itual life, though she should never fall into
the morbid error of believing physical 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 seek more a positive than a negative
care; striving rather to brace and fortify her daughter against the ills
of life, than to shield her from them. "Remember," said wise Dr.
Jackson, "the danger 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 woman, and so excite disgust and produce abnormal
excitement, where the simple teachings of science, reverently enforced,
would produce only a sacred respect for law. The great responsibility of
the transmission of hereditary qualities, may be early taught without
any mental excitement. A little girl of twelve years old said to her
teacher one day: "When you told me to brush my teeth, I thought, 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 most sacred reason for
guarding your own health and strength."

Perhaps no subject has been more fully dwelt upon than the danger of
great intellectual activity for girls at this youthful period of life,
and it has come to be thought that an idle brain insures a healthy body.
But nothing can be more false. The brain, as the ruling organ of the
body, requires a healthy, rich development; and this can only be secured
by regular 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 ambition, have no necessary connection
with intellectual progress. Much of the evil effect of schools comes not
from too much intellectual activity, but from too little; from listless
hours spent over lessons which under good 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