s of the children also testified, that there was a manifest
increase of intellectual vigor and activity, while there was much less
irritability of temper.

Let parents, nurses, and teachers, reflect on the above statement, and
bear in mind, that stupidity of intellect, and irritability of temper,
as well as ill health, are often caused by the mismanagement of the
nursery, in regard to the physical training of children. There is
probably no practice, more deleterious, than that of allowing children
to eat at short intervals, through the day. As the stomach is thus kept
constantly at work, with no time for repose, its functions are deranged,
and a weak or disordered stomach is the frequent result. Children should
be required to keep cakes, nuts, and other good things which they may
have to eat, till just before a meal, and then they will form a part of
their regular supply. This is better, than to wait till after their
hunger is satisfied by food, when they will eat their niceties merely to
gratify the palate, and thus overload the stomach.

In regard to the intellectual training of young children, some
modification in the common practice is necessary, with reference to
their physical wellbeing. More care is needful, in providing
_well-ventilated_ schoolrooms, and in securing more time for sports in
the open air, during school hours. It is very important, to most
mothers, that their young children should be removed from their care,
during the six school hours; and it is very useful, to quite young
children, to be subjected to the discipline of a school, and to
intercourse with other children of their own age. And, with a suitable
teacher, it is no matter how early children are sent to school, provided
their health is not endangered, by impure air, too much confinement, and
too great mental stimulus.

In regard to the formation of the moral character, it has been too much
the case, that the discipline of the nursery has consisted of
disconnected efforts to make children either do, or refrain from doing,
certain particular acts. Do this, and be rewarded; do that, and be
punished; is the ordinary routine of family government.

But children can be very early taught, that their happiness, both now
and hereafter, depends on the formation of _habits of submission,
self-denial_, and _benevolence_. And all the discipline of the nursery
can be conducted by the parents, not only with this general aim in their
own minds, but also