4 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



interrupted by regular and systematic recreations. Above all — 

 and it is the most important point — it is necessary to abstain from 

 excess. Moderation, the just mean, which, has been so frequently 

 and so foolishly ridiculed, is in this master, as in many others, 

 true and practical wisdom. Not to force children to excessive 

 work in school, to be able to take rest, to limit our ambition and 

 desires as much as possible, to live for a few hours a day a purely 

 animal existence, are what we ought all to try to do ; and we 

 should be recompensed for it very quickly by better moral and 

 physical health. The value of that boon can not be overestimated. 

 If we represent the coefficient of happiness by 100, 95 of the marks 

 should go to health, while fortune and fame would only deserve 

 the other 5. The affair is one of habits rather than of regulation, 

 and legislation can have little effect upon it. Our duty is clear. 

 The first thing is to reform the education of children and youth. 

 Everybody should be made to understand that mental labor can 

 be good only as it is moderate and accompanied by bodily exer- 

 cise. Bodily activity should be encouraged, class-hours dimin- 

 ished, and play-hours increased. All this appears simple enough, 

 and easy, for everybody is at bottom agreed upon it. They all 

 preach moderation, and it has a fine sound. But is it ever easy 

 to be moderate — that is, wise ? 



Civilization has certainly enormously extended our knowledge 

 of every kind. A well-informed man to-day must know some 

 three times as much as he would have had to know two hundred 

 years ago ; and in another hundred years he will have to know as 

 much more. But there is a limit to our mental capacity. We 

 must learn to restrain ourselves. Instead of being encyclopedists, 

 we shall have to be specialists ; and, even in our specialty, will 

 have to moderate our studies. We must never let physical needs — 

 the open air, exercise, and sleep — be sacrificed to the demands of 

 school examinations or the life of society. 



We will end with a trite quotation. But trite quotations are 

 the best, because they recall uncontested and incontestable truths. 

 " Man," says Pascal, " is neither an angel nor beast." We shall 

 have to submit to being, partly at least, animals, and conse- 

 quently to take care of the animal which is half and perhaps a 

 little more than half of ourselves. If the animal suffers, the angel 

 will be ill. The future is for the races that do not sacrifice their 

 bodies. — Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Re- 

 vue Scientifique. 



As he lived in the same house with M. Barthelemy-Saint-Hilaire, he sometimes, when about 

 to retire, met his friend going to work ; for M. Barthelemy-Saint-Hilaire was accustomed to 

 begin at daylight. M. Littre led this laborious life, with inexorable regularity, for more 

 than fifty years. 



