gymnastic training...

This blog has before discussed a kind of physical asceticism lived by certain of the Boston Unitarians (Henry Ware Jr., William Ellery Channing etc...) much to the detriment of their own health.  I came across this mention in A.P. Preston's memoir of James Freeman Clarke.  The fascinating Charles Follen tried to do something about this tendency during his time at Harvard...

"Dr. Follen had then recently taken his place in the corps of teachers (when Clarke arrived in 1825), and had introduced the study of the German language and literature, which till his time had no place in the college curriculum. He had also made the first breaches in the barrier which had precluded the students from intimate relations with the Faculty. He had, moreover, introduced a system of gymnastic training, which was made availing by all who were not physically incapacitated for it, and to which not a few of the students—probably Clarke among the number — were largely indebted for lifelong power of labor and endurance."

Blessings