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president’s ADDRESS — SECTION I. 
Equally witli tlie physical, the mental side o£ the organism needs 
to be developed and exercised if the best health is to be enjoyed. The 
question of mental education is at the outset simply the problem how 
to bring the more important of the vast universe of facts within the 
reach of the senses. And it is because this — the true aim of prepara- 
tory education — is best attained in the method of the Kindergarten, 
that I venture to hold it up as somewhat of a model of what the 
healthy mental training of childhood should be. It is later on in life 
that the reflective faculties come into play, and need in turn their 
progressive and systematic exercise. This cultivation of the reason 
and the judgment should follow, not precede, the training of the 
powers of observation. 
In both processes the scientific requirements are that the exercise 
be suited to the age, not excessive in amount, satisfactory to the ten- 
dencies, and continuous throughout life. Upon many of these grounds 
the modern competitive system, with its inevitable “cramming,” stands 
self-condemned. In how many cases, indeed, may we not almost agree 
with the authority who wrote, “ Could we but see all the changes 
incident upon it, we would see how mad they are, and how much the 
dull are to be envied rather than the successful, the flattered, and 
the triumphant.” And to gain this verdict u overwork hurries its 
thousands of unrecognised victims into an early grave.” Nor is this 
all. Too frequently the combination is that of a mind overworked in 
a body unexercised. But to expect to know truly and reason correctly 
without a healthy exercise of the servants of the intellect, is as foolish 
as for the chemist to rely upon discoveries made in unknown test- 
tubes, and w ith indefinite reagents. Hence it is that many to whom the 
world looks for guidance lead it astray, and many who should enjoy 
mental health suffer from intellectual discomfort and dissatisfaction. 
Nor can I omit to remind you how science insists upon a healthy school- 
room and due regard to the needs of the different senses. It sees that 
the eye is not improperly strained ; that the “ stupidity” is not due 
to defective hearing produced by post-nasal growths ; that ventilation, 
light, and cleanliness are present, and infectious disease absent. It 
remembers that hunger must be appeased before the brain is exercised, 
and that school is the place in which to teach, not to hear wdiat has 
been laboriously learnt at borne. 
The wise direction of the moral sense is also a sanitary matter 
that cannot be disregarded. The influence of the moral sense is not 
all ethical and ideational, but descends into every-day life, and brooks 
no interference even from the intellect. But it has been peculiarly 
the province of science to show' how r largely its phenomena are bound 
up w r itli the state of the physical basis. Thus, into an organism is 
introduced a physical reagent — cocaine. The result is not only 
physical ill-health and mental hallucinations, but also lamentable moral 
perversion. Or too much nitrogenous waste circulates in the blood, 
and amongst the effects are not only physical convulsions and mental 
explosions but alterations in conduct and in morals. What mother, 
indeed, has not noticed that peevishness and perverse behaviour arise 
when there is unexpected delay in the child’s breakfast ? The passing 
show r of sleep and dreaming, the sad marvels of insanity, the vagaries 
of the hypnotised all illustrate how essential the dependence of the 
“ego,” even in its moral aspects, upon the healthy condition of 
