gested. It would be nearer the truth to say, that
those substances which digest slowest (provided they do not irritate)
are best adapted to the wants of the human stomach.

The philosopher LOCKE--perhaps from his knowledge of medicine--gives
some excellent directions on this subject. "Great care should be used,"
be says, that the child "eat bread plentifully, both alone and with
everything else; and whatever he eats that is solid, make him chew it
well." This writer, by the way, supposed that the teeth were made to be
used in beating our food; and that we ought neither to swallow it
without chewing, as is customary in our busy New England, nor to mash or
soak it in order to save the labor of mastication--a practice almost
equally universal. But let us hear his own words.

"As for his diet, it ought to be very plain and simple; and if I might
advise, flesh should be forborne, at least till he is two or three years
old. But of whatever advantage this may be to his future health and
strength, I fear it will hardly be consented to by parents, misled by
the custom of eating too much flesh themselves, who will be apt to think
their children--as they do themselves--in danger to be starved; if they
have not flesh at least twice a day. This I am sure, children would
breed their teeth with much less danger, be freer from diseases while
they were little, and lay the foundations of a healthy and strong
constitution much surer, if they were not crammed so much as they are,
by fond mothers and foolish servants, and were kept wholly from flesh
the first three or four years of their lives."

Were Locke still living, I should like to interrogate him at this
place. He first speaks of giving children no meat till they are two or
three years old; and then afterwards extends the period to three or
four. The question I would put is this: If the child is healthier
without meat till he is three or four years old, why not till he is
thirteen or fourteen; or even till thirty, or forty, or seventy? And is
not Professor Stuart, of Andover--a meat eater himself, and an advocate
for its moderate use by those who have already been trained to the use
of it--is not the Professor, I say, more than half right when he
asserts, as I have heard him, that it may be well to train all children,
from the first, to the exclusive use of vegetable food?

I have a few more extracts from Locke, particularly on the subject of
bread.

"I should think that a good