want a partial development. Ladies especially do not need the muscular energy of the mechanic. They do not indeed require to be made masculine at all. Our reply is, that, as we have two objects to accomplish, namely, the full and perfect culture of the well-formed, and the restoration of such as are only imperfectly developed, we must adapt our means to the end proposed, and exercise the body upon itself, as is done in running, walking, and swimming, for those only who require this training; but in all cases where there is deformity, or only partial evil, the curative means must be adapted to the restoration of the imperfect organs.
The importance of commencing the physical training of the child at a very early age will be rightly esteemed by all, who consider how much it has to learn during the first two years of its life; for it is in this period that all things emerge from chaos, and become defined by the senses, and their form, size, shape, and colour noted. Now, all who are acquainted with physiology, know perfectly well that the mind cannot be properly unfolded unless the organism through which it is manifested be in a healthy condition, so as to be enabled to register the impressions made upon it by external circumstances. "Forms arise before the eye, and sink again; sounds thrill upon the ear and vanish; the infant begins to give the bounds to forms, and to catch the sounds that float upon the air, and. discriminate between them. * * * By innumerable attempts which comprise the first exercise of the limbs, the child learns to distinguish distance; thousands of experiments bring the gradual knowledge of surrounding things; and this, by the aid that is tendered to it by the nurse or mother, forms the first portion of the child's education."*[1] Now, to aid this, the whole organic structure must be taken into consideration—the limbs, senses, lungs, stomach, and above all, the condition of the spine; for each and all of those organs must be in a perfectly healthy state, and must perform their functions properly, or the brain will not be in a condition to receive and retain the impressions transmitted to it.
Nature is always beneficent, and is ever striving to correct and amend the evils inflicted upon the body by the vicious habits which are almost universally indulged in. One portion of the community neglects the
- ↑ * Woman's Educational Mission, p. 16.
