juice,
and so gradually requires a more complicated diet, until we come to
the adult man, nourishing himself by means of all the complications of
modern kitchen and table; to keep himself in health, he should eat
_only_ the things which correspond to the intimate needs of his
organism; and if he introduces over-rich or unusual, unsuitable or
poisonous substances, the result will be impoverishment,
self-poisoning, a "malady." Now it was the study of the child's
nutrition during the period of suckling and during the first years of
life which created alimentary hygiene, not only for the child but for
the adult, and pointed out the perils to which all were alike exposed
during the epoch when infantile hygiene was unknown.

There is a singular parallel in psychical life: the man will have an
infinitely more complex life than the child; but for him, too, there
should always be a correspondence between the needs of his nature and
the manner in which his spirit is nourished. A _rule_ of internal life
will always promote the health of the man.

Turning to attention, the primitive fact of correspondence between
nature and stimulus which is the fundamental of life should prevail,
however modified, when dealing with older children, and should remain
the basis of education.

I am prepared for the objections of "experts." Children must be
accustomed to pay attention to everything, even to things which are
distasteful to them, because practical life demands such efforts.

The objection is based on a prejudice analogous to that which at one
time made good fathers of families say: "Children should be accustomed
to eat everything." In just the same way, moral training is put
outside its rightful sphere--a fatal confusion. When ideas of this
order, now happily obsolete, obtained, fathers would allow their
children to fast all day, if they refused a dish they disliked at the
mid-day meal, forbidding them anything but the rejected portion, which
became ever colder and more disgusting, until at last hunger weakened
the child's will and destroyed his caprice, and the plateful of cold
food was swallowed. Thus, argued such a father, in the various
circumstances in which he may be placed throughout his life, my son
will be ready to eat whatever comes to hand, and will not be greedy
and capricious. In those days also, sweets were forbidden to children
(whose organisms require sugar, because the muscles consume a great
deal of this during gro