I hope that the gymnastic institutions will be revived; for our . . . youths need them, especially the students, who, with a great deal of mental and intellectual exertion, are without any physical equilibrium, and therefore without any necessary power of action. . . . The body has, at least, the greatest influence upon [the productiveness of genius]. There was indeed a time when, in Germany, a genius was always thought of as short, weak, or hunch-backed; but commend me to a genius who has a well-proportioned body. When it was said of Napoleon that he was a man of granite, this applied particularly to his body. . . . From the burning sands of the Syrian deserts, to the snowy plains of Moscow, what an incalculable amount of marches, battles, and nightly bivouacs did he go through ? And what fatigues and bodily privations was he forced to endure? . . . [T]he learned men and statesmen [of today], shackled to the desk, are ruined in body and consigned to the demon of hypochondria. Here there should be action from above, that future generations may at least be preserved from a like destruction.—Goethe (Conversations with Eckermann)