Physical education, or, The nurture and management of children : founded on the study of their nature and constitution / by Samuel Smiles.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physical education, or, The nurture and management of children : founded on the study of their nature and constitution / by Samuel Smiles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    it be observed, chiefly consist in non-interference with the natural processes, or rather in aiding the powers of nature in their careful development of the infant man. But when, instead of such a system, nature is thwarted and opposed at every stage of her progress, her plainest dictates are neglected, and her operations checked by an observance of fashions founded in ignorance or prejudice ; what other result is to be looked for than a mortality amounting to nearly one- half of all that are introduced alive into the world. When we observe the child so much the mere sport of the prejudices and the fears of his parents, who have grown up to maturity under an erroneous system of management, and perpetuate its evils in their offspring because it has the sanction of ancient custom and habit,—are we not justified in assum- ing that in the premature decay and disease of their children, and the poignant moral suffering that thus ensues, they endure only the legitimate result of transgression of the natural laws which regulate the constitution ? But why, then, do not mothers as well as fathers make themselves acquainted in some measure with the physical and mental nature of their offspring, and so be enabled in a great measure to avoid the causes of such decay and consequent suffering? Alas! unfortunately for the young, this part of education is as yet unfashionable. While no showy accomplishment, no matter how trivial, is neglected, and no pains spared for acquiring it, the knowledge of living structure, of the laws of animated nature, though ever before their eyes, is almost studiously avoided; and young females as well as males grow
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