is taught. Great proficiency cannot be
made in these branches in the brief period of school life; but a
competent teacher may induce the pupils to put in practice the lessons
that are applicable to childhood and youth. If, however, as is sometimes
the case, pupils are undermining the physical constitution in their
efforts to know how they are made, the loss is, unquestionably, more
than the gain. Physical health and growth depend, first, upon
opportunity; and hence it happens that, where physical life is most
defective, there the greatest difficulties in the way of its improvement
are found. Boys born in the country, living upon farms, accustomed
continually to outdoor labors and sports, walking a mile or more every
day to school, have but little use, in their own persons, for the
science or facts of physiology; and it is a very rare thing, where such
conditions have existed, that any teacher is able to exact an amount of
intellectual service that proves in any perceptible degree injurious.

But these opportunities are not so generally enjoyed by girls, and the
mass of children in cities are wholly deprived of them. In the country,
and even in villages and towns of considerable size, there is no excuse,
better than ignorance or indifference, for the lack of judicious and
efficient physical training of children and youth of both sexes. But
ignorance and indifference are facts; and, while and where they exist,
they are prejudicial to the growth of mind and body. The age at which
children should be admitted to school has not been ascertained, nor can
a satisfactory rule upon this point ever be laid down. If children are
not in schools, they are yet subject to influences that are formative of
character. When proper government and methods of education exist at
home, the presence of the child in school at an early age is not
desirable. Even when education at home is not methodical, it may be
continued until the child is seven or even eight years of age, if it is
at once moral, intelligent, and controlling. It is not, however, wise to
expect a child who is infirm physically to perform the labors imposed by
the necessary and proper regulations of school. When children enjoy good
health, and are not blessed with suitable training at home, they may be
introduced to the school, at the age of five years, with positive
advantage to themselves and to society.

When the child is a member of the school, what shall be done with him?
He