Part 6 (2/2)

We can alive Charles Reade's later flippant creations of woreat a char picture of health and vigor which he first gave us in ”Christie Johnstone”

But while this adrace of humanity, yet there are limits which cannot safely be overpassed Nature rarely suffers one sex really to pass the common boundary and take on the special attributes of the other, see and landhtful, but when the woman's voice is bass or the man's treble the ireat distinction of sex rightly asserts itself, and the delicate distinctions between in to be recognized Then the broad general law of humanity will come to a more definite and varied expression in special natures And although the round of hu, she will prepare to hter's nature, and help her to understand and appreciate her needs and her powers

The child instinctively begins to inquire into physiological questions concerning e, birth, etc There is but one way in which such questions should be met--with perfect truth in perfect reverence To little children, utterly incapable of understanding the truth, the pretty fables of the stork or the angel may be harmless, but all earnest inquiries should be met with the simple truth as far as it can be understood, and the promise of full explanation whenever the mind is mature to receive it The mother should anticipate this natural need of the hter for initiation into the higher mysteries of human life by an acquaintance with life in its simpler forms, where it is not complicated by huetable life are the natural nition of the sacredness and beauty of the whole subject The child's delight in the flowers of the field is easily deepened into intellectual instruction by pointing out the functions of the various organs and their beautiful adaption to use

In the care hich variety is sought the inized, which fable and theology has surrounded with such fearful is

Next, the care of domestic animals will naturally interest the child, and from her kittens and her hens she will learn much, without exciteher truths of huy

The mother should thus always anticipate in her own es in her physical condition which will come with maturity, in the simplest, the tenderest, and theto levity or coarseness of speech should be utterly avoided, so that, while the young girl will speak frankly and without shaht speaking to chance coreat lesson of a high standard of health should be re-enforced There is no function of woht exercise does not tend to strengthen, refresh, and revivify her physical and mental powers If healthy, no one need interfere with any rational enjoyment, any reasonable amount of intellectual labor, or necessary work All functions will be best regulated by a full, hary as in religion, the grand paradox holds true, ”that he who loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth it for my sake shall find it”

There is no surer way to destroy the health than to care for nothing beside it; and thehts turned froe interests, and to have her an is feeble or diseased, the thingthe estion is produced And yet, as I have constantly intimated, the actual mother has to deal not alone with ideal woht of health, but very likely with a feeble and diseased being, who develops new forms of evil in every crisis of life There she nize the limitations of her individual child, and ise provision apportion the tasks and the pleasures to her peculiar needs

While all sickness is the result of broken law, it is rarely mainly the sufferer's own fault; and the ly shi+eld her sickly child, and show her the rich compensations which are possible to her in h she should never fall into thephysical weakness to be the most favorable condition of spiritual welfare

But if she is conscientious and true, really seeking her child's best good, instead of the indulgence of the hour, she will be more likely to err on the side of too much care than too little

Even in such cases, she should seekrather to brace and fortify her daughter against the ills of life, than to shi+eld her froer is in staying in the house”

For this reason, books especially written for the instruction of girls are often very pernicious They emphasize certain topics in their relation to woust and produce abnors of science, reverently enforced, would produce only a sacred respect for law The great responsibility of the transht without any irl of twelve years old said to her teacher one day: ”When you told ht, why should I--of what consequence will it be, fifty years hence, whether I do so or not; and then I thought that if I ever had a child, if I had bad teeth, she would be more likely to--wouldn't she?” ”Yes,” replied the teacher with deep seriousness; ”and that is a th”

Perhaps no subject has been reat intellectual activity for girls at this youthful period of life, and it has coht that an idle brain insures a healthy body

But nothing can be an of the body, requires a healthy, rich developular exercise and training, fully using but not overstraining its powers

The usual accompaniments of intellectual study are the cause of this false prejudice Close school-rooms, late hours of study, restless excitement from over-stimulated aress Much of the evil effect of schools comes not from too much intellectual activity, but from too little; froood conditions could be learned in half the time Mental action, continued after the brain is weary, or when it is not nourished by fresh blood, or under any disadvantages of physical condition which prevent it frohtful, will injure the system; and will prove a waste of reatest lesson that we have to learn in our mental life, is to value quality of work more and quantity less Everybody kno ue is experienced fro listlessly around for double the length of time; and it is just so with mental effort We want neither feverish, excited work, nor lazy work; but earnest, hard, vigorous effort, ceasing when the brain is weary or the object is accomplished[30]

I have yet to see the first proof in ulated activity of the brain injures the health I have known or of body was restored by earnestwomen sink into invalidish , than from any other one physical or mental cause

For we ht, as the stomach does food; and where it is not properly supplied it will feed on garbage

Where a Latin, geometry, or history lesson would be a healthy tonic, or nourishi+ng food, the trashy, exciting story, the gossiping book of travels, the sentimental poem, or, still worse, the coarse humor or thin-veiled vice of the low romance, fills up the hour--and is at best but tea or slops, if not as dangerous as opiu breaks the bow; too , the mind” After labor, rest is sweet and healthful; but all rest is as dangerous as all labor

One great trouble in women's intellectual life is that it is too much mere study, too little ith a purpose It is all incoestion and disease

Mental dyspepsia nosis of many an irritable, unhappy woest the intellectual food she has received An active pursuit, an earnest purpose, is to the mind what out-door air and exercise are to the body

But in our present social system, where it is still considered out of place for a lady to work for her living, it is the hardest problem for a mother to solve, how to supply this hter

Mental and ienic life as material ones The reaction from asceticism, which despised the body and made it only a hindrance, or, at best, a slave to the soul, is in danger of going so far as to forget the rightful supreh purpose is often the best of tonics, as an agreeable a of sedatives A deterrave But it , calood effect, not the feverish aain a prize or to rush through school in less than the usual ti on disease or feebleness; but she who looks forward to a life of noble usefulness will learn to husband her powers, and make the future secure by wise forbearance in the present

When circumstances do not supply the needed stimulus to use of the mental faculties, by a demand for present work, the reat duty of preparation for contingencies thatplace in our social syste her new duties and responsibilities, for which she will need all her physical andspirit in a girls' society for ifts there developed would enable her to strike the keenest blow that slavery ever received in this country When Maria Mitchell studied astronomy with her father she could not tell that a professorshi+p at Vassar College awaited her, and that her thorough fitness for it would prove a tower of strength to the cause of higher education for woht, keen, and well tempered, and opportunity will coht

I have said little, directly, of school education, because there coards intellectual training, it is usually better than the ht of interest and ultiive her generous confidence and conscientious support But she hter's health, ainst herself From my own observation I should say that the overwork and over-stimulus complained of in schools is far more often the fault of pupils and parents than of teachers The calm, steady hich lays a foundation for future mental power, is not appreciated, and brilliant results are demanded at once

And here I wish to speak of the study of music, as it is usually pursued Fro Saul by his harp, has, I believe, arisen an idea thatinfluence, with a wonderful soothing power over the nerves And yet the nervous excitability, and even irritability, of musicians is proverbial

We, the study of music is another Unquestionably the power of ions of enjoyht, to rouse and quicken the nervous action, and so to vivify and raise the tone of health and spirits is very great I have known those to whom it is the best of h severe trials, from utter despair and morbidness