58 Education and Innervation. 



pets. He also spends his thoughts upon their proper food, 

 mating, and rearing, and he is particularly careful that his 

 efforts shall result in the best stock in the village. Or, take 

 the farmer, whose hopes are centred upon his pigs, sheep, or 

 oxen. He prides himself upon securing the best breed, in 

 giving them the most suitable food, and in developing the best 

 animals that find their way into the country fair. So it is with 

 the horse trainer, dog fancier, or the poultry breeder. All aim 

 at developing the best specimen of its kind, or in making them 

 as profitable as possible, and in doing so they pay the utmost 

 attention to suitable food, environment, and training. Yet 

 with the noblest of God's creatures — man — too frequently not 

 one of these points is seriously considered. People marry and 

 continue the species without ever giving a serious thought to 

 the family history on either side or the most prominent physical 

 characteristics, and then, in due course, the children are re- 

 legated to the nursery, where their diet is administered with 

 unvarying regularity and monotonous repetition without the 

 smallest attention or regard to physical need, porridge and 

 milk, or tea and bread and butter. It speaks volumes for the 

 recuperative powers of nature that so many children condemned 

 to such a diet survive the unnatural treatment as do. Meat, 

 fruit, and sweets in the rapidly-developing human animal are 

 just as necessary as the proper exercise of the limbs and lungs 

 in the pure air of heaven. Moreover, the occasional excesses 

 in the consumption of such food when the opportunity is 

 afforded ought to warn parents and nurses that the wants of 

 nature must be supplied. It is the same with clothing and 

 exercise. Without unnecessarily covering the body with innu- 

 merable wrappings, it must be protected from a persistent sen* 

 sation of cold, and for their proper development and nutrition 

 all the muscles of the body must receive their due and regular 

 exercise. But the consideration of this part of my subject 

 shades off into the question of intellectual training, as I have 

 already intimated, and bearing in mind the close relationship 

 between them, I have now to ask you to consider the intimate 



