96 THE NEW METHOD 



time? In the vegetable kingdom development will 

 not take place at all unless the conditions favor sym- 

 metrical development. A grain of wheat is composed 

 of about a dozen elements chemically combined into 

 three classes of compounds. Four of these elementary 

 substances are derived, directly or indirectly, from 

 the atmosphere, and the rest from the soil. If a 

 single element is deficient, the grain will not thrive ; 

 and if one element is entirely wanting, not one kernel 

 of wheat will grow, even if all other conditions are 

 most favorable. The food of man, in all its variety, 

 is made up of the same three classes of compounds 

 somewhat extended, though containing very few ad- 

 ditional elements. If either the mineral, the car- 

 bon, or the nitrogen class were left out of our food 

 for a single month death would be the result. This 

 law extends to the natural growth and unfolding of 

 the human mind. Violated law tells more fatally on 

 childhood than upon age. The result of violating 

 the law of physical development is disease or death, 

 while the violation of the law of mental development 

 stultifies or paralyzes the faculties of the mind. 



From the beginning to the end of general educa- 

 tion, symmetry is the one essential law; without it, 

 all systems of education will prove a failure. The 

 child just entering school, possesses every faculty, or 

 at least the germ of every faculty, found in the ma- 



