EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 233 



politeness, and their exercise is not only a principal charm of life 

 for theii possessor and those on whom they are reflected, but they 

 are also a powerful influence in the Dromotion of the material wel- 

 fare. 



Care of the Person When it was written that " cleanliness 

 is next to godliness," whether it was meant to imply mere bodily 

 cleanliness, or as well purity of the mind, the manners and the 

 morals there was a good deal more philosophy conveyed in the 

 proverb than is expressed. The bath of the Mohammedan is a part 

 of his religion, and strict cleanliness was one of the most rigid 

 injunctions of the Mosaic law. It would be an inestimable boon to 

 the physical welfare of modern Christian countries if this virtue of 

 the Eastern infidels could be but made a part of the ordinary relig- 

 ious obligation. Scrupulous cleanliness of the person is something 

 that one not only owes to himself and to his neighbors, but it is, as 

 well, one of the most substantial comforts and grateful luxuries at 

 our command, while the return in physical benefit which it confers 

 ought to be in itself a sufficient incitement to its systematic cultiva- 

 tion. It is greatly to be feared that this is the point of all others 

 where physical education in America is lacking, and that while, in 

 a sense, personal vanity compels the preservation of a presentable 

 surface, the fair exterior which our average citizen of either sex 

 presents is but the whiting of the sepulchre. " Shall I wash for a 

 high neck dress or a low neck dress, mother? " is a current witticism 

 which points at what we must fear is, to a large extent, a palpable 

 truth. How many hundreds out of every thousand go from 

 month to month, without any other purification than the hand-basin 

 affords, and yet would be unanimously indignant if the whisper 

 "unclean" were ever so gently to assail them? In how many 

 thousands of houses do we find the piano, but not the bath-room ? 

 And yet people consider themselves refined and cleanly, and have 

 no conception of the horror and disgust with which they would 

 regard the revelations which a Turkish bath might make for them! 

 The care of the person ought to be made a very essential part 

 of the education which belongs to Health and Home, and strict 

 habits in this regard should be scrupulously cultivated. The bath 

 to even the youngest child should be graduated into a habit and 

 cultivated into a luxury. As children grow older they should be 

 taught the most punctilious and exact habits for the care of the 

 person, and with particular regard to the hair, the teeth, the nails, 

 and the hands and feet; not on the ground of vanity, or even of 

 health necessarily, but as a matter of self-respect. These habits of the 

 body will be conveyed again to the apparel, for the youth or 

 maiden who has been trained to fastidious cleanliness of the person 

 will not be able to endure contact with soiled linen, unpolished 

 boots, frayed gloves or an ill-conditioned or untidily kept hat. The 

 care of the person has these claims to our regard : It is essential to 

 personal comfort ; it is inseparable from personal dignity and self- 



