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regulate the action of the senses, they must be exercised. The lungs, the stomach, and the brain, also have their education; and the skin, that covers the whole human frame, the normal state of which contributes so much to beauty, is one of the organs playing the most prominent part in all the acts of life, and demanding the greatest share of attention.

It may, perhaps, be thought that the above description of the structure of the human frame is superfluous, and of too scientific a nature for mothers and governesses; yet why should they be ignorant of the relations of the different parts of the system, while a knowledge of it might tend to prevent disease; or when disease exists, contribute to facilitate the cure? Every woman of experience and judgment must feel that it is essential for her to have an acquaintance with whatever may conduce to her children's welfare.

It is from ignorance, that unfortunate children have been made to work twelve hours a day in factories, in a close atmosphere: at present the Factory Regulation Bill has limited the time for work to eight hours, for children between the ages of nine and fourteen. To us this appears an excess of labour, and the most simple knowledge of the human constitution would clearly demonstrate the lamentable effects likely to arise from the laws sanctioned in this country.

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If the osseous system be not consolidated till eighteen or twenty, what is to be expected if children are overworked from nine to fourteen?

Dr. Hawkins, in his statistical account, has fully elucidated this fact, by comparing the state of 350 children, of both sexes, engaged in factories, and 350 differently employed. Of

350 not in factories,

21 had bad health

88 had middling health

241 had good health

But of 350 in factories,

73 had bad health 133 had middling health 144 had good health

Had legislators been acquainted with the human power, we are inclined to think they would not willingly have condemned their unfortunate fellow creatures to the continual state of suffering arising from over fatigue, and deprive them of their health, which is their greatest earthly happiness.

the same; the observer sees only a mass of study, a multiplicity of occupations, leaving no time for exercise. In England as in France, three or four hours per day only are allowed to children for the development of their limbs; and in many establishments, great part of the time allotted for recreation is taken up by the infliction of punishments. Should we exaggerate in saying more care is bestowed on horses than on children? The former are never left without the exercise necessary for health; we wish the same observation could be applied to the latter. Deprivation of nourishment and of motion, are the punishments given to pupils, by teachers ignorant of the laws of growth, and of the necessity of nourishment and exercise for the development of human beings; and because some immediate danger does not attend the mismanagement to which we allude, the same plans are pursued, and the foundation of good health destroyed.

Let those persons who profess to take care of children, derive a useful lesson from their active exertions when left at liberty. They climb, they run, they dance, they jump, and seem almost overpowered by their ownexhilirating spirits; the world seems hardly large enough to contain them; and these are the lively active beings, confined for hours in the same apartment, sometimes even to the same seat, in a close atmosphere! By acting thus, preceptors defeat their own purposes; human instinct is stronger than any discipline;

chudren will move; repose is odious to them, and they dislike all those who may seek to prevent their freedom of motion: if study and inaction be associated in the youthful mind, both will be equally objects of abhorrence. Young persons, and those who are not advanced in years, if healthy and of warm constitutions, are never greatly inclined to mental exertion, till their bodies are to a certain degree fatigued, we do not say wholly exhausted Till this fatigue commences, the body has a preponderance over the mind, and in this case exercise is a truly natural want, which cannot easily be silenced; each muscle requires exertion, and the whole machine strives to employ its powers. If the fatigue be once brought on, the call for bodily exertion is stilled, the mind is no longer disturbed by it, and all its labours are facilitated. It may always be remarked that children who are most active during recreation are most diligent at their studies. Those who saunter about during play time are generally lazy in school hours; both heart and body seem worthless; the brain and muscles want activity. Vice takes root in idleness, and it will ever be found that exercise is conducive to good morals as well as to good health.

Unfortunately, in the present age all is sacrificed to intellectual education, as though nature were unable to bear exertion of body and mind. The great art in education is to combine mental and

corporal development, not to oppose one to the other. If a prodigy in learning be required, he will be weak and sickly; if extreme bodily strength be sought for, and we strive to make a young Hercules, he will be ignorant. There is a great defect in the usual mode of education, it is the absence of manual labour; this deficiency could be made up by letting children of every station be occupied in learning the elements of different trades, which could be so easily taught in schools. Where are the children not anxious to imitate Robinson Crusoe, and build a hut?

Persons are often met with, who scarcely know how to make use of their hands: they are almost unacquainted with carpenter's tools; they have minds but no bodies. "Besides other advantages," says Salzmann, "arising from the acquisition of some handicraft, we should not forget another important object, that of initiating the youth, whether study be his destination or not, into the mysteries of a science, which is the soul of active common life, the science of mechanics. As he must come to act his part on the stage of life, surely it must be of advantage to him, to be acquainted with a science, which has so much influence on its daily occupations, and is so intimately connected with the knowledge of things. This appears to us one of the most inexcusable neglects in the ordinary plan of education; for no one will deny, that the science

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