Sunshine, Strength, and Sanity
the machines of our existence, yet few of us feel the full exultation that Nature intended us to have in the mere fact of being alive. " To many ramblers their body is entirely
strange," says Professor Suren, who was, until recently, the Chief Physical Instructor of the German army—" only in the midst of nature, their nakedness clothed in light, do men first obtain true knowledge thereof. There is a purity, a sacredness in our natural nakedness. Placed in the bright frame -9f exalted nature the Intnan body finds its most ideal manifestations."
- We cannot do better than to suns 'up the book in the true and terse sentence in which Dean Inge has already judged it : " The author is a bit of a fanatic, but the book will do good." We thoroughly agree and would congratulate Dr. Saleeby, who writes a short preface, on having made this work available to. English readers. Apparently it: was thought that such a panegyric on nakedness might shock the public : we may say, therefore, that neither in the illustrations nor the text is there anything unsuitable for the modern home or school.
Indeed, it is just in schools where these ideas of purity and physical prowess should find their most congenial soil.
In England we should all benefit by more sunlight ; of that there is no question, and the good work which Dr. Saleeby and the Sunlight League are doing is worthy of the notice of all right-thinking people. True it is that an excess of sun appears to have a deleterious effect on those suddenly subjected to its ray ; and that the races that enjoy the most sunlight are not necessarily remarkable for strength and stamina. Yet there is a world of difference between the climates of temperate and sup-tropical regions, and here in England, our mists notwithstanding, we should be more alive to the magical powers of the ultra-violet ray. The book has run into sixty editions in Germany, where physical fitness is being taken much more seriously than in this country. If by some fortunate chance it should enjoy a similar popularity in England that fact might be the harbinger of incalculable benefits to our national health.
R is not only in the heat of the sun, in the lash of the wind, in the kiss of the wave, that health is to be found—the changes of season themselves, according to Herr Soren, are instinct with a special stimulus and a secret power. A tremendous force, he says, is driving men and women out to the woods, barefoot and often entirely unclothed, to seek health as did the ancient Greeks. That is true of Germany. That there is a real value in this shedding of clothes we do not deny. In this age " of the ruthless domination of the intellect," as Dr. Suren expresses it, we have much to learn from simpler ways of life, where the voice of the heart and soul may have an opportunity to make themselves heard, rather than the scratching of the pen of pedants. We must guard ourselves, however, from that serious, scientific pushing of a theory to extremes which is a characteristic of many European minds, but not, most fortunately, of the illogical English.
In the main, Herr Suren is right: He does not wish to return to barbarism, but rather to win again for Europe the health and strength of savages, while maintaining all that is worthy in the sphere of the intellect, accumulated through the ages of man's ascent from apes. We will conclude by a sample-of his rather too lyrical, yet obviously sincere style :— Nature is our home ! Let the wretches sleep on who find their happiness in the streets of the city, for they are lost ; history will scatter them like chaff. We must grope back to Nature ; in her we shall be able to rediscover the sublime ; the wonderful—the divine. In Nature the very-blood sings in our veins ; we regain' knoWledge of feeling, of wonder, of belief. All this cannot be measured,' gauged, or compassed by the intellect—and yet it is living truth. Truth ; buried by the ' achievements' of civilization, by the miasma of the towns, by the evils of smoking and drink, and covered by the cloak of overbred intellectualism. In the present time of dire need the call to sunlight and Nature rings out compellingly, and with astonishment men straighten- themselves us the town,, the office.and the factory, to hearken to this voice of promise- from ages long past."
:'Herr_ Suren repeats himself rather too frequently for our taste, but the book is not a: literary.exercise. but a ,powerful presentation of the value of returnin&nipre closely to-the great. natural forces from which all things created-drawtheir nurture.
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