Rubbed with rich oil, their midday meal essay,
Couched in green turf, the river rolling nigh.
Then, throwing off their veils, at ball they play,
While the white-armed Nausicaa leads the choral lay.


The mere beauty of this scene all will feel, who have the sense of
beauty in them. Yet it is not on that aspect which I wish to
dwell, but on its healthfulness. Exercise is taken, in measured
time, to the sound of song, as a duty almost, as well as an
amusement. For this game of ball, which is here mentioned for the
first time in human literature, nearly three thousand years ago,
was held by the Greeks and by the Romans after them, to be an
almost necessary part of a liberal education; principally,
doubtless, from the development which it produced in the upper
half of the body, not merely to the arms, but to the chest, by
raising and expanding the ribs, and to all the muscles of the
torso, whether perpendicular or oblique. The elasticity and grace
which it was believed to give were so much prized, that a room for
ball-play, and a teacher of the art, were integral parts of every
gymnasium; and the Athenians went so far as to bestow on one
famous ball-player, Aristonicus of Carystia, a statue and the
rights of citizenship. The rough and hardy young Spartans, when
passing from boyhood into manhood, received the title of ball-
players, seemingly from the game which it was then their special
duty to learn. In the case of Nausicaa and her maidens, the game
would just bring into their right places all that is liable to be
contracted and weakened in women, so many of whose occupations
must needs be sedentary and stooping; while the song which
accompanied the game at once filled the lungs regularly and