Page:Caplin - Health and Beauty1864 - 061.png

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Clothing from Twelve to Eighteen Years.
61

in mind that to train a lady it is not necessary that she should be an invalid, and good bodily health will always be found favourable to every kind of intellectual culture.

Everyone is aware that by proper education the intellectual faculties may be improved; but there are few who have ever reflected on the fact that the ugly might have been made handsome, and the de­formed comely, if the body had received the same amount of culture which has been bestowed upon the mind. This, however, is the lowest aspect of physical training; for as the body is the organism through which the mind is manifested, the per­fecting of that organism gives free scope to the exercise of the soul, and hence lays the basis of a higher life; but as this is an important subject we must make it plain.

Life is carried on by certain great functions, which we call Respiration, Digestion, Circulation, and Secretion, all of which proceed under the im­pulse of the involuntary nerves; all of them are, however, dependent upon the voluntary nerves and muscles for their proper operation. Breathing requires exercise, change of air and position; diges­tion demands the procuring and preparing of the food; circulation can only be brisk when the body