PERFECT HEAL'TH 131 



he is having it. Let us rejoice in his courage. We cannot 

 help liking him. On the whole, he has a fairly healthy mind 

 in a very healthy body. '^ Eden isn't quite done yet," as Mark 

 Tapley said to Martin Chuzzlewit, but under proper cultiva- 

 tion it is a field of great promise. 



Has not Nature done her full share by implanting com- 

 pelling instincts and tendencies? Has she not started boy 

 and girl on the road to fitness? If they complete the line of 

 development marked out by her in play-instincts, will they 

 not come to something pretty fine and grand? Is failure, if 

 it comes, due to Nature or to bad nurture, or the clumsiness 

 of artificial education, the emptiness and staleness of artificial 

 environment? Environment is largely forced upon the child, 

 in spite of himself and Nature. Let us be men enough not 

 to try to throw on Nature the blame for our own weakness, 

 faults and sins; that is childish. 



Our young friend revisits us at thirty. Physically he looks 

 as vigorous as at twenty and with more endurance. As an 

 athlete his powers have probably culminated. Whether this 

 is necessary, I dare not say. He loses more hours and days 

 from his work through slight indisposition, brief acute attacks 

 of indigestion, bronchitis, and similar ailments. Nature is 

 seeking out his weakest point and attacking it, soon she will 

 lay siege. His body is passing its prime. It holds its highest 

 level for only a few years. The effect on his elan and morale 

 is not good. Dr. Johnson probably exaggerated somewhat 

 when he said: '' Sir, a sick man is always a scoundrel "; it 

 is not always true. 



He has found his place and calling, and is successful in his 

 work: doctor, lawyer, merchant, or chief. We are proud of 

 him. He is a master in his craft and knows his business. 

 Too often he has focussed his attention steadily on this point. 

 His bundle of interests has shrunken accordingly. He no 

 longer cares for art, music, literature, or general science, or 

 for questions outside of his own calling. His sympathies have 

 narrowed. He reminds us somewhat of a horse driven in 



