Least of all should he claim to be free from any requirement of virtue, because he is

strong of body. Virtuous and accomplished, pure and active, chaste and bold, truthful and warlike, should be his rules of action.* Bold, free, joyous, and pious is the realm of the Turner. The universal code of the moral law is his rule of conduct. To dishonor another would disgrace him. To become a model, an example, is what he should strive after. His chief lessons are these: To seek the utmost symmetry in development and cultivation; to be industrious; to learn thoroughly; to intermeddle with nothing unmanly; to permit himself to be enticed by no seductions of pleasure, dissipation, or amusement, such as are unsuitable for the young. And such admonitions and warnings should be given in such terms as to insure a school of virtue from becoming one of vice.

"But, again, it should not be concealed, that the highest and holiest duty of a German boy or German youth is to become and to remain a German man; that he may be able to labor efficiently for his people and his fatherland, and with credit to his ancestors, the rescuers of the world. Secret youthful sins will thus best be avoided by setting before the young, as the object of attainment, growth into good men. The waste of the powers and years of youth in enervating amusements, animal riot, burning lust, and beastly debauchery, will cease as soon as the young recognize the idea of the feelings of manly life. But all education is useless and idle, which leaves the pupil to disappear, like a will-o'-the-wisp, in the waste folly of a fancied cosmopolitanism, and does not confirm him in patriotic feeling. And thus, even in the worst period of the French domination, love of king and fatherland were preached to, and impressed upon, the youths of the Turning association. Any one who does any thing foolish or insulting to the German manners or language, in words or actions, either privately or publicly, should first be admonished, then warned, and, if he does not then cease his un-German actions, he should be driven away from the Turning-ground, in the sight of all men. No one ought to enter a Turning association who is knowingly a perverter of German nationality, and praises, loves, promotes, or defends foreign

manners.

"With such principles did the Turning societies strengthen, train, arm, encourage, and man themselves for the fatherland, in the gloomy, sultry times of the devil. Nor did faith, love, or hope desert them. for a moment. 'God deserts no German!' has always been their motto. In war, none of them staid at home, except those too young and too weak-and they were not idle. The Turning institution, in those three years, offered up costly sacrifices; they lie upon the battle-fields, from the gates of Berlin even to the hostile capital."

* These couples are alliterative in the original.—Trans.