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enough, when the latter is under the influence of stimulants, as wine or opium; but other mental states,-depression of spirits-irritability of temper-indolence, and the craving for sensual gratification, are, it is probable, no less intimately connected with the condition of the body. The selfish, exacting habits which so often attend ill health, and the mean artifices to which feebleness of body leads, are not, indeed, necessary results; but the physical weakness so often produces the moral evil, that no moral treatment can be successful which overlooks physical causes. Without reference to its moral effects, bodily pain forms a large proportion of the amount of human misery. It is, therefore, of the highest importance, that a child should grow up sound and healthful in body, and with the utmost degree of muscular strength that education can communicate. There are a few common truths with respect to food, air, cleanliness, and exercise, which, if acted upon, would go far to accomplish as much for all children. A regular and sufficient supply of nutritious food is essential to the healthful support of the body, and the proper development of its organs. If the food is insufficient, the whole system suffers,-the blood is impoverished, and produces general debility of the organs and bodily exhaustion. The moral effect is equally injurious. The almost perpetual craving caused by insufficiency of food absorbs the attention, and while such a state of mind continues, it is next to impossible that any strong moral feeling or regard for others can grow up. In most cases, where the natural appetites of children are unsatisfied, it unfortunately arises from the narrow circumstances of their parents; but there are multitudes of instances in which abundant means for the performance of this first duty of a father are squandered in ruinous excitement. It is to be feared, too, that the cheapness, with which some schools recommend themselves to the public, is accomplished at the expense of the children, by curtailing the quantity, or lowering the quality, of their food. An excessive quantity of food is equally fatal to the bodily and mental health. Children eat to excess when their food is of various kinds or of a highly stimulating nature. The digestive organs be come oppressed, and a train of disorders follow. Tyrannical ill temper is the mental result, and parents and friends reap the natural harvest of pampering and sensual indulgence.

Pure air is as essential as food to the support of human existence. When the lungs are forced to breathe an impure atmosphere, the blood, deprived of its needful supply of oxygen, imperfectly depurated, and corrupted still further by contact with unwholesome gases, spreads weakness and disease through the system. The difference between city and country children, which strikes every eye, arises mainly from this cause. Amongst the wealthier class there is, generally, a strong sense of the importance of pure air, and a corresponding anxiety to obtain it for their children. Even among these classes, however, there is much neglect, as in the ventilation of bedrooms; and often an injurious excess of caution, which dreads the least exposure to a breeze, and by confining chil dren to the house, not only prevents sufficient muscular exercise, but deprives the expanding frame of the delightful and invigorating stimulus of fresh air. But the children of the poorer classes in large towns are the great sufferers from impurity of atmosphere. Living in narrow lanes and courts, in which accumulated filth is perpetually loading the air with noxious ingredients, they are crowded in small rooms, which seldom receive even the wretched ventilation that such places admit of. The inmates of such habitations sleep together in a

space the inclosed atmosphere of which, even with the best ventilation in the daytime, would supply but a small proportion of the requisite quantity of vital air. With its absolute impurities it is nothing less than slow poison to the sleepers. In these rooms it frequently happens that the children, particularly the younger ones, who need air most, are shut up for safety in the daytime, during the absence of working parents. And when they are let loose their sports take place in these same narrow lanes and alleys, where physical contaminations are the least evils that can befall them.

It is not easy to remedy these evils, but much may be done to diminish them. A good large play-ground should be considered an indispensable part of every school. Here, at least, the children might breathe as pure an atmosphere as large towns could supply, and, what is of not less consequence, feel practically its importance. Play-grounds would, indeed, frequently be expensive; but on what public object is expenditure justifiable if not on this, which so intimately concerns the health,—and through the health, as well as in a more direct manner, the morals of the people? It is not a good, but a mischief, to crowd children into rooms for the purpose of schooling, where there is no play-ground, and a supply of pure air is impossible. Yet, in all great towns, numbers of such schools may be found, in which, on entrance, the atmosphere is felt perfectly oppressive, and the children appear languid and restless, enlivened only by the casual opening of the door, to admit at the same moment a visitor and a stream of fresh air. The most open, airy, and healthful localities should invariably be selected for schools. School business should be frequently interrupted by a short run into the play-ground. A few minutes so used would infuse vigor into all proceedings. When the business of a class admitted of its being taken into the open air in fine weather, a master would often find the change sufficient to convert languor into alertness and attention.

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Habits of cleanliness are both healthful and moralizing. gan through which, by means of a constant but insensible part of the waste matter of the human body is carried off. without washing for any length of time, the matter collected on its surface obstructs the minute vessels or apertures, of which it contains a greater number than an equal surface of the finest cambric, and prevents the waste matter from passing out. The consequence is, that some of the other excretory organs are stimulated to an unhealthy action,—and this gradually produces weakness and ill health, or some specific form of discase, as of the bowels or lungs. When we know that numbers pass through life, having scarcely ever given their entire persons a thorough ablution; that multitudes never dream of touching with water any part of their bodies but the face, the hands, and sometimes the feet, except during the extreme heat of summer, we can readily find in such habits the cause of a considerable portion of the disease which exists. The healthful action of the skin requires that its impurities should be removed by regular ablutions of the entire person. The delicious excitement of the first bath in summer, to those who discontinue bathing in winter, is chiefly caused by the stimu lus given to the cutaneous vessels, and through them to the whole system, by the removal of the collected impurities of many months. Many, to whom entire ablution by bathing or sponging is a daily practice, can speak of its admirable efficacy in bracing and harmonizing the system, and guarding it against the varieties of colds, coughs, &c. Such habits appear extremely troublesome and

difficult of acquirement to those who grow up to mature life with opposite ones; but it is in our power, by education, to make them an essential part of the nature of the young. Children might be trained to habits of strict and entire cleanliness, which would never leave them, because they would make it far more painful to omit regular ablution than it now is to the most reluctant to practice it. If popular education did nothing more than create such habits in the children of the poor in towns, it would prevent a fearful amount of physical and moral disorder. Children habituated to cleanliness would make a change in the poorest abodes. The most wretched garrets or cellars might and would be made clean. Attention to cleanliness in the dwellings of the poor must co-exist with some degree of self-respect and moral feeling; and, where these are, there will be improvement. Habits of cleanliness, made general, would change bathing from a luxury for the few into a necessary for the many. Baths of all kinds would become cheap and accessible. If a working man, exhausted with toil, could have (as under such circumstances he might) a warm bath for the same or a less price than a glass of gin or spirits, he would learn to prefer it, as a more agreeable and effectual restorative.

Exercise, everybody admits, is essential to health. Exercise is the great law for securing the health and strength of every part of the constitution, physical and mental. In this place it is to be considered as promoting the action of the muscular system. The muscles of any portion of the body, when worked by exercise, draw additional nourishment from the blood, and by the repetition of the stimulus, if it is not excessive, increase in size, strength, and freedom of action. The regular action of the muscles promotes and preserves the uniform circulation of the blood, which is the prime condition of health. The strength of the body, or of a limb, depends upon the strength of the muscular system, or of the muscles of the limb; and as the constitutional muscular endowment of most people is tolerably good, the diversities of muscular power, observable amongst men, are chiefly attributable to exercise. The fleshy, or muscular part of a blacksmith's arm, is dense and powerful like the iron of his own anvil. Now and then individuals may be met with,—prize-fighters, gymnasticians, &c., who by careful training (which is simply judicious exercise) have communicated to every part of their bodies an extraordinary degree of strength, and brought out the muscles in a corresponding development. The astonishing feats of strength and activity performed by tumblers, rope-dancers, and exhibitors of various kinds, show what can be done with the human body by the same means. It should be an important object in education to give children a considerable degree of bodily strength. It is not merely of high utility for the laborious occupations in which most persons must pass their lives;-it is often a great support to moral dispositions. We should excite good impulses in children, and also give them the utmost strength of mind and body to carry them out. A child ought to be able to withstand injustice attempted by superior strength. Nothing demoralizes both parties more than the tyranny exercised over younger children by elder ones at school. Many good impulses are crushed in a child's heart when he has not physical courage to support them. If we make a child as strong as his age and constitution permit, he will have courage to face greater strength. A boy of this kind, resisting firmly the first assumption of an elder tyrant, may receive some hard treatment in one encounter, but he will have achieved his deliverance. His courage will secure respect. The tyrant will not again

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excite the same troublesome and dangerous resistance. This is certainly not intended to encourage battles at school,-far from it. But, until a high degree of moral education is realized, the best security for general peace among children of different ages is to give each a strength and spirit which no one will like to provoke. It will further give each a confidence in his powers, and a selfrespect, without which none of the hardy virtues can flourish.

The gymnastic exercises profess to be scientifically adapted to the develop ment of the human frame; and many of them no doubt are so. They fail, or become injurious, by furnishing no contemporaneous mental excitement, or by being used without regard to the health or strength of the individual. The instruments for a few of the most approved and agreeable of these exercises ought to form a regular part of school machinery;—the circular swing, vaulting frame, climbing pole, and some others. But the great desideratum in physical educa tion is, a series of games of an exciting character, arranged so as to develop the different muscles of the body. The mere exercise of the muscles, while the mind is inert or averse, is comparatively of little value. The efficacy of exercise requires the direction of the attention and the muscular effort to the same point at the same moment.* Most of the common sports of children secure this; but they seldom require the operation of more than a particular set of muscles. It would be desirable to have games which should at once interest, exercise various muscles, and keep all the players as active as possible. Football, perhaps, is one of the best in common use. It keeps a whole field in high excitement and action. Ball in a fives-court is excellent, but can occupy no more than four at the same time. Leap-frog exercises the muscles of the limbs and loins in running and jumping, and the muscles of the loins and back in supporting. The game of battle-door and shuttle-cock is excellent for the arms and chest, and should be played with both hands, not only for the development of the left muscles of the thorax, but also for the exercise of the left arm. Nothwithstanding the unanswerable arguments of Franklin, the left arm labors under the grievance of entire neglect up to the present day. Cricket is a fine game; but there is little continuous exercise, except for the striker and the bowler. Prison-base, hunt the hare, hoops, whipping-tops, are all good; but there is ob viously required a set of games which, with an interesting purpose, would keep all engaged in them active, give full play to the voice, and call for the exercise of strength and activity in all the different muscles. Whoever shall supply this want will confer a service of no ordinary kind on education. The want exists to a still greater degree in female education, most of the best exercises for boys being unsuitable for girls; but there are some, such as battle-door and shuttlecock, and hoops, which answer equally well for both, and an inventive mind, with a knowledge of the structure of the body, could no doubt multiply them. Besides the communication of health and strength, physical education includes training in certain bodily accomplishments or arts. A few of these, which should be common to all classes, require notice. Children of both sexes may easily learn to swim, and when acquired early, the power may be increased to a great extent. There is, probably, no exercise which calls into play such a variety of organs. It purifies the skin, and stimulates its entire surface by a

*For a more full and interesting exposition of this and other laws of exercise, see Dr. A. Coombe's "Principles of Physiology, applied to the preservation of Health, and the improvement of Education."

uniform and gentle friction. The muscles of the trunk, neck, and limbs are strongly called out. A facility in swimming would be an additional temptation to bathing, and therefore to cleanliness. The use of the accomplishment as a means of self-preservation, or of saving the lives of others, needs no remark.

Reciting and reading aloud are physical accomplishments, with important effects, both physical and mental. Clear enunciation is not unconnected with clearness of mind. By careful management from early childhood this habit may be established if the organs of speech are not defective. Speaking aloud is a powerful exercise of those all-important organs, the lungs, as well as of various muscles of the lower part of the trunk. Perhaps, if the physical power of distinct and composed utterance were general, it would tend, more than even a considerable increase of intelligence, to free men from the influence of demagogues. Persons who happen to possess this power, in conjunction with a certain superficial fluency, exercise in public meetings an influence almost marvelous over men vastly their superiors in intellect and information. A loud voice does wonders at a time of excitement. If every man who had thoughts had a power of uttering them before assemblies of his fellow citizens, the despotism of demagogues would be at an end.

Singing is another branch of physical education, if that indeed can be called physical which ought also to be an exercise of the intellect and still more of the heart, and which may become a powerful instrument for the refinement and moral elevation of mankind. Its physical use is considerable. It gives as much healthful exercise to the lungs and chest as reading aloud or recitation. But, as a spring of cheerfulness,-a means of tranquilizing excited feelings,-a source of enjoyment when the exhaustion of bodily labor prevents the indulgence of more purely intellectual tastes,—and a mode of satisfying that desire of excitement which, in the intervals of business or study, is sure to present itself, and which, if it find no pure and legitimate gratifications, seeks those which are neither,music is a blessing of which we can scarcely over-estimate the value. The faculty was not given to man to lie dormant. It is all but universal in the species. The kind may be rude where the taste is rude, but music, in some shape, everywhere gladdens man's existence. We can make the enjoyment more varied and intense by cultivation, and blend it with the purest and most exalted feelings, instead of allowing it to add force to temptation by its alliance with vicious pleasures. Wind and stringed instruments are expensive; but the most perfect of all instruments, the voice, is within reach of all. At least, there are few children who, being begun with at an early age, can not be trained to sing so as to derive and communicate pleasure. A fondness for music, even of the rudest kind, is a taste above the dominion of sense. It raises man above the level of brute appetite. A degree of cultivation, within reach of all, would make it a standard enjoyment. Love of music must bring innumerable gentle and kindly sympathies along with it. Whatever is greatest and most beautiful in thought, or nature, or in human deeds, finds fitting utterance in music, and through music finds a way to the general heart.

Music, thus appealing to the highest feelings, is a moral agent. It is also an organ of great power for the expression of religious feelings. The loftiest conceptions of the divinity-the profoundest adoration—the ideas struggling out of the depths of the soul, of the power and beauty and goodness of God and creation, to which language, made up by the senses, seems so weak and inadequate—

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