CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



are in good order, and circulate the blood rightly ; 

 if the lungs be entire, and permit the blood to 

 receive its due supply of air ; if the brain be sound, 

 so as duly to perform all the mental functions ; 

 and if the skin be fit to carry off the perspiration 

 the chief conditions of health are observed : 

 we then experience no disagreeable or painful 

 sensations, and are able to attend to all our 

 appointed duties. To be in this state, is to enjoy 

 one of the greatest of blessings : to be otherwise, 

 is felt as a severe misfortune. It has been pro- 

 vided by our beneficent Creator, that all the organs 

 or parts of our frames, if we only take care not to 

 injure them, should continue in their original 

 soundness, and that we should consequently be 

 healthy. But if we do not take care to keep them 

 sound, it is impossible that we can be healthy. 

 For instance, taking habitually too much food, or 

 food of an injurious kind, is sure to hurt the 

 stomach ; too much thought and care injures the 

 brain, and also the heart and its vessels ; a draught 

 of cold air upon the skin, when warm, closes up 

 its pores, so that it is no longer able to carry off 

 the perspiration : each organ is liable to be thus 

 hurt, or deranged in its function, by some errone- 

 ous course of conduct, or some accident that may 

 befall it, and the consequence is disease, which, in 

 its worst forms, often occasions death. In order, 

 then, to preserve health, it is clear that we must 

 follow certain rules we must observe the laws of 

 health. It is one of the highest duties which we 

 owe to ourselves, to study to act in such a way that 

 we may possess all our native strength and health. 

 Some people inherit diseases from their parents. 

 There are also diseases which spread by infection 

 or contagion that is to say, the air carries them, 

 or they are imparted from one person to another 

 by touch : these diseases consequently seize many 

 persons who had no concern in originating them. 

 Nevertheless, in such cases, as in all others, the 

 malady can be traced to human error, however 

 innocent particular victims may be. The parents, 

 grand-parents, or some other ancestors, must have 

 contracted by imprudence the diseases which they 

 handed down to their children. Infectious and 

 contagious diseases invariably take their rise from 

 people dwelling in unhealthy places, as marshes, 

 or in the close and filthy parts of large cities, or 

 from their not taking wholesome and sufficient 

 food, or from not keeping themselves and their 

 houses clean. It thus appears that, for the sake 

 of our fellow-creatures, as well as for ourselves, it 

 is our duty to use all proper means for preserving 

 health. The chief conditions required for the 

 maintenance of health will be found treated under 

 PRESERVATION OF HEALTH, Vol. I. page 721, but 

 they may be briefly summarised as follows : The 

 place in which a man lives must be dry. His 

 house must be clean, and fresh air must be allowed 

 to circulate through it by night as well as by day. 

 He must frequently wash the whole surface of his 

 body. He must take each day not less than 

 twenty-four ounces of solid food, whereof at 

 least four ounces should be animal food. He 

 must avoid a too great sameness in his food, and 

 also too great a variety at one meaL He must 

 avoid indulgence in spirituous and fermented 

 liquors. He must spend an hour at least, and as 

 much more of his time as possible, every day in 

 the open air. He must have some occupation to 

 give him bodily and mental exercise, and which 



548 



may engage his attention eight or ten hours every 

 day. If so employed, he must spend some part of 

 his time in cheerful and sensible amusement. He 

 must never sit for a single minute in damp clothes, 

 or in a room through which a cold draught of 

 wind is passing. He must sleep from six to eight 

 hours of the twenty-four. He must be careful to 

 avoid great anxiety of mind, and endeavour to 

 sustain his fortitude against the sorrow which 

 arises from misfortune. If all men were to live in 

 accordance with these rules, disease would in time 

 be little known on earth, and human happiness 

 would be increased to a degree of which we cannot 

 now form any notion. 



Self-support. 



It appears to have been designed by Creative 

 Providence that every human being should depend 

 chiefly on the means within himself for his own 

 subsistence and advancement in the world. It 

 was never intended that we should depend upon 

 each other for food, clothing, or any other things 

 we desire : we are called upon to labour, that we 

 may obtain these things for ourselves. The sup- 

 port and comfort of each person is thus made 

 much surer than it could have been by any other 

 arrangement. 



It is of importance, therefore, for young persons 

 that they should accustom themselves from their 

 earliest years to trust as little as possible to others 

 for what they want They should learn to put on 

 their own clothes, to wash themselves, to take 

 their food with their own hands, and not to expect 

 that their mothers or servants are always to do 

 these things for them. They should learn to read, 

 to write, to cast accounts, and should store their 

 mind with knowledge, in order that they may be 

 able, as soon as possible, to go into the world and 

 earn their own bread. At the proper time they 

 should be prepared, if necessary, to commence 

 learning some art, trade, or profession, by which 

 they may maintain themselves through life. The 

 more they can serve themselves, and the more 

 they can live by their own exertions, the more 

 will they be liked and respected by others. It is 

 justly considered shameful for any one who has 

 hands to labour, and a mind to think, to remain 

 in idleness while others are at work, and to look 

 to them for enjoyments which he might, by a little 

 activity, obtain for himself. 



Whatever we trust to others to do, is scarcely 

 ever so well done as that which we do for our- 

 selves. Often, too, it is not done at all We 

 should never, then, commit any duty to another 

 which we ourselves can perform. 



Self-improvement. 



Whatever may be the extent of school educa- 

 tion, it does not supersede the necessity for self- 

 improvement. Even the most liberal academic 

 instruction leaves many gaps to be filled up, much 

 to be done for moral and intellectual advance- 

 ment Moreover, it is a law of our nature that 

 there is no standing still We must either go 

 forward or go back. Moral or intellectual stagna- 

 tion is in reality retrogression. It is this law of 

 progress that makes self-improvement a duty. If 

 we do not obey it, we lose the power of retaining 

 what we have already acquired, and become less 

 fitted than before for the performance of many 

 other duties. The man who thinks he knows 





