ft »i'i •W' « t iSi'.. ^ fflfc W »1 ;rtffe i.';.' .*.''. t'V iV. 'I.'l'. »,.V1.S'iVi!,'i1'i'i,.v'■v.''',V<'.'-i,,,it''',.'.' 'Vi^'V' i",-' ^vvtw.'ii.vi1 >':,!,,,i''.,tVi;i"",,'i.'?4i.if'»'.,i1.V«5.,i \^.'1\,ii,A,''.j'i'iV'.'. '.!',: itinc and oal Booki Sale by . FOOTE.M.D, Belmont Ave, idelphia. Pa. OnQOOrDOf5Q'0£)re£)faQ'r3ug& Surgeon General's Office INDEX. WHAT IN CONTAINED l\ THIS BOOK. " Reade this over if you're wise, If you're not then reade it twise If a fooln, and in the gall Of bitterness, reade not all all." Jeffrey Whitney's Emblems Page The first sixteen pages should be read by every sneerer at, and opponent of, the most novel, vita], moral and lofty idea of this age—Baby Shows ;—these sixteen pages ought to he read also in every family, for they give touching remembrances of the "First Baby Convention," contain graphic sketches of the Babies' behaviour on that occasion-—how the Mothers looked—what Fanny Forn said—the opinions, both grave, gay and humorous, on Babies, the Degeneracy of our Race, and the Fading Beauty of American Women, by Horace (i-rceley, Horace Mann, Mrs. Stowe, and others,................16 Some of Punch's droll suggestions, and other faoetious remarks on Baby Reform -strips tho objectors of Baby Reform of their disguise—shows the profound interest and value of this physiological movement—and testifies that beauti- ful Babies are the product of true Marriages,..........................17—21 The Scriptural sanction of Personal Improvement—how the Ancients predicat- ed certain results from the violations of organic laws, and the fruits of obedi- ence to them—wo learn also why keen, luminous, and brilliant people seek for health, strength and beauty in their mates,........................25—32 Brings glad tidings to every couple and joy to their fireside, by showing that we may, if we so please, improve our race and ourselves, in the face of statistics which tell us that half of all children die under the fifth year, just when they should be merry and happy around us—points to Baby Conventions as tme great means of staying the " Slaughter of the Innocents," and drying up the tears of the mothers,..........................................33—35 Teaches, in a manner to disposo young men and maidens to reflection on the subject of Human Beauty—talks to reflecting parents of what cannot fail to interest them—points to the affinity between male and female,..........37—40 Some intelligent, ingenious, and suggestive developments given of the standard of Human Beauty—particular references to the Venus de Medici, Power's Greek Slave, Hercules and Apollo—exhibits the points of a beautiful face, and bespeaks the suitable temperaments for couples,....................41—49 iv INDEX. Page Those who have not entered the matrimonial relation should read this, as it un- folds much curious instruction about those ornaments of the " human face di- vine," the Eyes, Nose, Teeth, Gums, &c., as guides to seekers after Husbands and Wives—a lucid description of the right kind of Beauty for a Mother— gives the modes of telling the Ages, Habits, Character, &c, of a future Husband or Wife,...................................................56—60 Some startling ideas conveyed under the titles of Walking, Dancing, &c, which have a strong practical bearing on human Health and Beauty, and how to tell a good figure in defiance of Dress,.................................57—60 This will suit every body who is amused with Physiognomy, or the language of every body's features, head, hands, feet; it tells what they say and how they say it,.........................................................62—63 There can be no question more valuable for perusal than a, clear description of the Ideal or Poetical Idea of Human Beauty, as understood by both An- cients and Moderns—describes for the perusal of Parents the organizations of the Male and Female figures, and also that of the Infant—gives a key to the beautiful in each, with some sparkling and beautiful statements by Ho- garth, Alison, Byron, Walker, and Winckleman,....................64—71 Instead of jumping at a Husband or Wife as impatient passengers jump at a ferry boat—or instead of being April-fooled in the marriage relation, this teaches you how to choose them without a failure—gives you the key to unlock char- acter before marriage, and to live happily ever after—points to the sexes seeking their contrast—and refers to Dr. Powell's recent theory of Marri- age, the single married and the married happy,........................73__80 Alphonse Karr's caustic, bold, clear, and spicy analysis of Male and Female Beauty—some genial talk about Love, and some common sense on the Ob- ject, Obligations, and Physiology of the sexual feelings, both delicate, chaste, and moral in language and purpose,............................81__87 Some sections of unspeakable necessity to every judicious parent, and every can- did and chaste person of either sex, upon the symptoms, feeling and bearing of the sexual development, and their adaptation to the health, wants, happi- ness, and religion of all—the duty of Parents thereon,...................88__92 The Women's Rights Party, and all those who never tasted the sweets of mat- rimony, will find something therein specially adapted to their reading in Marriage and Maternity—something new as well as truthful on Late and Early Marriages—some hints on Conception that may be of signal service to the reflecting—some reading on Reproduction intended for the advance- ment of the moral and physical welfare of the world,...................97__jqjj Tristram Shandy's humorous and significant view of reproduction,.........104__105 Tells a secret for the benefit of the enlightened and candid, whereby the reader gets an insight into matters he ought to have known long ago,.........106__107 INDEX. V Page Consists of a series of connected stories illustrative of the theory of transmission to children—Drs. Brigham, Sampson and Howe on the woe produced by In- termarriages in America and elsewhere,.............................108—111 Spreads information in regard to the regulation and legitimate exercise of one of the most important functions of the human being—some light upon the fear- ful effects of Tobacco and Intemperance upon offspring—with some talk of the dunghill or mean origin of certain folk,..........................112—115 Some pregnant instruction concerning the sleeping together of the sexes—why they should not—how the Spartan Children were the finest in the world— the difference between Spartan and Modern Virginity,................115—117 Throws open the silvery path to all intelligent persons of every caste, of the best mode of developing the Beauty and form of the body—proposes Badges of distinction to some Women—and no Mother who wishes to rear a healthy and beautiful family should miss reading this portion,....... ....... 118—121 A method by which Parturition is rendered safe, easy and painless—some desir- able information on the symptoms, accidents, &c, of pregnancy, with the means of avoiding them,...........................................122—127 The Mother! the hope of the world!—her's the true rights—her treatment, diet, dress, and indispensable requisites,..................................128—129 A spicy satire on the art of " Making Home Unhealthy,"................130—131 The Sphere of the Prize Baby Mother—what Erasmus Wilson and Mrs. Swiss- helm think thereon—some important items in relation to air, food, skin, clo- thing and exercise of the dear pledges of Parental Love—hired Nurse Girls, and Model French Nurseries, &c. &c,..............................136—138 Some precious hints on the Laws of Life, and a very clear illustration of them, fitted to every comprehension, in the melancholy story of George Combe's younger brother—propounds the art of developing the muscles—points to Model Schools for Model Boys and Girls—Rocking Chairs and Crooked Spines natural allies—the Girls of Now-a-Days—Sweet Sixteen and Dis- creet Twenty-five,---.............................................139—149 Beauty and Beautiful Girls, with Dr. Bedford's plain-spoken remarks thereon— Dr. Meigs on the Diseases of Females—Tilt on the Health of Women—every Parent should read these extracts,..................................150—152 Pure Air the very fulcrum of Beauty and Health—something about Natural and Unnatural Waists, Red Noses and Bad Breaths—a- droll apostrophe to a little hypocritical black devil, alias a Hook and Eye—the momentous im- portance of Light on the conditions of the body—story of some of the Epi- demics of the olden times,..........................................153—156 Why are some folks sickly, stupid, nervous, and desponding, or stoves are na- tional curses—Bed-Rooms as they are, and the terrible story of the Black Hole of Calcutta—Downing on the Favorite Poison of America—the Lungs, Skin, and Stomach, or the Art of enjoying a long and happy Life,......157—160 VI INDEX. Page Instead of looking like a death's-head on a mop-stick, this teaches the art of di- gesting every thing we eat to nutriment—shows that the principles of diet and manhood are synonymous.—refers to the mode of growing bold, resolute and hearty children, instead of the stupid, ill-disposed things too often seen —tells a story of a man of bad physical organization, yet, who, by judicious training could run 120 yards in 11 seconds ! and brings the art of Health and Beauty within reach of all,.........................................161—165 What is the principal cause why one man is bold, hearty, jolly, and another long-faced, miserable and dejected 1 this shows that Labor is one reason— labor is a privilege, a blessing and a happiness to the wise—Sam Slick on Labor—evils of too much of it—Amusement is necessary—Variety is charm- ing, and gives zest to life,..........................................166—171 The art of enjoying a delicious, balmy sleep, at pleasure—how different passions operate, making one person stern and hideous, another pale-faced, attenuat- ed, and miserable—a third made to look like a poisoned cat, and a fourth all sunshine and beauty—a new idea for the religious, or body and soul go to- gether—thermometer, or temperature, on health of body—the pleasure and luxury of the Bath,................................................172—178 Some popular and gratifying articles on the Utility, Modesty, and Beauty of Dress in both sexes, putting the subject on the ground of science—the differ- ence between a Town and Country Life—the difference between living out at Woodbine Cottage, or Laburnum Villa, and becoming acquainted with nature, green trees, fields, streams, sun, moon, stars, flowers, and rosy cheeked children, or floundering in narrow streets, puddles, mud, impure air, putrid miasma, watery veins, and children growing into existence, but not into life,........................................................180__187 A peep at the Duration of Life in America—an Englishman's contemplations among our grave-yards,............................................187—189 The miserable money-making folly of America painted by Brooks of the Ex- press—showing how that the blood in our veins is only a thin fluid like the colored stuff in a druggist's window—on the obligations of every Man, Wo- man and Child being healthy, happy and beautiful—points out three-score and ten years as being attainable by every body—refers as proof to the Old Veterans of the War of 1812........................................190__193 Teaches the art of Longevity so plainly that we may prolong our lives much beyond the number of years usually attained—closes with a reference to our State and General Governments, and what they ought to do in this matter— shows that the rearing of healthy men and women is a science and an ambi- tion far exceeding in honor and practical utility all the arts and aims hither- to propounded or divulged,..................,......................193__199 ft aiiord to fye ^e^eh "Peruse with heede, then friendly judge, and blaming rash refraine ; So maist thou reade unto thy good, and shalte requite my pain." As the human mind becomes inducted into untried fields of thought and action, it becomes necessary also to have new vehicles of thought opened to suit the new development. The world of old thoughts and customs has been wonderfully shaken of late by the announcement of Baby Shows and Baby Con- ventions. Hundreds of the philanthropic and intellectual world are anxiously watching the signs of this new phase of human thought, and of its reception. Physiological and ana- tomical facts have multiplied to demonstration the practicabil- ity and utility of the improvement of the human frame ; while the lists of mortality of the different races, and of different lo- calities, and circumstances, give overwhelming evidence of its great necessity. While thousands feel a deep interest in this great physical awakening, they are wanting in a work that will methodically show them the applicability. To supply this want and exigency of the times, this book is an attempt. It claims but little originality, nor does it pre- sume the limited views herein offered do full justice to the sub- ject. It is but introductory to a vast field—it merely attempts to remove the erroneous and squeamish obstructions which have hitherto impeded the development of Man's Form; and, as will be seen, his mental and moral development. It takes from viii A WORD TO THE READER. the chaotic heap of treatises, essays, and books on physical, anatomical, and hygienic subjects, what is absolutely desirable, merely to throw them into shape for the accomplishment of a definite object—the best development of the Human Body ! The idea of connecting the ascertained knowledge, the fruits and flowers of genius, into a clear and critical method of Personal Improvement is so far new, and so far bold, while many circumstances of time and place, especially " The Baby Conventions," render this work, such as it is, necessary. The topic is strictly a worldly one—it refers to matters of experience—it endeavors to recall man to reason on this sub- ject, by a reference to nature, to analogy, and the laws of God. Every thing stated is believed to be true—all contained within its pages moral and valuable, and its dissemination, it is hoped and believed, will prove a blessing. The investigation of this subject, the merits and utility of this work, call for the exercise of great calmness and forbear- ance ; the author only demands that charity and forbearance of opinion as to his motives, which he is willing to concede to others. jj®" For a large portion of the facts presented, I am specially indebted to Drs. Bed- ford, Edward H. Dixon, R. T. Trail, C. D. Meigs, Erasmus Wilson, the Messrs. Fowlers, and various periodicals of our country. BOOK OF MEN, WOMEN, BABIES. THE GOOD TIME COMING By the lofty aims we cherish, By the hope that never dies, Error's legions soon shall perish, Health and Happiness arise— A pair on earth that never met, The good time's coming yet. To say that a light has broken on the human mind within the last thirty years—to say that it has spread with a rapidity and an effect hitherto unexampled in the history of man, is hut to say what all the world knows and feels. This is not only the effect of, but education itself. Yet it is an education attained, produced, in spite of the imperfect machinery which we received from our ancestors. From the same ancestors we received the distaff, the horse-mill, and the coracle. Those we have converted into the cotton-engine, steam- engine, and the beautiful clipper. By the exertions of our mechan- ical skill, by management, order, division, we have multiplied our resources, our comforts, our power, and our rank in the world, to a degree which no mind could ever have anticipated. If it has been the proud destiny of America to curb the tyranny of the few over the many, to raise the people to the rank of man, to be, in spite of all her faults, the eye of the world ; it is to the machinery of its in- dustry and its wealth that we must look for all these benefits and blessings. We have despised our ancestors, and we have proved their wisdom folly. And, as we have despised them, we have risen 1 2 The Object and Utility and flourished. Hence it is, time and things change. Customs, surely, though slowly, adapt themselves to the world's advancement. Ancient ideas served their day, and yield to new and better. That which has been reverenced on account of its age, relaxes its grasp on the affections of the people, and is laid with the musty relics of antiquity, to be the gaze of the student of history. What was ana- thematized in the past, becomes the very life of acknowledged favor in the present, and proceeds to sit in judgment upon the new devel- opments of the future. Thus, inch by inch do men give back to the march of Progress ; they begin to feel, that "New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth; They must upward still, and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth." And it is in this feeling, that some of the best men and women of this century, promise to exult in something better than new progress in steam, electricity, chemistry, or astronomy—to boast of something besides the application of physiological, anatomical, and hygiennic laws to the improvement of the breed of horses, sheep, hogs, cattle, and dogs—they promise the application of intellect, science, and morality to THE IMPROVEMENT OP THE HUMAN SPECIES! THE GOOD TIME HAS COME. Two cycles have passed,and the third rolls away, Yet freedom shall rise from the tomb; Despair not, ye nations; for come will the day When earth a paradise bloom— Thank God, That earth shall a paradise bloom. Although the present century has wisely improved upon the past, yet hitherto these improvements have been limited to the machinery Of Baby Conventions. 3 of wealth ; to inanimate matter ; to the immense additional value acquired by our cerials, and domestic animals ; but we have scarcely discovered that parallel exertions of observation, intellect and moral- ity, may be applied to the cultivation and improvement of Man him- self. And to the first practical application of this discovery are we indebted to the citizens of Ohio ! Careless of abuse from the self- righteous, misrepresentation from the hypocritical, reproach from the honestly prejudiced, or unmeasured ridicule from a portion of the press, these citizens issued circulars in the fall of 1854, detailing the plan of a Baby Exhibition, to be held at Springfield, Ohio, on the 5th of October. As one illustration of the sentiment of the respect- able press on this exhibition, the following is given from the Phila- delphia Ledger: THE BABY CONVENTION. At our house, at home, we're a sweet little baby, As fat as a coon in the fall; And for mischief, fun, musio, or whatever it may be, Of brats, he's the general of all! With cheeks like two roses, The prettiest of noses, Endeared is our Moses, By every fond tie ; In fair and foul weather, He serves as a tether, To bind us together— My Betsey and I. " It is characteristic of our country, that every great popular movement contemplates some practical improvement for the benefit of mankind, either politically, morally, socially or physically; and it is equally as characteristic that every such suggestion of improvement should be pro- moted by a convention. In no country on earth is the united power of numbers to effect a public object so well appreciated, and in none is the voice more potent to the same end. What is for the common benefit con- cerns every man alike, and hence all public movements originate with or are referred to the popular masses. In late years we have conventions for every thing and for every purpose. We have conventions to put peo- ple into public office, conventions to improve the breed of horses, conven- tions to promote the growth of chickens, conventions to enlarge woman's rights, and now, closely connected with this subject, we are to have a 4 The Object and Utility convention of the babies of the United States. This is the first conven- tion of this kind which has ever been held in the world since man was created, for we ignore as a precedent the fact mentioned in St. Matthew, during Herod's reign, because of its cruel barbarity. The idea is entirely original with this country and the people of the West, where population is needed for the cultivation of the wilderness, and where fresh air, plenty of food and exercise, furnish the means of physical improvement, and abundance of space allows the human individual room to enlarge himself. A Convention for the improvement of the race of babies! What a noble idea, and how it appeals in its philanthropy, to use a hackneyed phrase, to the " business and bosom" of every man and woman in the community. What greater object of human endeavor could be conceived than the im- provement of one's own species, the growth and development of one's own offspring, the perfectability of the race of man. To such a convention, every man should be a voluntary delegate, and so should every woman. Their efforts should be united to accomplish this great object, and now that the thing is started, we hope the work will go on till each succeed- ing generation will be an improvement upon its predecessor, and man become the "beauty of the world," the "paragon of animals," "noble in reason !" " infinite in faculties," " in form and moving express and admir- able," "in action like an angel," "in apprehension like a god." We have said that the credit of originating this idea belongs to the citizens of Ohio. They naturally inferred, if an exhibition of horses, sheep, pigs, and chickens, by stimulating competition, could improve the breed of those animals, the same principle might be applied, with greater hopes of success, to the improvement of the human species. The vanity of mothers, as well as the pride of fathers, would be aroused, and when human endeavors have such powerful incentives to action, there is no knowing what astonishing results may ensue. They have accordingly set a day, the 5th of October, and a place, the fair grounds of the Clark County Agricultural Society, for " a grand exhibition of the babies of the United States," and will award three magnificent prizes as follows: 1st. A grand sweepstake premium of a splendid set of silver plate, con- sisting of a complete set of six pieces, to be given to the finest child not over two years of age. 2d. A similar prize, of equal value, to the finest child over one and not over two years of age. 3d. A similar prize, of equal value, to the finest child not exceeding one year of age. For these prizes, all who choose may compete, the only limitation being that the children shall have been born within the United States. Of Baby Conventions. 5 The plate has been made in New York, and is the most magnificent ever produced in this country. It will be received by Archer & Warner, No. 119 Chesnut Street, to-day, and will be exhibited by them in their window. Every mother, who has a baby, whether a fine specimen of the genus homo or not, should take a look at the plate. Every maiden who expects sometime or other to be a mother, should also take a peep at these magnificent prizes. The next generation is yet unborn, but it may have good reason to pronounce its benediction upon those who suggested the idea of the baby convention." THE BABIES IN CONVENTION. The Life Illustrated thus discoursed on the improvement of the race: In connection with the " Society for Lengthening Human Life," let us by all means have another auxiliary in its design—the " Society for the Promotion of Baby-Culture!" We hope the "Grand National Baby Convention," in session this week (we write the first week of October), will take this matter into consideration. Sneer who will at this gather- ing of the little ones and their mammas, we are glad to record the event —the first Baby Convention! We do not think it the best thing that can be devised for the improvement of the human race, but it will at least serve to call public attention to the subject of baby-culture, and help our thrifty, money-getting people to realize that fine children are of nearly as much importance to the country as fine pigs or poultry! The Water Cure Journal, for November, 1854, concludes an article on " babies" in this spirit: " Our purpose is to show that mothers are ignorant of the way and manner of rearing healthy children ; and the moral we wish to draw is, that they should understand this department of ' domestic industry' just as well as their husbands understand the way to train, educate, and de- velop healthy horses, and cattle, and sheep, and hogs. We hope ' Baby Conventions' will be a part of the order of the seasons, until all the pre- miums, for the best specimens shall be awarded to the best babies, to the speedy exclusion of all pigs from the fairs of towns, counties, states, or nations, and their final extermination from the face of all the earth." G The Object and Utility FANNY FERN AND THE BABIES. Though his third year is ended this present September, He's equal to any at five; At two, he could " put out" as well, I remember, As the best " shoulder striker" alive. In consideration Of his qualification, I'm in contemplation Of placing him where All the Mrs. Duncans And all Mrs. Flunkins, Will say he's " some pumpkins"— And that is—"The Fair." Fanny Fern was appointed one of the awarding committee of the "Baby Convention." She declined the appointment, but not because she belonged to the prudes or hypocrites, but for the rea- sons given in a letter to the President, as follows: Mr. Isaac Paist—Sir: In thanking you for the compliment you pay me by constituting me one of the committee to award the premiums at the Baby Convention, I would also express my deep regret that my pres- ent engagements will not admit of my leaving New York. Nothing could delight me more than to visit your beautiful city, which I have so long wished to see; and the added temptation you hold out, in the shape of babies, is almost irresistible. God bless their little sweetnesses! But how could I choose 1 I, who love every thing in the shape of a child, who believe that they are all that is left to us of Eden, who never come into their presence without a feeling such as a devout Catholic must have when he crosses himself before the image of the Virgin Mary—how could I choose ? I should turn from black eyes to blue, from blue to gray, from gray to hazel. I should be led captive by a dimple, fascinated by a ringlet, en- chanted by a rosy cheek or a snowy shoulder. My dear sir, I should be as bewildered as a bee in a twenty acre lot of full-blown roses. Please accept my best wishes for the success of your novel, beautiful and admir- able enterprise. May the anathema of no disappointed mother haunt the sleeping or the waking hours of the awarding committee. May God bless you, and prosper your enterprise. Yours, very truly, Fanny Fern, Of Baby Conventions. 1 NAMES OF AWARDING COMMITTEE OF FIRST BABY CONVENTION. Up, then, brothers, and be doing, Every effort brings it on, And the humblest—truth pursuing— From its pathway lifts a stone. Love then and labor, do not fret j A Healthy Race is coming yet. Convention: Gen. W. O. Butler, Ky. O. S. Fowler, New York. Brutus J. Clay, Ky. Hon. Horace Mann, Ohio. Gov. Wood, Ohio. Hon. Jesse Phillips, Ohio. Dr. Joshua Martin, Ohio. J. D. Phillips, Ohio. Rev. I. N. Walters, Ohio. Dr. T. O. Edwards, Ohio. Mrs. Lucretia Mott, Phil'a. Mrs. Jane Swisshelm, Pittsburg. Fanny Fern, New York. Mrs. J. J. Crittenden, Ky. " A. DeGraff, Dayton, " A. Hivelino, Xenia. " Major Hunt, Ohio. " H. Griswold, Ohio. " C. Robbins, Ohio. " Wm. Vance, Ohio. Horace Greeley, also, viewing the project as a great step in civiliza- tion and social development, wrote a letter to the President, warmly approbatory. He viewed the question as one revolvable into indi- vidual training. Society is made up of an immense number of individuals ; and just in proportion as these individuals are severally well or ill constituted, so will the community which they compose be more or less characterised by well-formed and healthy persons. Ill-formed, half-formed, or diseased children, generally become pro- fligates, criminals, or helpless. There never was a time when the right direction of intellectual and moral influence in the improve- ment, physically, of our race was more needed than now. THE NATIONAL BABY SHOW. So pack the darling off, my love, To grace the " baby fair," For if it's beat—why then, by Jove ! The angels must be there. The following account of the first " Baby Show," we give liter- ally from the Cincinnati Times: 8 The Object and Utility THE ARRIVAL OF THE BABIES. Decidedly the greatest feature of this Fair was the National Baby Convention, which took place yesterday. It attracted people, adults and babies, from all parts of the Union. No less than 12,000 to 15,000 visited the Fair to-day, (excluding babies), all of whom appeared to be excited as to the display of innocence and infantile beauty. The novelty of the exhibition was of itself sufficient to create a general interest, but to this was added three services of silver plate as prizes. The managers of the " show" appeared to be taken aback at the interest taken in the affair. They had supposed that even their liberal premiums would not tempt more than a dozen babies or so, and had made arrangements accordingly. Ten o'clock yesterday morning convinced them that they had underrated " the importance of the occasion." Devoted mothers and doating fathers, with their little pets in their arms, came pouring into the Fair grounds, each, no doubt, confident of leaving it with one of the prizes. A small canvas tent had been assigned as the receptacle of the entries, and into that mothers, babies, and nurses were ushered by gentlemen wearing rosettes upon their breasts. Soon there was " music within." YOUNG AMERICA'S VOICE IS HEARD. Astonished, probably, at finding themselves in " mass meeting assem- bled," the little ones sent up a cry, which shook the canvas-top and pierced the ears of the people. In vain did the brass-band toot their instruments to drown, if possible, " the piercing cry.*' Young America was aroused, and scorned to be beat, sent forth notes which shamed the keys of the bugle and made the trombone blush for its weakness. " The babies! the babies !" was on the lips of every one. Ploughs, embroidery, reaping machines, fancy goods, mechanical skill and agricultural success, were all forgotten in a moment. Blood horses and short-horn cattle were no whar.' The people—men, women and children, ladies, gentle- men, and growing juveniles, made a rush for the " Baby Tent." Being barred admission, however, they were obliged for the present to content themselves by listening to the music. Some, more anxious than the rest— gentlemen, we mean—climbed the adjoining trees, and enjoyed free gratis for nothing a stolen peep at the Baby Convention, which, from their expressions, we judged was highly gratifying. ELECTION OF JUDGES. At 11 o'clock a large circle was formed by a rope around the tent, and outside of this the uninterested adults were made to stand, which Of Baby Conventions. 9 they did patiently, under the promise that the babies would soon be exhibited. The following judges were then elected, whose duty it was to enter the tent, examine the babies and award the premiums: Mrs. Hivling, of Xenia; Mrs. Snyder, of Springfield; Mrs. Hunt, of Clark County; Mrs. Vance, of Champaigne County; Mrs. Wilcoxon, of La.; Mrs. Robins, of Springfield; Mrs. Baldwin, of Clark County; Mrs. Warder, of Springfield; Mrs. Snyder, of Springfield: Mrs. J. Paise, of Springfield ; Mr. A DeGraff, of Dayton ; Mr. L. Mount, of Cincinnati; Dr. McElhaney, of Green County; Dr. Martin, of Xenia; Mr. J. Phil- lips, of Champaigne County; Mr. Wilcoxon, of La. MORE BABIES COMING. The Judges were about proceeding to their task, when a telegraph was received, announcing that a number of babies were on the train from Dayton, and would be there at 12 o'clock, and requesting a postpone- ment of the examination until said babies arrived. The request was acceded to, to the great discomfort of the " Convention" then in session. A few minutes after 12 o'clock the Judges entered the tent, and through the kindness of the managers, and probably with the consent of the babies, we were permitted to enter the sanctum sanctorum, and look upon the scene. SCENE IN THE TENT. The tent presented a novel, amusing, and interesting sight. The mothers and nurses were seated, and had the " little darlings" all ready for inspection, that is, as near ready as could be. To see so many babies together was novel; to note the maternal efforts to present them in the best mood, was amusing; and to gaze upon their innocent faces and purest of charms was certainly interesting. There sat a mother, her eyes directed alternately on the judges and on a little cherub which lay in her lap. By her sat another, holding up proudly a lovely little girl, whose flaxen curls and sweet blue eyes would soften the heart of the greatest baby-hater in Christendom. Next to her a nurse was endeavoring to quiet a stout, black-eyed, rosy-cheeked " one year old," who insists on pulling the jet black ringlets of another one about its own age. One lady pointed with pride to the chubby legs of her darling boy, while another glowingly refers to the delicate but well- formed features of her sweet babe. One boasted of having the largest of its age; another of the smallest and smartest. Some of the babies seemed to feel their importance on this occasion, and, in spite of the most earnest entreaties, would be in mischief and keep up a continued noise. 2 10 The Object and Utility Others appeared unwilling to " believe their eyes," and lay quietly in their mother's arms, watching the proceedings with apparent interest, while others insisted on hiding their innocent faces in their mother's bosom's, as if they knew their refuge was there. WHERE THE BABIES COME FROM. One hundred and twenty-seven babies were entered for exhibition. And they came from almost everywhere. Several counties, including Hamil- ton, of Ohio, were well represented, and then there were babies from Indiana, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. We would publish the names, but for the serious protests of the parents, who do not desire the world to know that their babies entered for the prizes and did not get it. We appreciate their feelings and submit to their request. ]n such an immense crowd we could not with any propriety get anything like a personal description of the babies, hut we will mention a few which attracted general attention. THE PRETTIEST BAB V. It was generally admitted that decidedly the prettiest child on exhibi- tion was from Cincinnati; it is the daughter of Mr. Henry Howe. It is really a sweet child, and, without pretending to be a judge, we must coincide with the general opinion. Large and fat children seemed to predominate. One from Indiana. one five months old, weighed twenty-seven and a half pounds. Another, four months old, weighed twenty pounds. A pair of twins, of Clark County, attracted much attention. They were very pretty, and as near alike as two peas. An elderly lady was present with her seventeenth baby, only two months old. She claimed nothing extraordinary in the child, but thought she was deserving of a premium—and she certainly is. Without attempting to particularise, we will just say, that we think all the babies presented, were really pretty, and that their parents have just cause to be proud of them. THE JUDGES DELIBERATE. The judges were a long time in their investigations. After they retired, the mothers, with their children in their arms, walked into the Floral Hall, where they remained, while the spectators crowded past them to take a look at the babies. This ended the great Baby Show— the first, but certainly not the last, in Ohio. Though the " show" was ended, the excitement was not over. Every- body wanted to know the premium babies, and the judges were not ready to report. Some ladies were sure that " this duck of a child," or that Of Baby Conventions. 11 " love of a baby" would carry off the silver ware, while every parent interested was sure of a prize. The judges not being able to consult without interruption on the ground, retired to the Anthony House, in the city. There they were followed by hundreds anxious to learn the result. PRIZES AWARDED—NAMES OF THE VICTORS. The session was a long one, but about 6 o'clock in the evening the final decision was made, and the prizes awarded as follows: First prize, a splendid service of silver plate, including a large salver, to the daughter of Wm. Romney, of Vienna, Clark County, aged 10 months. Second prize, a service of silver plate to the son of Wm. Wm. McDowell, of Fulton, Hamilton Co., Ohio, aged 13 months. Third prize, a plain service of silver, to the daughter of Mr. A. Canon, of Philadelphia. DISSATISFACTION—VOLUNTEER PRIZE. Great dissatisfaction was expressed at the award of the first prize. It was thought it would be given at once to the daughter of Mr. Howe, of Cincinnati, and it was even proposed to take up a subscription on the spot, to purchase her a gift worth at least as much as the prize. It was understood that her claim had been strongly urged, and that the prize was awarded to the other child by a majority of only one vote. Those in the minority were determined she should not pass unnoticed, and after the awards had been made known, waited on the little favorite, and through Mr. DeGraff, of Dayton, presented her with a large and costly statuette of our Savior Blessing Little Children. This act was highly applauded. Thus ends our report of the National Baby Show. We understand it will be repeated next year, when, with the experience of this year before them, the managers will be able to prepare all the necessary accommoda- tions for the " entries." IMPOBTANCE OF BABY CONVENTIONS. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan : The proper study of mankind is man. The transformations wrought by horticulturists and pomologista are all but incredible. Peaches were originally poisonous almonds, and used to impregnate arrows with deadly venom. Cherries are 12 Importance and Necessity derived from a berry of which only one grew on a stem ; nectarines and apricots are hybrids of the plum and peach ; the chief of escu- lents, with its relatives, brocoli and cauliflower, came from the com- mon sea-cale, which shoots up on sandy shores. Such are mere specimens of vegetable metamorphoses brought about by trans- plantings, acclimating, crossings, and culture, as fostered by " Agri- cultural Conventions." In " Baby Conventions" a similar service will be performed for the " noblest work of God," which agricultural ones have accom- plished for fruits, flowers, grains, and animals. Baby Conventions will perform the work of awakening, in the bosom of millions, the dormant hopes of the physical perfection of the race, which have hitherto slumbered in apathy. These Conventions will show the power exercised by man over animals, as one of the most remarkable episodes in his history—how they are plastic as clay in his hands, for he models them as his fancy and wishes suggest. Selecting some animals as laborers, he adds muscles and bone, or withdraws them as strength or speed is required. Thus he produces race and draught horses from one stock, and works equal changes in porcine, bovine, and canine families. Of fowls and pigeons for example ; their figures are so far under his control that he multiplies varieties till every apparent affinity with the original is lost. Their colors, too—producing spots where he pleases, or, as the saying is, breeding " these birds to a feather." These " Baby Conventions" will enlighten man on the shamefulness of having totally neglected his own race ! As if his own race did not affect community as nearly as that of horses or dogs ! As if it were more essential to have large and strong oxen than vigorous and healthy human beings ! —to have highly odorous peaches, or finely striped tulips, than noble men and beautiful women! It is assuredly time for us to attempt to do for ourselves that which we have done so successfully for several of our companions in existence—time to review and correct this work of civilized nature; and it is a noble enterprise which truly merits all our cares, and which nature herself appears to have especially recommended to us by the- sympathies and the powers which she has given us. Of Baby Exhibitions. 13 NECESSITY OF BABY EXHIBITIONS. Look round the habitable world, how few— Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue. Conventions when formed, or held for national improvement, and in the benevolent and patriotic desire to do a public good, have generally inspired public confidence, obtained "public support, and become public blessings. And if " Baby Exhibitions" only stimu- late parents, by every means in their power, to eradicate the deformity, ugliness, and stupidity, with its accompanying depravity and disease that exists, and is every day increasing in the land, such associations will deserve the thanks of universal mankind. There is a great necessity for physical reform. Much may it progress. The bodies of men are the houses their souls live in. Every mental operation, and even the moral virtues, are dependent upon the form and constitution of the body. Never till mankind universally study their own natures, and improve their organizations, can there be either individual liberty, true civilization, or practical Christianity. Yet we have reason to believe that in no age of the world were mankind so excessively afflicted with physical ailments as in the present. All classes, old and young, high and low, rich and poor, are in greater or less degree affected by functional or organic derangements. The great numbers of weekly deaths from consumption, scrofula, erysipelas, cancers, fits, stomach-complaints, fevers, insanity, and diseases of other kinds, are frightful evidences of the necessity of " Baby Exhibitions." WOEFUL DEGENERACY OF OUB BACE! Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay ! There can be no question that personal beauty is representative of moral symmetry. Though we talk of the person as an outward property, it stands nevertheless, as the phrenologists say, " a picture 14 Horace Mann on of the internal." A really well-formed human being will seldom hide an inward deformity or ugliness, and this consideration, taken in connection with our increasing criminal records, will partly pre- pare the reader to listen to Horace Mann's portraiture of neglect of the body, and its power over the mental and moral state : "I hold it to be morally impossible for God to have created, in the beginning, such men and women as we find the human race, in their physical condition, now to be. Examine the book of Genesis, which con- tains the earliest annals of the human family. As is commonly supposed, it comprises the first twenty-three hundred and sixty-nine years of human history. With child-like simplicity, this book describes the infancy of mankind. Unlike modern histories, it details the minutest circumstances of social and individual life. Indeed, it is rather a series of biographies than a history. The false delicacy of modern times did not forbid the mention of whatever was done or suffered. -And yet, over all that expanse of time—for more than one-third part of the duration of the human race—not a single instance is recorded of a child born blind, or deaf, or dumb, or idiotic, or malformed in any way! During the whole period, not a single case of a natural death in infancy, or child- hood, or early manhood, or even of middle manhood, is to be found. Not one man or woman died of disease. The simple record is, ' and he died,' or, he died ' in a good old age, and full of years,' or, he was ' old and full of days.' No epidemic, nor even endemic disease prevailed, showing that they died the natural death of healthy men, and not the unnatural death of distempered ones. Through all this time, (except in the single case of Jacob, in his old age, and then only for a day or two before his death) it does not appear that any man was ill, or that any old lady or young lady ever fainted. Bodily pain from disease is nowhere mentioned. No cholera infantum, scarlatina, measles, small-pox—not even a tooth- ache ! So extraordinary a thing was it for a son to die before his father, that an instance of it is deemed worthy of special notice; and this first case of the reversal of nature's law was two thousand years after the creation of Adam. See how this reversal of nature's law has for us become the law; for how rare is it now for all the children of a family to survive the parents! Rachel died at the birth of Benjamin; but this is the only case of puerperal death mentioned in the first twenty-four hundred years of the sacred history, and even this happened during the fatigue of a patriarchal journey, when passengers were not wafted along in the saloons of rail-car or steamboat. " Had Adam, think you, tuberculous lungs ? Was Eve flat-chested, or Personal Degeneracy. 15 did she cultivate the serpentine line of grace in a curved spine 1 Did Nimrod get up in the morning with a furred tongue, or was he tor- mented with the dyspepsia 1 Had Esau the gout or hepatitis ? Imagine how the tough old Patriarch would have looked at being asked to sub- scribe for a lying-in hospital, or an asylum for lunatics, or an eye and ear infirmary, or a school for idiots, or deaf-mutes. What would their eagle- vision and swift-footedness have said to the project of a blind asylum or an orthopedic establishment ? Did they suffer any of these revenges of nature against false civilization'? No! Man came from the hand of God so perfect in his bodily organs, so defiant of cold and heat, of drought and humidity, so surcharged with vital force, that it took more than two thousand years of the combined abominations of appetite and ignorance; it took successive ages of outrageous excess and debauchery, to drain off his electric energies and make him even accessible to disease; and then it took ages more to breed all these vile distempers which now nestle, like vermin, in every organ and fibre of our bodies! " During all this time, however, the fatal causes were at work which wore away and finally exhausted the glorious and abounding vigor of the pristine race. At least as early as the third generation from Adam, polygamy began. Intermarriages were all along the order of the day. Even Abraham married his half-sister. The basest harlotry was not beneath one of the Patriarchs. Whole people, like the Moabites and Amorites, were the direct fruit of combined drunkenness and incest between father and daughters. The highest pleasures and forces of the race gradually narrowed down into appetite and incontinence. At length its history becomes almost too shocking to be referred to. If its greatest men, its wisest men, its God-favored men, like David, could be guilty of murder for the sake of adultery, or, like Solomon, could keep a seraglio of a thousand wives and concubines, what blackness can be black enough to paint the portrait of the people they ruled, and the children they begat % "After the Exodus, excesses rapidly developed into diseases. First came cutaneous distempers—leprosy, boils, elephantiasis, &c.—the com- mon efforts of nature to throw visceral impurities to the surface. As early as King Asa, that right royal malady, the gout, had been invented. Then came consumptions; and the burning ague, and disorders of the visceral organs, and pestilences, or, as the Bible expresses it, 'great plagues and of lon^ continuance, and sore sicknesses and of long con- tinuance ;* until, in the time of Christ, we see how diseases of all kinds had become the common lot of mankind, by the crowds that flocked to him to be healed. And so frightfully, so disgracefully numerous have diseases now become, that if we were to write down their names, in the smallest legible hand, on the smallest bits of paper, there would not be room enough on the human body to past the labels." f 16 Mrs. Stowe on THE FADING BEAUTY OF AMERICAN WOMEN DEMAND BABY CONVENTIONS. " Beneath this stone in sweet repose, Is laid the parents' dearest pride ; A flower, scarce waked to woman's life, And light and beauty, ere she died." If County and State Conventions are useful instrumentalities for the improvement of the breed of horses, sheep, grains, flowers, &c, there can be nothing but what is desirable in applying similar insti- tutions to the rearing healthy children; in encouraging the proper development of that bodily tenement in which an immortal spirit is to be developed, instead of having to deplore its premature decay in the words of the heading to this paragraph. It has been often repeated that one-half the children born are sent " into this breath- ing world but half made up, and that so lamely" that they die before they are two years old, while of the other half scarcely one in a thousand possesses that perfect physical organization so essential to the harmonious build of a moral and mental being. As confirma- tory of this statement, Mrs. Stowe, in her work, " Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands," thus speaks : " A lady asked me this evening what I thought of the beauty of the ladies of the English aristocracy. (She was a Scotch lady, by the by, so the question was a fair one) I replied, that certainly report had not exaggerated their charms. Then came a home question—how the ladies of England compared with the ladies of America. ' Now for it, patriot- ism,' said I to myself: and, invoking to my aid certain fair saints of my own country, whose faces I distinctly remembered, I assured her that I had never seen more beautiful women than I had in America. Grieved was I to be obliged to add, ' But your ladies keep their beauty much later and longer.' This fact stares one in the face in every company; one meets ladies past fifty, glowing, radiant and blooming, with a fresh- ness of complexion and fullness of outline refreshing to contemplate. What can be the reason ?■ Tell us, Muses and Graces, what can it be ? Is it the conservative power of sea-fogs and coal-smoke—the same cause that keeps the turf green, and makes the holly and ivy flourish 1 How comes it that our married ladies dwindle, fade, and grow thin—that their noses incline to sharpness, and their elbows to angularity, just at * American Women. 17 the time of life when their island sisters round out into a comfortable and becoming amplitude and fullness % If it is the fog and the sea-coal why, then, I am afraid we shall never come up with them. But perhaps there may be other causes why a country which starts some of the most beautiful girls in the world produces so few beautiful women. Have not our close-heated stove-rooms something to do with it 1 Have not the immense amount of hot biscuits, hot corn-cakes, and other compounds got up with the acrid poison of saleratus, something to do with it 1 Above all, has not our climate, with its alternate extremes of heat and cold, a tendency to induce habits of in-door indolence 1 Climate cer- tainly has a great deal to do with it; ours is evidently more trying and more exhausting ; and because it is so, we should not pile upon its back errors of dress and diet which are avoided by our neighbors. They keep their beauty, because they keep their health. It has been as remarkable as any thing to me, since I have been here, that I do not constantly, as at home, hear one and another spoken of as in miserable health, as very delicate, &c. Health seems to be the rule, and not the exception. For my part, I must say, the most favorable omen that I know of for female beauty in America is the multiplication of Water-Cure Establishments, where our ladies, if they get nothing else, do gain some ideas as to the necessity of fresh air, regular exercise, simple diet, and the laws of hygiene in general." PRETENDED ORIGIN OF BABY REFORM. How poor ! how rich, how abject, how august! How complicate ! how wonderful is man ! How passing wonder He who made him such! Who centred in our make such strange extremes. Under the caption of " Origin of Baby Conventions," a New York paper, although caring for the development of a " sound mind in a sound body" in the animals exhibited at state and county fairs, yet sneers at the idea of well-cared-for specimens of the human species, in the following terms: " An idea humorously suggested by Punch, a few years ago, in ridicule of the English custom of awarding prizes to the farmers who exhibited the most grossly fed cattle, has recently become a fact. It was probably hardly deemed possible by the facetious journalist who broached the idea, 3 " 18 Pretended Origin that a thing hinted at in fun would ever mature into an actual verity. But truth is once more stranger than fiction—in the hands of some people, in fact, it is stranger than caricature; and the promulgators of the late National Baby Show, in the midst of their triumphs, ought to thank Punch as the originator of a movement in which they have been able to gain notoriety and success. If the readers of that wide-spread journal smiled at the humorous suggestion, how will they laugh at its literal realization! At any rate, a new " reform" is added to the list that already bore an enduring world, and the shibboleth of the latest progressives is to be— " Reform your babies!" We are waiting anxiously to hear what mode of action will be recommended by the new organization. The " reform" must of course be a radical one, commencing ab initio, and a curious world is anxious to learn in what mysterious manner the laudable im- provement is to be accomplished. Will the baby reformers enlighten us?—or are only the initiated to be inducted into their esoteric plans of operation % Let us know what we are to avoid, and what to pursue. Inform us what abuses are to be corrected, and what amendments to be adopted, that we, too, humble as are our capacities, may enter the lists as candidates for progenitive renown, and possibly—for who knows what determined endeavors may effect?—produce to the world a Perfect Baby!" The press of this country has given a very general approbation to the project for " reforming babies"—the above quotation is a specimen of the exceptions of the press. Another paper or two, whose very titles are unmentionable, have expressed themselves in a similar manner. The above paragraphs are intended as justifica- tions of the false delicacy and false refinement of the artificial, mock-modest, and pharisaical press and school, which rather seeks to gloss over the generation of diseased and deformed offspring, than to urge a thorough understanding and clear view of the physi- ology and pathology of marriage and parentage. This school would rather call up a laugh at an indecent innuendo, and affect to be shocked at a knowledge of the human frame, instead of teaching that ignorance of physiology is no gain to society, but the contrary. " Baby Reforms and Conventions" are not expected to win the approbation of the lascivious, the libertine, or the debauche ! Such persons, of course, can only bring to the examination of this ques- tion a contempt or distrust of their species, for " like begets like." Of Baby Reform. 19 They ever confound liberty with license, and sense with sensuality. The subject of " Baby Reform" is not for palled feelings, perverted perceptions, nor is it depending on the decision of sensitive sticklers for the etiquette of conventional morality.* Such individuals judge all men and women by a standard in their own minds, and only give credit for motives and impulses like their own. The true origin of " Baby Reform" was not with Punch, or other droll, but was the product of those pure men and women who had a clear knowledge of the distinct agencies of nature and their result. They saw that, through Providence, physical objects act in certain determinate modes, and produce certain invariable consequences ; organic substances act in certain determinate modes, and produce also invariable effects ; and each faculty of the mind and function of the body, has its appointed constitution and mode of action, and it produces happiness or misery according as it is used or abused. General health, happiness and prosperity, are the results of our habitually acting in conformity with the several ordinations of nature, each communicating its own pleasures or pains, independ- ently of others, but all being in harmony among themselves, and with our natures. The pure-minded men and women who ori- ginated the " Baby Reform" movement in America, believe that God has put it in our own power to enjoy life for three score and ten years—that God has appointed certain conditions on which that period may be enjoyed—that these conditions are, to a great extent, cognizable by the human intellect—that the boon of health and beauty is left to our own option, and that these " Baby Conven- sions" may be a means of inciting mankind to accept and fulfill the end of their existence. * The New York Sunday Times, May 6th, 1855, in the true spirit of progression, thus speaks: " Potatoes degenerate, and so do nations. Races of men run out, and so do vegetables, fruits, and flowers, unless regenerated by the judicious admixture of foreign material. The bitter crab-apple has become, by cultivation, the ' New- town pippin' and the glorious ' Bellflower.' Why may not man be susceptible, through similar means, of similar improvement 1 Is not the boasted superiority of the American people the result of this constant engraftment upon the original stock, of the different and diverse elements of different and diverse people 1 If such be the general effect, why may we not make it a specific one in specific cases 1 And, instead of giving all our attention to the superior development of dogs and horses, why not devote some of it to the physical (which includes the intellootual) elevation of the standard of human excellence 1" 20 Prejudices against PREJUDICES AGAINST BABY CONVENTIONS. " The men whose minds more faster than their age, And faster than society's dull flight, Must bear the ribald railings, and the rage Of those who lag behind it." " When the State Legislature incorporated the State Agricultural Society, it was for the purpose of fostering and bringing into notice the agricultural capabilities of the State, and not with the intention that a few old grannies should meet and offer premiums that make it a laughing-stock of the community. ' A hundred dollars for the best baby, and seventy dollars for the second best one.' "—Newspaper. Such is the sentiment of a conservative paper. That is, conserv- ative of whatever is venerable by age, no matter how stupid. Al- though change is the general stamp of time and men, yet every step in the path of progress has to be fought with the prejudices of a grey-beard party. Every new idea thrown out causes its wonder- ment or hatred ; it is afraid it will disturb the social order and econ- omy. As Sir Isaac Newton erroneously supposed the moon to be Btraying from its path, so does this grey-beard party always imagine the world of ideas to be speeding in an onward and wrono--ward direction, and that its duty is to be a drag on its chariot wheels. It is crazy with old crotchets and saws, and antiquated ideas, rotten by the action of time. It can only see in one direction, and lives as it were in an eternal twilight. It rejects all new truths, and laughs at the "regeneration schemes" of earth's best sons and daughters. It believes nothing new, and this state of hideous slavery it hallows by the name of freedom. Will this party believe that the " Personal improvement of our race is one of the highest aims of marriage ?" No, not at all. The above extract shows that, although they are willing to boast of im- proving the breed of horses and cattle—willing to thank God for mechanical improvements and blessings in agriculture, yet think it would be a vile innovation to produce a race of human beings worthy of the Deity whose image they are ! The grey-beard party know that one-half the race are sent " into this breathing world but half made up, and that so lamely" that they die before they are Baby Conventions. 21 two years' old, while a large proportion of the others are enervated, dwarfed, insane, idiotic, blind, lame, deaf, crippled, and otherwise unharmoniously developed—it knows that the health, strength, beauty and longevity of the body can only be the result of a know- ledge of the laws of God and an obedience to them, but it has a coward dread of innovation. It is selfish enough to appreciate large oxen or swine, but righteous over-much to consider the laws of hereditary descent, or what appertains to a sound body and a sound mind in the married relation. That which is, is good enough. Of them, Horace Mann says, " those appetites which they have in common with the brutes, they do not govern; but they allow the appetites to govern them. The first distinction between an irra- tional and a truly rational being is this ; the former seeks, primarily, the pleasures of appetite ; the latter, the uses of it." The approvers of " Baby Conventions" believe that our physical appetites and propensities should be consulted by reason, and a regard for their own future health and that of their children; the objecting party say, " Let things alone." " To improve the human race is only foolish meddling." These are its ignoble mutterings, and we leave it to its barren feudalism. The world, in a philosophical sense, does not exist for such indi- viduals. They are the clogs upon human progress. " Baby Con- ventions" are for those young men and women who believe in human progression, virtue and happiness; who are yet uncorrupted by the vices of an imperfect civilization; who are not perverted to the belief that the diseases and deformities of our race are the " mys- teries of Providence," but rather that they are the result of un- speakable violations of God's laws, in our marriages for money, pride, and interest; in marriage with diseased or kindred blood, and in neglecting the laws of diet, exercise, and cleanliness, pure air, and recreation. " Baby Conventions" are for those in whom honest words and purposes call up only honest ideas; for parents who are pure-minded, whose object is truth, whose interest is the study of human physiology, and whose aim is their own and their race's welfare. 22 Conscientious Objections. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE CULTURE OF THE HUMAN FORM. Seize upon truth, wherever found, On Christian,—or on heathen ground ; Among your friends,—among your foes; The plant's divine,—where'er it grows. Several writers urge that to attempt the improvement of men and women as we improve cattle, is, in fact, to reduce us to their level, and is besides an imputation upon divine goodness. Previous paragraphs show, however, that our degeneracy is no more an im- putation on the Deity than is the "fall of man." In each case there is a violation of His laws, and consequently disease, degener- acy, and early death. Nor is there aught artificial in the incite- ment to rear a healthy offspring. The Creator, in the beginning, left man in a state of nature without anything but the gift of reason to conduce to his improvement more than the beasts of the field. If, therefore, the principle of the censurers of the culture of the human person be correct, the making of clothes and the building of habitations are equally at fault, both being artificial specimens of human improvement. To carry out the objections to " Baby Con- ventions," or other, so called, artificial modes of progress, the human family would be driven to the forests for food and protection. The law of progress, however, establishes that the " great first cause" intended that man should make use of his reasoning and inventive powers for the production and improvement of his race and his station. True, so far, the homage of man has been more to station than to his kind. The march of events, however, is now in the right direction, and society will, sooner or later, take its revenge by neglecting those who have dared to deride and oppose its pro- gress. Those who reject the axiom, that reason was given to us to regu- late the injunction of " multiply and replenish the earth" with a superior class of human beings, must do so upon the presumption that reason is a vanity and a curse to man, inasmuch as it moves him to the commission of things which, by this view, is a sin. Yet we are taught to approve the words, " God made man but he has The Aim of Marriage. 23 found out many inventions." We read, also, that " Man is a temple to be built to God's honor and glory." How can diseased, deformed, or criminal human beings, be temples of " honor and glory to God?" It is blasphemy to think so, for as Horace Mann says—" Man came from the hand of God so perfect in his bodily organs, so defiant of cold and heat, of drought and humidity, so surcharged with vital force, that it took more than two thousand years of the combined abominations of appetite and ignorance; it took successive ages of outrageous excess and debauchery, to drain off his electric energies and make him even accessible to disease; and then it took ages more to breed all these vile distempers which now nestle, like vermin, in every organ and fibre of our bodies !" The Rev. Mr. Sedgwick, re- ferring to the causes of man's physical degeneracy thus expresses himself: "If there be a superintending Providence, and if his will be manifested by general laws, operating both on the physical and moral world, then must a violation of these laws be a violation of his will, and be pregnant with inevitable misery. Nothing can, in the end, be expedient for man, except it be subordinate to those laws the Author of nature has thought fit to impress on his moral and physical creation." IMPROVEMENT OF THE RACE THE HIGHEST ATM OF MARRIAGE. " If you would have the nuptial union last, Let judgment be the band which ties it fast." Verily there is no subject that demands approach with so pure a heart, and so unadulterated feelings, as the improvement of our race. It is a holy circumstance, and in the bosoms of the clear- minded and pure-hearted, there is a strongly affirming power, which demands in regard to it a sacred reverence. Assuredly in the whole catalogue of men's actions there is not one item so paramount in importance as this. When intellect is man's guidance, there is none other in which he so nearly resembles the divinity. Man when he thus obeys the laws of God, becomes a miracle-working magician —a worker in accordance with the Divine creative law. But this 24 Like begets Like. action is neither the fruits nor the aims of carnality or sensuality ; it is the harvest of true marriage joined to intellectual and moral purity. Conjugal society is a perpetual compact between man and woman to live together in mutual love for the procreation, conservation, development and education of children, and to aid each other by mutual succor for the course of life. The diversity of the sexes was instituted for this purpose, and there is an innate desire im- planted in both to perpetuate their species, their names, and their likenesses to their children. Marriage was a divine institution in the days of man's primitive innocence, as the means of his happiness and the perpetuation and improvement of his race. The command was to " multiply and replenish the earth," and the propriety and duty of obeying this command consists in conferring on offspring the highest prerogative and blessings it is in the power of parentage to bestow, namely, a superior mental and physical constitution. What, therefore, so indis- pensable for us to know in order to secure so desirable a result as a knowledge of the " law of parentage ?"—that law which determines whatever is original in the nature of herb, tree, fruit, or animal— that law. which determines its form, texture, aptitudes and qualities— that law which governs the forms of man and brute ? Man, like every other part of nature, has a definite constitution, which while distinguishing him from other animals, causes him to exhibit the same general characteristics under every variety of organization and circumstance. Confirmatory of this important, but not sufficiently recognized fact, the Messrs. Fowlers thus describe the law of parentage: Its law is, "Each after its hind." Like parents, like children. "In their own image beget" they them. In what other can they ? Nor do any but parental influences enter into the formation of their constitutional character. "How can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit?" How can animal propensity in parents generate other than depraved children? Or can moral purity beget other than beings as holy by nature as those at whose hands they received existence and constitution ? And not only " each after its kind," but " after its kind" at the time the Scripture Sanctions Personal Improvement. 25 being or thing was generated. That is, as are parents, mentally and morally, when they stamp their " own image and likeness" upon their progeny, so the constitution of that progeny. Thoughtless youth, sport not on the brink of relations thus moment- ous ! By all the happiness of which your children are susceptible if endowed congenially with the very perfection of our nature, without spot or blemish, mentally and physically, I conjure you, before you allow the first goings forth of love, to learn what parental conditions in you will confer so great a boon on the prospective bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh ! By all the happiness it is possible for you to take in your children, or them in themselves, here or hereafter, if they should be beautiful, healthy, moral, and talented, more than if diseased or depraved, is it your imperious duty to impart to them that physical power, moral perfection, and intellectual capability, which shall spread such a halo of glory on all concerned. Prospective parents, Oh ! pause and tremble! Will you trifle with the dearest interests of your own children ? Will you, in matters thus momentous, rush headlong " Where angels dare not tread !" Seeking only animal indulgence ? SCRIPTURE SANCTIONS PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT. "And shall the worm come forth, renewed in life, And clothed in highest beauty, and not Man 1" All Christian moralists maintain that the chief end of marriage is the propagation of the species—that it is sinful in the married to wish not to have offspring—that it is the height of sin to use any means of prevention, or to procure abortion; for, according to med- ical authority in all countries, the foetus is a living being. The violation of these precepts is felt to be so repugnant to the mass of mankind, that the violators are generally detested as the most worthless of the community. Abortionist is synonomous with fiend. Dr. Dixon, editor of the " Scalpel," referring to this universal theme, the reproduction of the human species, observes, " He that is yet undamaged by the degradation of the sexual vices, will climb the mountain height of his existence, and breathe the pure air of Heaven's permissions and commands, exulting in the liberty and 4 26 Scripture Sanctions dignity of his fruition." And certainly there is not a function in the whole domain of physiology so interesting to man, as the repro- duction, improvement, and conservation of the human species. Scripture represents to us the Deity addressing the first pair in these words: " Be fruitful and multiply." And to the second great progenitor of the human race, we are told, " And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said, " Be fruitful and multiply." Despite what the mock-modest sentimentalists may say about these words of the Deity, nature, justice, morality, religion, and the preservation of health, assure us that the words "fruitful and multiply" did not mean a deformed offspring and a sickly society. Much that is elo- quent, pungent, and affecting, on the subject of offspring, might be gathered from the Bible, to prove that, when healthy and beautiful, it is woman's loftiest elevation; oftentimes demonstrating that wo- man is designed essentially as a beautiful offspring-loving-and-desir- ing being, that her physical, mental, and moral nature require the function of a healthy reproduction to make up their happiness. Psalms cxiii. 9, speaks of the joy of the mother of a child, and that " children are the heritage of God." Solomon, the wisest man) said, " Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers." In Ps. cxxvii. we read, " Children are an heritage of the Lord ; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them ; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." It is not enough that parents procreate children—all animals do that. The felicity of marriage consists in the act being based on the proper feelings of religion, love and reason. The principal obliga- tion imposed by the union of these bases is the healthful propagation and proper education of children. Parents are solemnly responsible to God, to their future offspring, and to society, for the mental, moral, and physical qualities they will transmit. Parents should be able to show that they spared no efforts to ascertain and obey the laws of procreation, gestation, and education—that the complicated Personal Improvement. 27 physical, mental and moral development of their offspring is no ran- dom result of fortuitous circumstances, but the produce of their pru- dence, intelligence, and compliance with the fixed laws of Deity. And to those who regard the act of reproduction as one of bestiality, the reply of Montaigne is very appropriate: " Are we not beasts to regard the action by which we exist as beastly ?" George Combe, speaking of the effects of disobedience of the laws of propagation as established by Deity, asks: " Is it wrong to inquire into the nature of these conditions ; to unfold them, when discovered, as valuable practical instructions to all these classes, and to appeal to their whole moral and religious sentiments to respect and observe them as divine institutions, in order that the great gift of life may no longer be trampled by so many persons under foot ?" Every function of the mind and body is instituted by the Creator ; each has a legitimate sphere of activity; but all may be abused; and if ever Christian parents can lift up their souls to God in thank- fulness, it is when they have a child perfect in form, healthy and sound in organs, and worthy to be called " made in the image of God." The angels can never make heaven echo with their joyful voices at a new creation, if that creation is puny, scrofulous, or de- formed. In ancient days, no man with a blemish could serve before the Lord, nor could cattle be offered up as a burnt offering which were not perfect in form and sound in body. WE CULTIVATE ANIMALS AND PLANTS, WHY NOT HUMAN BEINGS 1 The man who consecrates his powers, By vigorous effort, and an honest aim, At once, he draws the sting of life, and death ; He walks with Nature ; and her paths—are peace. Americans, particularly those, who having occupied themselves with the best methods of rendering more vigorous and beautiful the various races of animals and plants—who having remodelled a 28 We Cultivate Animals and Plants, hundred times the breed of horses, cattle and dogs—who having transplanted, grafted, and cultivated in every manner fruits and flowers, are not likely to deny that if the same amount of knowl- edge and care had been taken with the human species, our country to-day would not show such a crop of cripples, and pale, puny creatures, nor should our lunatic asylums and prisons be now so crowded. Every American farmer, gardener, and dealer in ani- mals, is aware that there are natural laws to be observed in the pro- duction of beautiful children as well as upon beautiful horses—aware that there is a science of propagation and culture which must be understood and practised by all who would give good constitutions and beautiful forms to their offspring. In raising animals or vege- tables, we leave nothing to chance! The farmer who means to contend for prizes in agriculture, selects the best ground, the finest seed, and uses the best culture. The person who would raise the best horse, looks well to the blood, breeding, and condition of both sire and dam. Are there other laws for human beings ? Not of God's, that's certain. The conventional laws of prudes and igno- ramuses, have degenerated and are fast degenerating our race, and rendering it only food for doctors. How inconsiderate for men to encourage annual exhibitions and weekly periodicals for the development of every thing but their own species ! How short-sighted is that person, who, in stocking a farm, buying a dog or a horse, not only examines the condition and organ- ization of his seeds and animals, but requires assurance of the good reputation of their progenitors, yet nevertheless overlooks all these considerations in choosing who will be the mother of his children! Sir Thomas More, in his " Commonwealth," says: " They do wonder greatly at the folly of all other nations, which, in buying a colt (whereas, a little money is in hazard), be so chary and circumspect, that, though he be almost all bare, yet they will not buy him, unless the saddle and all the harness be taken off—lest, under-those coverings, be hid some gall or sore. And yet, in choosing a wife, which shall be either pleasure or displeasure to them all their life after, they be so reckless, that, all the residue of the woman's body being, covered with clothes, they esteem her scarcely by one hand-breadth (for they can Why not Human Beings ? 29 see no more but her face), and so to join her to them, not without great jeopardy of evil agreeing together—if anything in her body afterward should chance to offend and mislike them." Francis Bacon is of similar opinion. Beauty of person should not only be cultivated for its own merit, but also for the important collateral benefits which attend it. Mr. Walker, in his " Analysis of Beauty," demonstrates that a good form is, in fact, the outward visible denotement of sound structure and organic fitness—that beauty of person is perfection. History seems to corroborate the theory. David, Moses, Pythagoras, and Aristides, who were noted for their beauty, lived to an extreme old age. Sarah was seventy when Abimelech fell in love with her. Jane Shore died at ninety; Mrs. Fitzherbert at eighty-one ; Ninon D'Enclos at ninety. Helen of Troy was sixty when Paris stole her. The kept mistresses of the French Kings were noted for their lon- gevity. The stars of the stage, persons noted for considerable physical and mental attractions, often live to a great age. Persons possessed of beauty of person are found to have the fine sensibilities of humanity in the greatest proportion, and genius marks them for her favorites ; we may instance Alcibiades, Cleopatra, Milton, Crich- ton, Raffaelle, Mrs. Inchbald, Lady Blessington, Mrs. Mowatt. THE CULTURE OF THE HUMAN FORM BY THE ANCIENTS. Truth Comes to us with a slow and doubtful step ; Measuring the ground she treads on, and forever Turning her curious eye, to see that all Is right behind. That man is an organized being, and is no exception to the gene- ral law which governs all organized animal and vegetable beings, has been well known to the best men and philosophers of all times. A false delicacy has thrown this truth into eclipse, and thus prevented its exerting a controlling influence in the relations of the matrimonial state, which have so much to do with the formation and happiness 30 The Culture of the Human Form of the human race. Hence deformed and diseased bodies are regu- larly entailed unto the third and fourth generations. " Know thyself" was a maxim of Thales, the prince of philoso- phers, who flourished A. M. 3330, who also added, " for a man to know himself was the hardest but most useful thing in the world." Cicero, Plato, Socrates, and Solon, considered not only that man was the image of the Deity, but that it was man's duty at all times to strive to preserve that image free from disfiguration. The sages of Greece considered that Deity had made no other laws for human kind than those which appertain to all organized beings, and there- fore neither vegetables, animals nor men should be left to chance for development. They believed in the science of culture to all organ- ized beings. We need not wonder, then, that the Greeks should have made the beauty of the human frame an object of worship, and placed it immediately after virtue, in the order of their affec- tions. In the public games and gymnastic exercises of the Athe- nians, the manly form, uncramped by excess of drapery, was exhibited in all the varied postures and attitudes which strength and address, skill and grace could suggest in the contests of the athletae and the chariot race.* The consequence was, that the human form in Greece was of the finest proportions in the world. And the Grecian rules for the preservation of human beauty were not only based on a true knowledge of the proportions of the human frame, but were precisely the best for the support of health, which naturally includes physical and intellectual beauty. Because the ancient artists stud- ied from the most perfect human specimens of beauty of form, is it, that their remains of statuary and architecture are inimitable to this hour. The sense of the beautiful in the human being was as highly esteemed in the early Christian as in the heathen world. The value of a healthy and perfect organization in the eyes of the early * The word " gymnasium" was the term given originally by the Greeks to the place where public exercises, under systematic guidance were performed. The exer- cises were called gymnastic, and their purpose was to strengthen the muscular system, and to teach the means of its most advantageous employment. They were well cal- culated to produce strength and activity, confer beauty of form, impart grace of action, inspire confidence in difficult situations, and bestow invariable health. By the Ancients. 81 Christians is well illustrated in their descriptions of the comely persons of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus could not have been in the " image of God" as a cripple, dispeptic, consumptive, scrofu- lous, narrow-chested, or otherwise deformed. The portraitures of the Jewish Patriarchs, also, are personifications of manly health, vigor, and female beauty. The Great Architect has associated in our minds the comely, the good, the true and the beautiful, and has given us reason so that we may cultivate each with the other into a harmonious union. The Old Testament records that no animals were fit for sacrifice unto the Lord but such as were of fine proportions and healthy. Nor could any one officiate as a priest, who had not the requisite considerations of a good figure and health. In fact, the Bible pre- sents in such examples clearly and strongly, that neither animals nor men found favor in the sight of God, who by ill-health, or unsound- ness of body, gave evidence of a violation of His laws. TASTE AND GOOD SENSE IN FAVOR OF BEAUTY OF PERSON. Beauty was lent to Nature as the type Of heaven's unspeakable and holy joy; Where all perfection makes the sum of bliss. Every person, without distinction of class, age, or sex, who pos- sesses a pure and refined taste, will approve of every suggestion capable of assisting to develop the human being, and remove the mass of social and physical deformity from the world. Every person with the faculty of refined taste developed, knows that the princi- ples of beauty do not depend upon mere imagination, fashion, or chance, but upon definite laws like other sciences ; thus, beauty in sound consists in certain mathematical relations in time and tone, regulated in pathos by a relation to our feelings. Beauty in form consists in mathematical relation, as in architecture, by every part appearing fitted for use, and by one side being exactly similar to the other, as it is in a perfect human body. Beauty of motion consists 82 Taste and Good Sense, etc. in a certain relation to time, while the body is describing figures and attitudes, as in dancing, &c* A person of educated taste i3 able to converse with a picture, finds an agreeable companion in a statue, meets with a secret refresh- ment in a description, feels satisfaction in the prospect of fields, meadows, hills, rivers, the song of birds, the rustle of leaves ; but he feels the most exalted pleasure in dwelling upon a beautiful, per- fect, and well-developed specimen of that being— " Made in the image of God," and surely, if we believe in the Scriptures, the more beautiful the mind and body of man is, the more god-like he becomes ! Montesquieu, in his " Spirit of the Laws," observes : " Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things. In this sense, all beings have their laws ; the Deity has his laws ; the material world has its laws ; the intelligences superior to man have their laws ; the beasts their laws ; and of course human beings their laws." All men of sense, as well as of taste, acknowledge that it is a law of nature that water flows from an upper to a lower situation ; that all bodies tend to the earth; that flame rises towards the sky, and destroys animal and vegetable life ; that want of exercise injures animals—that want of food kills them—that cross-breeding improves them, and that good form and good health are necessary to make men happy and good. MAN'S POWER TO IMPROVE HIS RACE. What is it, Man, prevents thy God, From making thee his blest abode 1 He says he loves thee, wills thee heaven, And for thy good, has blessings given. A very proper reply to the above query, why God does not make man his abode, may be given in the Shorter Catechism, which * Madame de Stael was often heard to say that " she would gladly have exchanged all the brightest qualities of the mind, for that quality which niggard Nature had denied her—the perishable but attractive beauties of the person." Had her parents been awakened to the study of physiology, and conformed to the laws of life, she might have been able to add beauty of person to the attractions of intellect. Man's Power to Improve his Race. 33 plainly show that the precepts of the Deity as addressed to us in the order of nature must first be obeyed, before we can establish true relations with Him: " The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. " The sinfulness of that estate whereunto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it. " All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under HIS WRATH AND CURSE, and SO MADE LIABLE TO ALL MISERIES IN THIS LIFE, to death itself." Dr. Tholuck, professor of theology in the University of Halle, who is well known in this country as a distinguished evangelical divine, remarks: " Were the physical laws that govern the produc- tion of our race strictly observed from generation to generation, there would be an end to the frightful diseases that cut life short, and of the long list of maladies that make life a torment and a trial." And I ask, where should this regenerative work commence ? In " Baby Conventions" to be sure ! The hint has been given to us in our " Agricultural Exhibitions" as regards the vegetable and animal world, and man himself, though possessing a definite consti- tution, is as much subject to the laws of nature as a plant, a stone, or a horse. Let us, therefore, in the words of Pope— " Take Nature's path, and mad opinions leave, Unerring Nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchang'd, and universal light." Lycurgus, the ancient Spartan law-giver, was well aware of man's power to improve his own species. Through his influence, the Spartans paid as much attention to the rearing of men and women, as we do to the breeding of cattle in America. They took charge of the fullness of chest, vigor of limb, and the firmness and loose- ness of the flesh of both sexes. Intercourse between the husband and wife was forbid, unless they could meet by stealth. The natural consequence followed. Enjoyment was rendered more intense, and there sprung up a race remarkable for its strength, 5 34 Man's Power to Improve his Race. beauty and heroism. A woman with a fine physical organiza- tion in Sparta, was not allowed to marry decrepitude or dis- ease, merely because the man was wealthy and could let her ride in a carriage. In that country old age was not allowed to Shiver in selfish beauty's loathing arms, Nor youth's corrupted body to prepare A life of honor from the blighting bane Of commerce, and therefore Sparta became a State famous for its noble-looking and noble acting citizens. Bastards, who are generally begotten under ardent excitement, and of vigorous parents, are commonly persons of ability. Such was the origin of the ancient heroes, said consequently to be the offspring of the gods. Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, Romulus, and in modern times, William the Conqueror, Galileo, Cardan, Erasmus, and a multitude of others. Shakespere seems of the same opinion; he makes Edmund say- Why brand they ud With base 1 with baseness 1 bastardy 1 base 1 base 1 Who in the lusty stealth of nature take More composition and fierce quality, Than doth within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got between sleep and wake. Statistical tables abundantly show that the depressing passions of fear, shame, and despair, which seduced females suffer in pregnancy, produce offspring of an effeminate, sickly and puny character. So palpable, indeed, is the power of man to improve his species, that volumes could be filled with illustrations, and we trust the day draws near when no person will dare be indifferent about having beautiful, strong, proportionate, and long-lived'children. In the words of the author of " Hereditary Descent," that day will come "when, but only when, parents properly generate, carry, nurse, and educate their children, will they be indeed and in truth ' the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty ;' compared with those diseased and depraved scape-goats of humanity which now infest our earth. Oh! the Natural Foundation of Baby Exhibitions. 35 capabilities of man's nature ! Alas! his deformities ! Behold in these pages the means of developing the former—of preventing the latter!" NATURAL FOUNDATION OF BABY EXHIBITIONS. Ho! ye who start a noble scheme, For general good designed; Ye workers in a cause that tends To benefit your kind ! Make out the path ye fain would tread, The game ye mean to play ; And if it be an honest one, Keep steadfast on your way ! The " Baby Conventions" are a good move in the right direction. Babies lie at the very foundation of the prosperity and welfare of mankind. The success of these Baby Exhibitions is one on which the happiness of ages depends. The sons and daughters exhibited to-day are to be the arbiters of the Republic some thirty years hence. Shall these sons and daughters be strong, healthful, beauti- ful and long-lived, or shall they be puny, miserable, diseased, and idiotic ? It is to be hoped these Baby Conventions will set all men and women to thinking what are the natural laws which govern the production of beautiful children, and that they will have energy, moral purpose, and patriotism enough to zealously accomplish the fulfillment of them. The destinies of this nation and of our race are in the hands of parents, and to them is attached a great responsibility. The compound physical and mental machine called man is no random result of circumstances, but a being originating under fixed laws; and all the varied moral and physical aspects under which he is presented are but results of these laws. It is a fixed fact that health is governed by fixed laws, which understood and obeyed, will perfectly preserve it.* * As illustrative of these facts, the following from Beale's " Laws of Health" is apropos : " A long-continued course of injudicious feeding, want of air and exercise, indulgence of various kinds, and neglect of mental and bodily activity, will effect such a change, that an infant born of healthy parents, with all its organs well- 36 Importance of Understanding It is a fixed fact that the degree of health and physical vigor generally, which a person shall enjoy through life, is dependent on the mental and physical constitution of the parents. It is a fixed fact that the qualities of the parents may be modi- fied in the children by their obedience to certain laws. It is a fixed fact that, in the transmission of qualities from parents to children, more depends on the mother than the father. It is a fixed fact that the mind has its inception and growth under laws which enable the parents to modify or strengthen its various powers as they please. It is a fixed fact that every parent is solemnly responsible to God, to the future offspring, and to society, for both the mind and body of that offspring. IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE SUBJECT OF HUMAN BEAUTY. O who can wander o'er this mortal soil, And say no joys exist to bless our toil 1 0 who can call this earth a wilderness, Who feels the power of beauty's charms to bless ! Dr. Pritchard has well expressed a great truth in his observation, that " the idea of beauty of person is synonymous with that of health and perfect organization." The same author similarly ob- serves that the perception of human beauty is the chief principle in every country which directs men in their marriages. Sir Anthony Carlile thinks that " a taste for beauty worthy of being cultivated." " Man," he remarks, " dwells with felicity even on ideal female attributes, and in imagination discovers beauties and perfections which solace his wearied hours, far beyond any other resource within the scope of human life. It cannot, therefore, be fashioned, may become a miserable, rickety scrofulous child. The reverse of this also occurs,—a delicate infant, born of weakly parents, may, by a very judicious and long-continued system, become a healthy and happy child. The most miserable example of scrofula may, by well-directed means, by attention to all the laws of health, in the course of time become a picture of good health. The Subject of Human Beauty. 37 unwise to cultivate and refine this natural tendency, and to enhance, if possible, these charms of life." Home, in his " Elements of Criticism," observes, " that a per- ception of beauty in external objects is requisite to attach us to them; that it greatly promotes industry, by promoting a desire to possess things that are beautiful." By this he means, that the pos- session of beauty with worth constitutes not only the bond of attrac- tion, but the very life itself of the social union. Walker, in his " Essay on Beauty," observes that " want of beauty, in any one of the systems of which the body is composed, indicates want of goodness only in that system ; but it is not less a truth, and scarcely of less importance, on that account. I will now illustrate this by brief examples." " There may, in any individual, exist deformity of limbs; and this will assuredly indicate want of goodness in the locomotive sys- tem, of that or general motion. There may exist coarseness of skin, or paleness of complexion ; and either of these will as certainly indicate a want of goodness in the vital system, or that of nutrition. There may exist a malformation of the brain, externally evident; and this no less certainly will indicate want of goodness in the mental system, or that of thought." " It follows that even the different kinds and combinations of beauty, which are the objects of taste to different persons, are founded upon the same general principle of organic superiority. Nay, even the preferences which, in beauty, appear to depend most on fancy, depend in reality on that cause ; and the impression which every degree and modification of beauty makes on mankind, has, as a fundamental rule only their sentiment, more or less delicate and just, of physical advantage in relation to each individual. Such is the foundation of all our sentiments of admiration and of love." " In general discourses on the degree of consequence, in the scale of creation, that may be allowed to the human body, two extremes are generally adopted. Epicurians, for obvious reasons, exalt our corporeal frame to the first rank ; and Stoics, by opposite deductions, degrade it to the last. But to neither of these conclu- sions do we concede." 38 Anatomical and Physiological The body is as much a desirable part of the human being as the mind. It is the medium by which all our senses are discernible. By the body do we communicate hopes, fears, affections and love, and receive them. Why should we, therefore, contemn as a piece of common clay, that which is the only emblem of our existence ? God created the body, not only for usefulness, but with loveliness, and what he has made 'so pleasing shall we disesteem, and refuse to apply our knowledge to its admirable destination ? The very approving and innocent complacency we all feel in the contemplation of beauty, whether it be that of a landscape or of a flower, is a sufficient witness that the pleasure which pervades our hearts at the sight of human beauty was planted there by the framer of all things, as a principle of delight and attraction. To this end we are called to the study of the principles of human beauty and its perpetuation. ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF BEAUTY. To him, who, in the love of Nature, holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language ; for his gayer hours, She has a voice of gladness, and a smile, And eloquence of Beauty. To acquire a knowledge of external beauty some little physiological information as well as anatomical is desirable. The human body is com- posed of parts; each part contributes a separate economy depending on the whole, and the whole is sustained by its parts. Internally, there is a strong frame-work of bones, called THE SKELETON, upon which the superstructure rests. The bones consist of a mixture of earthy and animal matter. The earthy part gives them solidity and strength, while the animal part endows them with vitality. The health of the bones depends upon a supply of nutrient blood, and proper exer- cise. The active and industrious person, whose digestion is good, and lungs healthy and well-developed, will have generally well-formed limbs. Sir Charles Bell, in his " Animal Mechanics," thus describes the beauty of the human frame-work, as exhibited in the spinal construction. " The spine consists of twenty-four bones, each bending a little, and making a joint with its fellow—all yielding in a slight degree, and permitting, in Principles of Beauty. 39 its whole line, that degree of flexibility which is necessary to the motions of the body. Between these bones, or vertebras, there is an elastic, gris- tly substance, which permits them to approach, and play a little in the actions of the body. Whenever a weight is upon the head, this gristle yields; and the moment it is removed, the gristle regains its place, and the bones resume their position. The spine, which is in the form of an italic/, yields, recoils, and forms the most perfect spring, calculated to carry the head without jar or injury. The spine rests on what is called the pelvis, a circle of bones, of which the haunches are the extreme parts." The foregoing will give some idea of the perfection of the machinery which supports the human body, and ought to convince everybody that the true object of clothing should be to prevent compressments, assist na- ture in protecting the body from differences of temperature, keep up a uniformity of the vital heat, aid in the development of stature, by assist- ing the body in its position, when it requires support. But never to use bands, stays, or tight shoes or sleeves. Connected with the frame-work comes THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. Over the bones is laid a thick bed of muscular flesh, in regular layers, composed of long slender fibres, that usually run parallel with each other, and are fastened by a strong, whitish-looking substance, into bundles. They constitute the bulk of the limbs, and much of the back and neck. Each of these layers acts like a pulley, raising and depressing the bones at the will of the individual. To quote a comparison,—the bones are to the body what the masts and spars are to the ship,—they give support and the power of resistance. The muscles are to the bones what the ropes are to the masts and spars. The bones are the levers of the system; by the action of the muscles their relative positions are changed. As the masts and spars of a vessel must be sufficiently firm to sustain the action of the ropes, so must % the bones possess the same quality to sustain the action of the muscles in the human body. THE NUTRITIVE SYSTEM, or nutritive apparatus, comes next. This embraces the stomach, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, blood, viscera, &c. The general office of th ese organs is to digest the food, convert it into chyme, absorb the chyle, and convey it through the body by muscular action, and eject the refuse from the system. The blood is kept pure by the lungs. It is a law of nature, that each of these organs is excited to healthy action by its appropriate stimulus. Accordingly food that is adapted to the wants of the system, imparts a healthy stimulus to the salivary glands during the process of mastication. Food well mas'icated, and blended with a proper amount of saliva, will induce a healthy action in the stomach, as this is its appropriate stimulus. Well prepared chyme is the natural stimulus of the duodenum, liver, and lungs. If the processes of mastication and insalivation are defective, the whole machinery is wrong, and danger and death are not far off. When these organs are sound and healthy they give the human form that beautiful, full and rounded outline, so desirable in preference to sharp points and angles. 40 Principles of Beauty. THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, constitutes the grand medium through which we have communication with every part of the body and the external world. The former systems or functions refer to organic life, or structure. The nervous system, which is the central and governing apparatus of life, consists of the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves. The brain is in the head, the spinal cord is enclosed in the channel of the backbone, and the nerves are distributed to all the organs and parts of the body. As our astro- nomical system is called the solar system, because the sun is its centre watching over our planets, so of these nerves, whose centre is the brain and spinal marrow, but whose smaller departments communicate with every part of our miniature universe. THE LOCOMOTIVE OR MUSCULAR, THE NUTRITIVE, AND NERVOUS SYSTEMS. Some divide the body into the head, the trunk, and the extremities; but the above method is a better and more comprehensive arrangement to a human being. Its grand essentials are the osseous and muscular, or locomotive system, whose parts act and react upon each other, fixes, and gives the body stability; the nutritive, which supplies the waste, wear and tear ; and the nervous, or thinking system, which furnishes sensation, will, and understanding. Whose curiosity has not been excited by the innumerable things by which we are surrounded1? Is it not desirable to scrutinize their in- teriors, and see how they are made, and understand their various uses ? Look at a man, a fish, a spider, an oyster, a plant, a stone; observe their differences in many respects, and their similarities in others; they have all essence, form, use. The tendency to an observation of the animal, vegetable, and mineral domains, is to emancipate the human mind from that dark ignorance which has hindered the philanthropist from endea- voring to prevent the deterioration of the human race. Thus, the beings of the animal kingdom live and move from internal force ; those of the vegetable world grow; and the things of the mineral do not live or grow, they merely exist. CAUSES OF HUMAN BEAUTY. Look Nature through; 'tis revolution all; All change. Day follows night, and night The dying day ; stars rise and set, and rise; Earth, and its dwellers on, take the example. The causes of human beauty, therefore, are simple enough. Beauty of person is the constitutional and legitimate product of obeying the laws of every organ of the body and mind—in devising Causes of Human Decay. 41 the accomplishment of all the bones, muscles, nerves, organs of respiration and nutrition. The causes of human beauty are in knowing that every part of the body is composed of physical ele- ments, and subject to physical laws, and in applying this knowledge to adapting the conditions of man's position to these laws. Man can, if he will, adapt himself to the laws of life and beauty, and every departure from health, comeliness, and happiness, is but a thermometer of a violation of these laws.* The first law to be obeyed, to render an organized being perfect is, that the germ from which it springs, shall be complete in all its parts, and sound in its constitution. If we sow an acorn defective in some vital part, the seedling, if it springs up, will be defective; if we sow an acorn sound in all its parts, only half ripened or damaged by damp, drouth, or other causes, the seedling will be feeble and die early. The same law applies to man. A second law and cause of beauty in man is obedience not only to the former law, but also to the second, that after birth the food, light, air, and physical aliment must be supplied in due quantity, and the best suited to the constitution. A third cause is obedience to the organic law, which ordains that all the organs of the body shall be duly exercised. The bones, muscles, nerves, and digestive and nutritive organs, furnish pleasing sensa- tions and appearances, when sound, if exeroised in conformity with their nature. The crossing of races is a cause of human beauty as it is a cause of human improvement, especially if the organization of the races subjected to the operation is duly suited to each other. Walker gives the following illustrations : In one of the great towns of the north of France, the women, half a century ago, were rather ugly than pretty; but a detachment of the guards being quartered there, and remaining during several years, the population changed in appearance, and, favored by this circumstance, the town is now indebted to strangers for the beauty of the most inter- esting portion of its inhabitants. * The Messrs. Chambers obsorve, in their " Information for the People," that " we should study the conditions under which the organic frame of man exists, and the agencies, internal and external, which operate upon it, for the maintenance of health or the introduction of health. Our health and longevity are very much at our own disposal." 6 42 The Standard of " The monks of Citeaux exercised an influence no less remarkable upon the beauty of the inhabitants of the country around their monastery; and it may be stated, as the result of actual observation, that the young female-peasants of their neighborhood were much more beautiful than those of other cantons. "And," adds this writer, "there can be no doubt that the same effect occurred in the different places whither reli- gious houses attracted foreign inmates, whom love and pleasure speedily united with the indigenous inhabitants !" " The other circumstances which contribute to female beauty, are, a mild climate, a fertile soil, a generous but temperate diet, a regular mode of life, favorable education, the guidance and suppression of passions, easy manners, good moral, social, and political institutions, and occupa- tions which do not injure the beautiful proportions of the body." Latitude also affects beauty of person. The position of a place, its elevation, vicinity to the sea, direction of the winds, nature of the soil and climate, occasion great differences, as we see in the Georgians, the Greenlander, and the Cretons of Switzerland. In hilly countries, where the males are developed by the hardships of a mountain life, as in Scotland, the men are remarkable for well- formed persons, and the women the reverse; in level, effeminate countries, the female sex are beautiful, and the males the reverse. THE STANDARD OF HUMAN BEAUTY. Methinks a being that is beautiful, Becometh more so as it looks on beauty, The eternal beauty of undying things. Every object that is pleasing to the eye when looked upon, or de- lightful to the mind on recollection, may be called beautiful; so that beauty in general may stretch as wide as creation; thus we speak of the beauties of a landscape, of a rising or setting sun, of a starry heaven, of a picture, statue, building, and of the actions, character, or thoughts of celebrated individuals. We confine ourselves, however, to personal or human beauty, and to such as is natural, organic, and real, in contradiction to the artificial, as exhibited in the exces- sive small feet of the Chinese females, or the waists of those of America. The most distinguishing characteristic of beauty in the human Human Beauty. 43 form is a union and harmony of all its parts. To be able to accus- tom the eye to what the standard of human beauty is, recourse should be had to an observation of the statues of the Venus of Medici and Power's Greek Slave, and of Hercules and the Apollo Belvidere. The two former represent the delicacy, softness, and harmony of the female form, the two latter represent the male as developed in muscular strength and agility. Copies of these cele- brated models are to be seen in every city and town in the United States. A glance at these models of the human form instantly suggests that the conditions necessary to develop the real attributes of beauty are indispensable. These conditions are a temperate climate under which nature brings to perfection all her productions ; secondly, a sound constitution; and thirdly, a well-formed thinking and nervous system, which gives expression to the passions and features. Had the representatives of these models been born under the torrid zones of Africa and America, where the conditions of climate are in excess, the thick lips of the negress, or the pendant mammae of the Central American would have been the result. Born in the icy regions, imperfect development of all the organs is the constant characteristic. In China the feet would have been crushed; among the Calmucs it would have been the nose ; and how would these representative models have fared in America ? The child would at birth have been bound up as firmly as an old Egyptian mummy, in several folds of linen. In vain for him to give signs of distress—in vain to give signs of joy every time his bandages are taken off. When he comes to be drest like a man, the ligature system continues, and tight stockings, pants, vests, boots, and braces, crib, cabin, and confine the circulation of the blood, and the full play of the lungs. If a female, she, in addition, is confined daily in a straight waistcoat. Consequence—what we daily see—what we daily read of. Hardly a handsome and com- pletely healthy form, but a fearfully extending catalogue of mor- tality. How would the Venus de Medici, or the Apollo Belvidere look in dresses made up from the fashion-plates of the day ? 44 Beauty of The most correct and noble idea of the lineaments of human beauty is obtained by studying the happy proportions in which the Grecians have made the human body to consist of. Sir James Clark says that young ladies should take the Venus de Medici as the example of what a female figure should be. Every man of true taste, also, should look upon every female as approaching per- fection in the proportion as she approaches the figures of the Venus de Medici or the Greek Slave. Powers, in a letter to a friend, says, in a satirical humor, of his favorite statue: " Eve is an old fashioned body, and not so well-formed and attractive as her grand-daughters, at least some of them. She wears her hair in a natural and most primitive manner, drawn back from the temples, a nd hanging loose behind, thus exposing those very ugly features in woman. Her waist is quite too large for our modern notions of beauty, and her feet, they are so very broad and large! And did ever one see such long toes! they have never been wedged into form by the nice and pretty little shoes worn by her lovely descendants. But Eve is very stiff and unyielding in her disposition; she will not allow her waist to be reduced by bandaging, because she is far more comfortable as she is, and besides she has some regard for her health, which might suffer from such re- straints upon her lungs, heart, liver, &c, &c. I could never prevail upon her to wear modern shoes, for she dreads corns, which, she says, are neither convenient nor ornamental. But some allowance ought to be made for these crude notions of hers, founded as they are in the preju- dices and absurdities of primitive days. Taking all these things into consideration, I think it best that she should not be exhibited, as it might subject me to censure, and severe criticisms, and, these too, without pecuniary reward." BEAUTY OF THE FACE. Her face Tho' pale, was very beautiful; her lip Had a more delicate outline, and the tint Was deeper: The beauty of the human countenance, which includes beauty of form, in the various features of the face; the beauty of color, in the shades of complexion ; the beauty of expression of the mus- cles, (which always presuppose health,) is not the most insignificant of The Face. 45 exterior charms. Felebian, in a work intended to define rules for the " Grecian contour," gives the different parts of the female face as follows: " The head should be well rounded, and looking rather too small than large. The forehead white, smooth, and open, and like the head small rather than too large. The eyebrows well divided, rather full than thin; semicircular, and broader in the middle than at the ends. The cheeks should not be wide, rather plump, with the red and white blended to- gether. The nose should be placed so as to divide the faoe into two equal parts; should be of a moderate size, straight, and well squared. The mouth should be small, and the lips not of equal thickness. They should be well turned, small rather than gross, soft, with a living red in them. The teeth should be white, well arranged, and even. The chin of mode- rate size, white, soft and agreeably rounded. The neck should be white, straight, easy, flexible, rather long than short; less above, and increasing gently towards the shoulders. The skin should be white, properly tinged with red, an apparent softness, and a look of thriving health in it." Dr. Pritchard says, "It is probable that the natural idea of the beautiful in the human person has been more or less distorted in almost every nation. Peculiar characters of countenance, in many countries, accidentally enter into the ideal standard. This observa- tion has been made particularly of the negroes of Africa, who are said to consider a flat nose and thick lips as principal ingredients of beauty ; and we are informed by Pallas that the Calmucs esteem no face as handsome, which has not the eyes in angular position, and the other characteristics of their race. The Aztecs of Mexico have ever preferred a depressed forehead, which forms the strongest con- trast to the majestic contour of the Grecian busts : the former represented their divinities with a head more flattened than it is ever seen among the Caribs ; and the Greeks, on the contrary, gave to their gods and heroes a still more unnatural elevation." Camper, in regard to the form of the face as a whole, considered the opening facial angle measured geometrically, to give eighty-five degrees in the most beautiful race of men, acquiring an increase of ten degrees over the inferior varieties ; and the nearer approach to this rule marks the development of the organs of thought, or its deviation, the organs of sense and feeling. When the upper part of the head is well developed, the face is diminished, the eyes better 46 Beauty of the Face. placed, the nose more elegant, and less appearance of a muzzle in the features. Walker observes, that " In the Greek ideal head, the development presenting a facial angle of ninety degrees, confers the highest beauty of the form of the head, the majesty of the fore- head, the position of the eyes upon a line which divides the face into two equal parts, the elegant projection of the nose, the absence of all tumidity of the lips."* The great point to be observed in judging of the face is, its pro- portion to the body, and to its own parts, and the expression. The first is in accordance with the parents; the second, much depends on the education and the circumstances; and the third is dependent upon the muscular, nutritive, and the nervous temperaments. The study of these systems or temperaments is the surest method of correct judgment of the character of facial beauty. On this subject the Messrs. Fowlers, in their " System of Phrenology," say : Certain it is that the countenance discloses a greater amount of thought and feeling, together with their nicer shades and phases, than words can possibly communicate. Whether we will or no, we cannot help revealing the innermost recesses of our souls in our faces. By what means is this effected 1 Clairvoyants say by magnetic centres, called poles ; each physical and mental organ has its pole stationed in a given part of the face, so that, when such organ becomes active, it influ- ences such poles, and contracts facial muscles, which express the corres- ponding emotions. That there exists an intimate relation between the stomach and one part of the face, the lungs and another, etc., is proved by the fact that consumptive patients always have a hectic flush on the cheek, just externally from the lower portion of the nose, while inactive lungs cause paleness, and healthy ones give the rosy cheek: and that dyspeptic parents are always lank and thin opposite the double teeth, while those whose digestion is good, are full between the corners of the mouth and lower portion of the ears. Since, therefore, some of the states of some of the internal organs express themselves in the face, of course every organ of the body must do the same—the magnetic pole of the heart beginning in the chin. Those whose circulation is vigorous, have broad and rather prominent chins; while those who are small and narrow-chinned have feeble hearts; and thus all the other internal organs have their magnetic poles in various parts of the face. * The Greeks distinguished throe species of beauty as to figure. The heads of Diana, Venus, and Minerva respectively represent the locomotive, nutritive, and the mental or nervous systems. Beauty of the Locomotive System. 47 BEAUTY OF THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM. There was no slighter print upon the grass Than her elastic step. The locomotive system, as already observed, embraces the osse- ous and muscular portions of the body, and constitutes the frame- work, build, and form of the human being. There is some differ- ence to be observed in judging of the beauty of the locomotive systems of man and woman. The stature of woman, in the average, is two or three inches less than that of man. The bones of the female are also smaller, the cylindrical ones more slender, and the flat ones thinner. The muscles render the surfaces of the bones less uneven; the projections of the bones less, and their cavities and impressions have less depth. In woman the pelvis, or lower part of the trunk, influences the proportion of her general figure. In a well developed locomotive system of the two sexes, the breast and the haunches are in an inverse proportion. Man has a wider chest than a woman—woman has larger haunches than man. The breast of man is most prominent as fitted for powerful exertion— the haunches being most prominent in woman, give evidence of her fitness for impregnation, gestation, and parturition. For the same reason the back of woman should be more hollow, the loins more extended, and this portion of the body generally enlarged at the expense of the neighboring parts, than in man. The chest of a woman should be shorter above, and the thighs and legs shorter below than those of man. As a general summary, it may be observed that women intended by nature to be mothers, should have the bones of the pelvis large, the other bones should be small in proportion to man's—proportionally diminishinging size as they pass from the cen- tral part of the extremities. In man the full development of the bones and muscles indicate physical strength ; and when this occurs with the nutritive and nerv- ous systems in combined similar proportions, it constitutes a beauti- ful male figure. But there can be no permanent beauty in the locomotive apparatus, unless the loins, legs, feet and arms are duly and regularly exercised. 48 The JYutritive or Vital System. THE NUTRITIVE OR VITAL SYSTEM. The woman so developed winneth sway By a soft word, and a softer look; Whore she, the gentle loving one, hath failed, The proud or stern might never yet succeed. Strength, power, and majesty belong to man, They make the glory native to his life. But sweetness is a woman's attribute; By that she has reigned, and by that will reign. There have been some who with a mightier mind Have won dominion, but they nev«r won The dearer empire of the beautiful: Sweetest sovereigns of their natural loveliness. The beauty of the nutritive system in the human race, is, of course, varied in the two sexes. Its characteristic, common to both, is occasioned by the large development of the abdominal viscera, particularly the digestive organs. It is denoted by a rotundity or fullness of the body, and the forms of the muscles concealed by a layer of fat. Phrenologists describing this apparatus, say—" it not only originates vitality, but also sustains the whole animal economy. It constitutes the fountain head of animal power and vital energy ; manufactures the animal heat; resists cold and heat, disease and death; and re-supplies the brain, and nerves and muscles with those vital energies which they are compelled to expend whenever they are exercised. It is to the man what the fire, and wood, and water, and steam are to the engine.—the ' vis animce'1—the 'pri- mum mobile '—the alpha and the omega of the animal economy." The Aorta is the great artery, or feeder of the human body, which supplies the abdomen and pelvis with nutrition, is larger in woman than in man. The quantity of which passes to the abdomen, ia greater also in woman, thus proving the nutritive system to be more essential to her than to man.* The excretions and expendi- * lloussel, a French author, observes that according to the disproportion between the nutritive and nervous system is the character of the woman. The nutritive pre- dominant, makes woman an offspring-loving being—the nervous or billious predomi- nating, gives masculinity, dark skin, flaccidity, and " woman's rights " ideas. JYervous System. 49 ture of the body of woman is less than that of man. It is evident, therefore, that the secretions and nutrition must be greater. Wo*- man's body being subject to extensions, compressions, reductions, and shocks during pregnancy, these could not take place without destroy- ing it, unless the nutritive organs were healthily active. It is the fatty tissue and adipose predominance which enable some women to avoid the severity of parturition so painful and dangerous to others. Independent of these purposes, the beauty of woman is naturally as- sociated with this system, if not carried to corpulency. It gives to the members of woman round and beautiful outlines, soft, full and polished mammae which man does not possess. Walker describes this system as most suitable fo the organization of a true woman. In man its characteristics, where predominant, are generally re- presented as the hair and whiskers red, sandy, chestnut, fair, abun- dant ; the face flushed, countenance florid and often handsome, and the whole person, from head to foot, built on the broad and thick, in contrast to the long and tall principle. NERVOUS SYSTEM. " This is the electric spark sent down from Heaven, That woke to second life, the man of clay." This embraces the brain and nervous continuation, and is the instrument employed in the production and exercise of thought and feeling, and may be comprehended under the portion headed " Beauty of the Face." In well organized men ami women, the perceptive and reflective organs give expression quick and intensely in the eye, and to muscles of the face. Women whose nervous system is well developed, have modesty and dignity united, but if developed disproportioned to their nutritive powers, they have not the expanded bosom, or plumpness, or beautiful complexion so de- sirable in woman. Women whose nervous system is too much developed, may have elegant and graceful motion, but less feminine or maternal beauty, than where the nervous is only moderate. In 7 50 Beauty of Skin. " Walker's Intermarriage " it is stated, that the immediate cause of the earlier puberty of woman is in her nutritive system being pro- portionally larger than that of man. It says, " in early life, the three classes of organs and functions—the locomotive, vital or nu- tritive, and the mental or thinking systems, bear the same propor- tion to each other as in man ; and the girl is scarcely distinguished from the boy. In woman, this proportion is gradually departed from; her vital system, occupying chiefly the trunk, becomes larger in general, as well as in particular parts ; it grows out of proportion to the two systems—occupying chiefly the head, or composing the limbs ; its functions follow its structure ; and hence alone the earli- ness of that aggregate of them which is denominated puberty." BEAUTY OF SKIN. Disease is circling in her veins, Works through her skin, and bursts in bloating stains ; Her cheeks their freshness lose, and wonted grace, And an unusual paleness spreads her face. The skin is the seat of touch, the most important of our senses, and connected with sensation and mind. It is one of those organs, the free function of which is so necessary to health, that any impe- diment exerts a marked sinister influence over all the internal organs. To perform its functions properly, requires the free play of air, light, and water, and the circulation through it of red and healthy blood. Beauty of complexion is but another name for a sound and healthy skin; it is a pure mirror of the harmony of the internal parts with their surface, or in a word, a pure skin is the expression of visible health,* There subsists so intimate a relation between our interior and.ex- terior vessels, that almost every error or irregularity in the organ within, shows itself first on the surface of the body, particularly on * A smooth, soft, and transparent skin, is no loss indispensable to the perfection of beauty than elegance of figure. It is here indeed, is the barometer of the health and soundness of the individual, and the most indubitable sign of true beauty.—Sir James Clark. Eyes and Nose. 51 the face. How often are we struck with the countenance of a per- son, who thinks himself in perfect health, but whose illness, the re- sult of some morbid cause concealed in the body, justifies in a few days the serious fears entertained at our last interview. As an illustration of a clear skin being not only a necessary con- comitant of beauty of external appearance but of internal harmony, we append some few remarks of Mrs. Farrar to her own sex : " I cannot dismiss this part of my subject without a few observations on the importance of a daily evacuation from the bowels. The practice of taking medicine to effect this should be avoided; but no pains should be spared in regulating the diet and exercise so as to obtain it. If all mothers made a point of establishing regular habits in childhood, it would not be necessary to notice the subject here; but knowing how carelessly most young persons treat the subject, and that some even con- sider it a piece of refinement and a privilege not to pay daily attention to this function of the body, I feel it incumbent upon me to point out the evil consequences of such a course." " It may startle some who thus neglect themselves, to know that they carry in their face the proof of their bad habits; and that a medical man has said, he could distinguish, in a large company, all the girls who were inattentive to their health in this particular. He says he knows them by the state of their complexions, and he longs to remonstrate with them on the impolicy, and sin, of so maltreating their systems and spoiling their good looks. To those who have right views of the subject, there is some- thing the very reverse of refinement in such conduct; and young ladies would certainly avoid it, if they were aware of all the consequences. Be- sides the indirect injury to the health, and consequently to the beauty, of all, it has a direct effect unfavorable to the complexion ; it also makes the breath offensive, and sometimes affects the whole atmosphere of a person : it moreover is a frequent cause of eruptions of the skin. If this be not already your mortifying experience, let me persuade you to com- ply with the laws of your being, before you find it is too late." EYES AND NOSE. A lofty forehead, full of joyous feeling, And eyes the brightest beams of mirth revealing ; A Grecian nose, but slightly aquiline, And blufhes that in lustre shine. Fine eyes and handsome noses are constants themes with the vota- ries of beauty and fashion. On this subject differences of opinion exist. The nose and forehead ought, it is said, to be of equal length, and from the nose to the chin another length to constitute 52 Eyes and Nose. what is called a well proportioned face. The majority of observers have remarked that nothing is more rare than a perfectly formed nose, the principal characteristics of which are thus described by the celebrated Lavater :— " The length ought to be equal to that of the forehead, where it ought to have a slight cavity at the root. When seen in front, the ridge should be rather broad, and broader in the middle than any where else. The end should be neither hard nor muscular, and the lower contour nei- ther too pointed nor too broad. In front the ala, or sides of the nose should distinctly appear, and the nostrils be shortened in a pleasing manner below. In the profile, the lower side of the triangle should not exceed one-third of the length. The nostrils ought to end more or less in a point, and to be gracefully incurvated. At the top, the nose must nearly join the arch of the orbit of the eye. A nose with this conforma- tion always announces an excellent and distinguished character." The testimony of this eminent physiognomist strengthens the tes- timony of the Phreno-physiologists respecting the connexion exist- ing between physical beauty and moral excellence. Walker says, " to beauty of the eye, magnitude and elongated form contribute more perhaps than color: if its form be bad, no color will render it beautiful. In woman, however, the most beauti- ful eyes, in relation to color, are those which appear to be blue, hazel, or black. But no color of the eye is beautiful without clear- ness in every part." Except among the ancient Romans or Chinese, large eyes have always been esteemed essential to beauty of figure. Venus, Juno, and other goddesses are never represented with small eyes. They are fit only for peering, miserly, or indifferent persons. The Oriental poets often draw similes for their beauties from the large-eyed anti- lope or gazelle. So says Byron, " Her eyes' dark charm 'twere vain to tell, But gaze on that of the gazelle, It will assist thy fancy well." The brilliancy of the eye and its appearance of fulness, depend, in some degree, on its form, and the magnitude of the eyeball; but still more on the closeness and amplitude of the eye-lashes, and the diameter of the pupil. A large pupil, though certainly a mark of beauty, when very large is also a sure token of a weak, and some- The Teeth and Gums. 53 times of a scrofulous constitution. Like the skin, the eyes gener- ally are indices of the state of health. Redness of the eye-lids indi- cates scrofula—yellowness in the iris betrays a deranged circulatory system—cataract is significant of suppression of the evacuations—a dull or livid eye betrays a languid constitution, while wildness of the eye, gives token of cerebral excitement. The eyes are not only the windows of the soul, but of the health of the body, and well-formed, clear and brilliant eyes are accompaniments of good organizations. The poet says, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time : Some, that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh, like parrots, at a 6ag-piper ; And other of such vinegar aspect, That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile, Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. THE TEETH AND GUMS. " Let not the nymph with laughter much abound, Whose teeth are black, uneven, or unsound ! You'd hardly know how much on this depends, And how a laugh or spoils the face or mends." The teeth are important organs both for use and show. They are amply supplied with blood-vessels and nerves, and covered with a fine enamel, more or less dense in different persons. When this enamel is destroyed, either by external or internal causes, the tooth cannot long remain sound, and requires to be cautiously treated, if it is intended to be preserved. Cleanliness is the best means of pre- serving them from external causes of decay. Cleanliness of the teeth is to the eye what purity of breath is to the sense of smelling. Nothing is more pleasing than clean, white teeth, and gums the color of the rose ; nothing more disagreeable than yellow, dingy or black teeth ; or teeth encrusted with tartar. Lavater observed that dirty teeth in man or woman was emblematic of a dirty character. The desire to beautify the appearance is not the only motive that ought to induce all to pay great attention to their teeth ; but the health depends, in 54 Figure and Degree of Beauty much measure, on good, sound, and clean teeth. They should be good in order to the perfect mastication of food, and therefore assist digestion, but they should be sound that they may not impregnate the substances entering the stomach with a vitiated juice. Sound teeth are absolutely necessary for the formation of the voice, and the articulation of words. Cicero compared the teeth with the strings of an instrument which modify the sound. The particular beauty of teeth consists in their form, regularity, arrangement, and whiteness. These conditions are essential to beauty of face, and are to some extent within the reach of art. But cleanliness is within the power of all, and no man or woman is lit for marriage who neglects this qualification. THE GUMS cannot be healthy unless they be firm and red, and adhere to the roots of the teeth. But as these qualities depend in a great measure on the health of the internal organs, the gums are an index to the state of the body. If they appear soft, swelled, livid, or project over the teeth, or are inflamed, the person is very unfit to become a partner in the marriage state. In truth, bad teeth and gums may very justly be suspected of being connected with bad digestion, unwholesome food, intestinal derangement, or vitiated juices. FIGURE AND DEGREE OF BEAUTY FOR A WIFE AND MOTHER. No vexing passion occupies her breast, But hope lulls every tumult there to rest, Like her soft features lively and serene, And tranquil as a lovely twilight scene. Napoleon once asked Madame Campan, what was most necessary for the production of good children. She replied, " good mothers." That is it, and from all experience we gather that the person of a good mother is a primary requisite. It is important, therefore, that judgment as well as nature should assist in the choice of a wife fitted to be a good mother. For a Wife and Mother. 55 A really beautiful woman, in accordance with the principles we have laid down under the head of "Beauty of Person," &c, is one whose form, make, and organization, are intended for offspring. Her abdomen and hips should be well developed for the reception and gestation of offspring ; her lap ample for its resting-place ; her bo- som round, white, firm, neither too much depressed nor too elevated, and fitted for its nourishment and fondling ; her limbs and person should be soft and flexible, to make a gentle, yielding, easily com- pressible nurse and playmate. Her hands should be delicate, and formed for gently handling tender beings. Hex feet small; her legs constructed to take steps suitable for accompanying infant locomo- tions. The preponderance of the Nutritive System, both in form and feature, encircles woman's beauty with a halo of attraction to man, as it evidences not only a prearranged capacity for bearing children, but a strong necessity of her nature. So peculiarly is the nutritive or vital system the absolute necessity of mothers, that any constant employment either of the locomotive or nervous organs, de- ranges the peculiar functions of woman, and destroys the characteris- tics of her sex. Intellectual ladies, and those who use the locomo- tive system very much, such as dancers, circus-riders, actresses, authoresses, are unfit to be mothers. Walker gives the following fundamental guide for ascertaining the desirable qualities of a wife fitted to be a mother. Although there are a thousand modifications of this subject, the nearer approach to this standard the better : " In the woman possessing this species of beauty, therefore, the face is generally rounded, to give greater room to the cavities connected with nutrition ;—the eyes are generally of the softest azure, which is similarly associated ;—the neck is often rather short, in order intimately to connect the head with the nutritive organs in the trunk;—the shoulders are softly rounded, and owe any breadth they may possess rather to the ex- panded chest, containing these organs, than to any bony or muscular size of the shoulders themselves;—the bosom, a vital organ, in its luxu- riance seems laterally to protrude on the space occupied by the arms;— the waist, though sufficiently marked, is, as it were, encroached on by that plumpness of all the contiguous parts, which the powerful nutritive system affords;—the haunches are greatly expanded for the vital purpo- ses of gestation and parturition ;—the thighs are large in proportion;— but the locomotive organs, the limbs and arms, tapering and becoming delicate, terminate in feet and hands which, compared with the ample 56 Mode of Determining the trunk, are peculiarly small;—the complexion, dependant upon nutrition, has the rose and lily so exquisitely blended, that we are surprised it should defy the usual operation of the elements." It has been remarked very truly by Sir James Clark, that the or- ganization of the true female is such that the end of her existence is not answered unless she have children. An old maid, therefore, no matter from what reason she is so, cannot be said to be in a state of nature. She is necessarily subject to a variety of suppressions, dis- eases, &c, so different from other females, that in nine cases out of ten she can be known from her countenance. A beautiful old maid was never heard of—in fact cannot be. MODE OF DETERMINING THE HABITS, CHARACTER, AGE, ETC. Men are machines, with all their boasted freedom ; Their movements turn upon some hereditary form ; Let art but find the human structure out, We touch the spring, and read men at our pleasure. Order is the beautiful harmonizer of the universe; so we find nature everywhere manifesting structure and form by corresponding conformities of character. Every tree of a given kind is shaped like all others of that kind, and bearing a similar configuration in bark, limb, leaf, and fruit. So of all grains, grasses, fruits, &c. ; it is upon the close configuration and character of every organic structure to all others of its kind, that all scientific classification is based. The external shape also of human beings but mirrors the mental and moral character. The tiger's form and character is more or less per- ceptible in all the feline species resembling the tiger. The form of the monkey gives a reason for its character. The " Phrenological Instructor," assimilating certain men after those of lions, monkeys, and eagles, thus continues : "Tigers are always spare, muscular, long, full over the eyes, large- mouthed, have eyes slanting downward from their outer to inner angles; and human beings thus physiognomically characterized, are fierce, domi- neering, revengeful, most enterprising, not over humane, a terror to ene- mies, and conspicuous somewhere. Bull-dogs, generally fleshy, square-mouthed—because their tusks pro- ject and front teeth retire—broad-headed, indolent unless roused, but Habits, Character, Age, etc. 57 then terribly fierce, have their correspondent men and women, whose growling, coarse, heavy voices, full habit, logy yet powerful motions, square face, down-turned corners of mouth, and general physiognomical cast betoken their second cousin relationship to this growling, biting race, of which the old line-tender at the Newburgh dock is a sample. Swine—fat, logy, lazy, good-dispositioned, flat and hollow-nosed— have their cousins in large-abdomened, pug-nosed, double chinned, talkative, story-enjoying, beer-loving, good-feeling, yes, yes, humans, who love some easy business, and hate hard work. Horses, oxen, sheep, owls, doves, snakes, and even frogs, &c, also have their men and women cousins, together with their accompanying char- acters. These resemblances are more difficult to describe than to recognize; but the forms of mouth, nose, and chin, and sound of voice, are the best basis of observation. Tall, light, agile, flexible, and slim persons, though very apt and brilliant, are not generally long-lived, and if women, not the best for maternity. Sharp or angular organizations, are best fitted for intense action, refined but sensitive employment. As a man, this organization suits an orator ; as a woman, an agitator. A woman whose forehead displays intellect, whose body shows predominance, the nutritive system will not only possess exalted sentiment, but de- votional maternity. Long fingers, arms, and heads indicate long legs and bodies. Short and broacl-shculdered persons are short and broad in fingers, faces, noses, and limbs. Strong, weak, firm, flabby, coarse-grained, or fine-textured bodies, are accompanied by minds and tempers to match. It is said that small noses are associated by little minds—large noses by greater character, while large nostrils indicate large lungs. Flat noses point to similar minds—sharp- shaped noses to keen minds—long noses to long heads ; hollow noses to tame characters ; well proportioned noses to well proportioned character. WALKING. " Few bodies are there of that happy mould, But some part is weaker than the rest; The legs, perhaps, or arms refuse their load." Those whose motions arc awkward, will lack polish—a short quick step indicates a similar, but contracted mind, while the long, 8 58 Dancing Expresses slow step shows deliberateness with determination. The mincing gait is that of the little-minded, while those who roll from side to side, lack directness of purpose. Those who drag their heels, and drawl their feet, are slovenly inclined, while the light, springing step gives mental snap and spring. Those who make much fuss in walking, accomplish little but talk. DANCING EXPRESSES THE MENTAL HABITS. Meditation here May think down hours to moments. Here the feet May give a useful lesson to the head, And learning wiser grow without his books. Knowledge and wisdom may learn much from features. The method of dancing equally indicates character. The Messrs. Fowlers state the following : Dr. Wieting, the celebrated lecturer on physiology, once asked where he could find something on the temperaments, and was answered, " No- where ; but if I can ever see you among men, I will give you a practical lesson upon it " Accordingly, afterward, chance threw us together in a hotel, in which was a dancing-school that evening. Insisting on the ful- fillment of our promise, we accompanied him into the dancing saloon, and pointed out, first, a small delicate moulded, fine skinned, pocket Venus, whose motions were light, easy, waving, and rather characterless, who put forth but little strength in dancing. We remarked—" She is very exquisite in feelings, but rather light in the upper story, lacking sense, thought, and strength of mind." Ufa large, raw-boned, bouncing Betty, who threw herself far up, and came down good and solid, when she danced, we remarked—•• She is one of your strong, powerful, deter- mined characters, well suited to do up rough work, but utterly destitute of polish, though possessed of great force." Others came in for their share of criticism—some being all dandy, others all business, yet none all intellect. THE MOUTH indicates the mental calibre. Large mouths show more mental sys- tem, while a small one expresses more the locomotive or nutritive systems. Well proportioned mouths with fine lips indicate exquisite susceptibilities. Open mouthed expresses openness and honesty, closed mouths, unless the teeth are bad, the opposite. the eyes when continually kept half shut, betray little conscience ; open eyes, The Mental Habits. 59 frankness. Squinting through glasses at operas, &c, indicates de- fective sight or mind. Light eyes indicate warmth—dark eyes power—clear eyes, an active brain ; dull eyes an enfeebled one MENTAL INDICATIONS OF BOTH SEXES. It may be easily demonstrated, that the mind bears the strictest analogy to the body ; that it may be perfect or deformed, healthy or diseased, just as the body is in either of these states; therefore, we may readily suppose that there is the same sexual difference be- tween a male and a female mind, as there is between their bodies and their faces. It would not be common sense to say that a man's body is more perfect than a woman's, because one temperament prevails in the one sex more than the other ; nor that one sex's body is more important. The superiority of strength in the one is made up, or should be, by a superiority of beauty in the other ; in- tellectual strength on one side counterbalanced by intellectual love- liness on the other. Woman not being capable of performing feats of strength like man, her mind is not so capable of performing deep and abstruse operations, such as the subtilities of mathematics and logic. Her body being more easy and graceful in its movements, so is her mind more fitted for the light and flowery paths of literature. Her body being more susceptible of pleasure and pain, is also more susceptible to passion, whether love, anger, terror or pity. Her body being more modestly made than man's, it is easily supposed she is mentally more bashful and reserved. HOW TO TELL A GOOD FIGURE INDEPENDENT OF DRESS. Our needful knowledge, like our needful food, Unhedged, lies open in life's common field ; And bids all welcome to the vital feast. When innocence left the world, astonished man is represented as blushing at his own and his partner's nakedness, and coverings were soon invented. For many an age the twisted foliage of trees and the skins of beasts, were the only garments that clothed our ancestors. (30 How to tell a Good Figure Decoration was unknown. Nature was then unsophisticated ; and the lover needed no other attraction to his bride's embrace than the bloom on her cheek, the clearness of her eye, and the form of her limbs and body. But now every lover is a guesser. The figures of women are surrounded by such lines of circumvallation and outworks ; such impregnable bulwarks of whalebone, silks, flounces, paddings and waddings, that a lover scarcely can tell who he marries until he is married. If this system has its advantages to the female sex, it has also its disadvantages. If dressing hides deformities, it hides beauties also. A well formed man is easily known, but generally there is suspicion about a woman. The following indications may help to determine the figure of a female independent of her dress :—If a young woman walk heavily, and rather upon the heel, her limbs are slender compared to her body. If the feet are thrown out backward at each step, and rather laterally, the knees are too muoh inwardly inclined. If the heel be seen, at each step, to lift the bottom of the dress upward, the hip and the calf of the leg is weak. In the words of Walker :— " In considering the relative size of each portion of the limbs—if, in the walk, there be a greater or less approach to the marching pace, the hip is large ; for we naturally employ the joint which is surrounded with the most powerful muscles, and, in any approach to the march, it is the hip- joint which is used, and the knee and ankle-joints which remain propor- tionally unemployed. " If, in the walk, the tripping pace be used, as in an approach to walk- ing on tiptoes, the calf is large ; for it is only by the power of its muscles that, under the weight of the whole body, the foot can be extended for this purpose." It has also been observed by another writer that if a female throws her feet much to the rear in walking, her knees are inclined inward, alias " knock-kneed." If she marches rather than walks, she has large hips, and a well-developed pelvis. If she moves trippingly on tip-toe, a large calf and strong muscles are indicated. The foot lifted in a slovenly manner, so as to strike the heel against the back of the dress, is a sure sign of a small calf and a narrow pelvis. A heavy walk, when there is but little spring on the toes, is evidence of a slender- ness and weakness of the limbs. When the foot and ankle assume Independent of Dress. 61 a bony appearance, and the heel strikes the ground before the ball or edge of the foot, they indicate that the female has passed the me- ridian of life, no matter what pains she may have taken to disguise the fact. Poetry furnishes ofttimes a key to character, as well as influences it. The following verses are illustrative of female feelings, desires, preferences, and predilections: Fannie lays her hand in mine ; Fannie speaks with naivette, Fannie kisses me, she does! In her own coquettish way ! Then softly speaks and deeply sighs, With angels nestled in her eyes. In the merrie month of May Fannie swears sincerely She will be my own, my wife, And love me dearly, dearly, Ever after all her life. Ah, there are not many Half so shy, or sad, or mad, As my true-hearted Fannie. PHYSIOGNOMY, OR THE LANGUAGE OF THE GENERAL FEATURES. Not a tree, A plant, a leaf, a feature, but contains A folio volume. We may read, and read, And read again, and still find something new, Something to please, and something to instruct. There is an original element in our natures—a connection between the senses, the mind, and the heart, implanted by the Creator, for pure and noble purposes, which only requires observation to dis- cover. Every feature, limb, and action is surely a manifestation of one's character—is most surely a means of challenging the temper and disposition, and hence of properly training the whole human being. The few hints here given are mere introductions to the study of features, which study, like the player's profession,— Lies not in trick, or attitude, or start, Nature's true knowledge is the only art, The strong-felt passion bolts into his face; The mind untouched, what is it but grimace ! The Feet advance or retreat, to express desire or aversion, love or hatred, courage or fear—dancing or leaping is often the effect 62 Physiognomy, or the Language of joy and exultation—stamping of the feet expresses earnestness, anger or threatening. Stability of character, facility of change, ease and grace of action, are all expressible by the feet. The Hands have a great share of expression as to character. Raising them towards heaven, with the palms united, expresses de- votion or supplication—wringing them, implies grief—folding them, idleness—holding the fingers intermingled, musing and thoughtful- ness—waving the hand from us, prohibition—extending the hand to any one, peace, safety, or protection—scratching the head, care and perplexity—laying the hand on the heart, affection and affirmation —placing the finger on the lips, means silence. The Head when erect, implies courage or firmness—when down or reclined, is expressive of sorrow—suddenly drawn back, means disdain—if brought forward, assent—sometimes a nod, implies ap- proval, sometimes a threat, and other times suspicion. The Face being furnished with a great variety of muscles, does more to manifest our thoughts and feelings, as far as silent language is concerned, than the whole body besides. The change of color shows anger by redness—fear by paleness—shame by blushes. The mouth open shows one state of mind—closed another—gnashing the teeth a third. The smooth forehead and arched eyebrows exhibit joy or tranquillity—the crisp nose, half-shut eyes, and open mouth near the ears, imply mirth—wrinkled brow means frowns—over- hanging eyebrows tempests of wrath. The Eyes are the very windows of the mind. Joy brightens and opens them—grief half closes or drowns them—hatred and anger cause them to flash fire—love makes them dart in glances—envy makes them scowl, and devotion raises them to heaven. From women's eyes—this doctrine I derive : They sparkle still—the right Promethean fire ; They are the books, the arts, the academies, That show, contain, and nourish—all the world. The Mouth betokens the sensations of taste, desire, appetite, and the endearments of love. How much the lips are curled by pride or anger, drawn thin by cunning, smothed by benevolence, and made placid by effeminacy, all can tell. The upper lip is th e Of the General Features. 68 principal denoter of these sensations, the under being little more than the supporter of the upper. The chaste and delicate mouth is one of the first recommendations we meet with in life. Words being the pictures of the mind, we often judge of that by the portal —from the mouth issues truth, love, or friendship. The Arms, too, have a language with the hands. When lifted up as high as the face, they express wonder—held out before the breast, shows fear—when spread forth with open hands, they express desire or affection—clasped in surprise means joy or grief—the right hand clenched and the arms brandished, threaten—the arms set a-kimbo, or one hand on each hip, expresses contempt, vanity, or courage. Quinctillian says, "that with the hands and arms we solicit, refuse, promise, threaten, dismiss, invite, entreat, and express aversion, fear, doubting, denial, asking, affirmation, negation, joy, grief, con- fession and penitence. With the hands we describe, and point all circumstances of time, place, and manner of what we relate ; with them we also excite the passions of others, and soothe them, ap- prove or disapprove, permit, prohibit, admire, and despise; thus, they serve us instead of many sorts of words ; and, where the lan- guage of the tongue is unknown, or the person is deaf, the language of the hands is understood, and is common to all nations." And so in fact is it. The body with the mind speaks many lan- guages, and he or she only is a thorough elocutionist who under- stands and can speak them. And how otherwise can a man be a judge of mothers, or babies, who has not this language. Hamlet might well exclaim, " what a piece of work is man !" Look at the human being as embodied in painting or statuary—observe what is dependant on attitude or looks. Surely if painting and statuary is admirable, to read and understand the human being himself is far more desirable ! For ill—can pottry express, Full many a tone—of thought sublime ; And sculpture, mute and motionless, Steals but one glaneo from time. But, by the mighty actors' power, Their wedded triumphs come: Verse—ceases—to be airy thought, And sculpture—to be dumb. 64 The Ideal of Human Beauty. THE IDEAL OF HUMAN BEAUTY. Beauty, what art thou, that thy slightest gaze Can make the spirit from its centre roll, Its whole long course, a sad and shadowy maze, Thou midnight or thou noontide of the soul 1 The beautiful is ever beguiling and absorbing us—it is our pur- suit from childhood upwards, and the useful is only followed with the ulterior view of obtaining what is beautiful by its means. But the greatest passion of man is the love of female beauty—in his admira- tion of that, everything gives way. It has been the theme of sages in all times ; while poets have sung of beauty, and the devotionists have spoken of its vanity, individuals and nations have sacrificed this world and the next for its possession. Beauty of person is a paramount power in society—it infuses madness into one, energy to another, devotion and admiration to a third, and obedience and re- spect from all. It is a force like gravitation—and nations give it willing homage. As a writer justly says : " For it, grave historians will write books, and a woman without charac- ter and without beauty of soul will have lives without number written of hef, and millions of people in successive generations sympathizing with her, merely because she was beautiful. This prime passion of man is the direct loving of the beautiful in form, and proverbially destructive of all love of the useful as long as it endures in violence. For it men work and encourage the useful as a pain, and few see the grand meaning that it begins gradually to reveal." There have been theories of beauty by both ancient and modem philosophers, which we discard as unnecessary for practical purposes. Many of them suppose that the beau ideal of beauty is confined to one size and figure—we say, that the form of beauty in the human figure are as infinite as the varieties of the species ; that there is a majestic—a winning and enchanting—a sprightly, and a retiring kind of beauty—that all those varieties of beauty may each be ex- quisite and unsurpassed in their own sphere, and therefore within the compass of all. Winckleman, to whom the investigation of the subject of human beauty was a passion, says, that all our most perfect ideas of beauty have been created from Grecian art. He divides beauty into two The Male Figure. 65 kinds, individual and ideal—the individual being a combination of the beauties of one person—the ideal being a selection of beautiful parts from several. Though the separate parts or portions of the human figure are not ideal, their harmonious junction in one person is ; be- cause although the most beautiful parts of the finest Grecian models are extant among living beings, yet by the numerous violations of the productive laws to which humanity is subject, it is impossible to find an individual in whom all the parts of the human body are per- fectly beautiful. Proclus, an ancient Grecian says : " he who takes for his model such forms as nature produces, and confines himself to an exact imi- tation of them, will never attain to what is perfectly beautiful. He must discover the tendencies of nature in her most perfect forms, as Phidias when he formed his Jupiter, did not copy any object pre- sented to his sight, but contemplated only that image which he had conceived in his mind from Homer's description." Undoubtedly sculptors realize their ideals from the bust of one, the arm of another, and foot from a third, and then blend them into the representation of a perfect whole ; but agriculturists have em- bodied the conception also into their business, and by the purchase, breeding, dividing, and assimilating of various stocks, have brought to beautiful perfection the form, figure, and constitution, of the horse, dog, cat, and fowl. THE MALE FIGURE. Man is there; Majestic, lordly man, with his serene And elevated brow and godlike frame. Hogarth gives the following criticism of two celebrated models of the male figure, whose study will be a theme of delight and profit to those who desire to see the human figure raised to a greater per- fection than it is at present. " May be," he says, " 1 cannot throw a stronger light on what has been hitherto said of proportion, than by animadverting on a remarkable 9 6B The Male Figure. beauty in the Apollo Belvidere, which hath given it the preference even to the Antinous: I mean a superaddition of greatness, to at least as much beauty and grace as is found in the latter. " These two masterpieces of art are seen together in the same apart- ment at Rome, where the Antinous fills the spectator with admiration only, while the Apollo strikes him with surprise, and, as travellers ex- press themselves, with an appearance of something more than human; which they of course are always at a loss to describe: and this effect, they say, is the more astonishing, as, upon examination, its disproportion is evident even to a common eye. One of the best sculptors we have in England, who lately went to see them, confirmed to me what has been now said, particularly as to the legs and thighs being too long, and too large for the upper parts. " Although, in very great works, we often see an inferior part neglect- ed, yet here it cannot be the case, because, in a fine statue, just propor- tion is one of its essential beauties : therefore, it stands to reason, that these limbs must have been lengthened on purpose, otherwise it might have been easily avoided. " So that if we examine the beauties of this figure thoroughly we may reasonably conclude, that what has been hitherto thought so unaccount- ably excellent in its general appearance, has been owing to what has seemed a blemish in a part of it: but let us endeavor to make this mat- ter as clear as possible, as it may add more force to what has been said. " Statues, by being bigger than life (as this one is, and larger than the Antinous,) always gain some nobleness in effect according to the princi- Ele of quantity, but this alone is not sufficient to give what is properly to e called greatness in proportion. . . Greatness of proportion must be considered as depending on the application of quantity to those parts of the body where it can give more scope to its grace in movement, as to the neck for the larger and swanlike turns of the head, and to the legs and thighs, for the more ample sway of all the upper parts together. u By which we find that the Antinous being equally magnified to the Apollo's height, would not sufficiently produce that superiority of effect, as to greatness, so evidently seen in the latter. The additions necessary to the production of this greatness in proportion, as it there appears added to grace, must then be, by the proper application of them to the parts mentioned only. " I know not how farther to prove this matter than by appealing to the reader's eye, and common observation, as before. . . The Antinous being allowed to have the justest proportion possible, let us see what addition, upon the principle of quantity, can be made to it, without taking away any of its beauty. If we imagine an addition of dimensions to the head, we shall immediately conceive it would only deform—if both hands and feet, we are sensible of something gross—if to the whole lengths of the arms, we feel they would be dangerous and awkward—if, by an addition of length or breadth to the body, we know it would appear heavy and clumsy—there remains then only the neck, with the legs and thighs to speak of; but to these we find, that not only certain additions may be admitted without causing any disagreeable effect, but that thereby great- ness, the last perfection as to the proposition, is given to the human form, as is evidently expressed to the Apollo." The Infant. 67 Almost every reader is familiar with images of these two figures, or may be. A little anatomical knowledge will enable every one to see what Hogarth means by the concluding portion of his criticism. The length of the neck by whioh the head is farther detached from the trunk, shows the independence of the higher intellectual system upon the lower one of mere nutrition ; and the length of the limb shows the mind could be obeyed in locomotive power. THE INFANT. Oh beauty ! in thy nursery We've learned to know thy worth. Alison, in his Analysis of Beauty, says the proportions of the form of the infant are very different from those of youth ; these again from those of manhood ; and these, perhaps, still more from those of old age and decay. Yet each of these periods is susceptible of beautiful form, and this form consists in the preservation of the proportions peculiar to that period. These proportions differ in every article, almost from those that are beautiful in other periods of the life of the same individual. The beauty of the infant is not perfect beauty, but the beauty of promise—the beauty of age is that of fine propor- tion gradually vanishing, like the decay of some noble old building. Some authors represent the centre between the extremities of the head and feet of a well proportioned infant, as the navel, but of an adult it is the os pubis. Those artists who make a daily study of the most perfect development of the human figure, generally divide the measures of children into four, five, or six parts, one of which is given to the head. A child of two years is considered about five heads high; of five years old, near six; about fifteen or six- teen years of age, seven heads are the proportion, and the centre of the body declines to the upper part of the os pubis. As the growth of the body advances, there is a gradual approach to the proportion of an adult of nearly eight heads. Of course, in this measurement the head itself counts one. Although, perhaps, the human figure was never seen developed 68 The Female. in such perfect proportions as ancient art represents, yet the fore- going rules give some idea of the perfection required in the human machinery to do justice to our natures. THE FEMALE. THE VENUS DE MEDICI. " So stands the statue that enchants the world, So bending tries to veil the matchless boast, The mingled beauties of exulting Greece." This is the most perfect model of the human female ever created by Grecian art. It was not only the favorite of the Greeks and Romans, but has been the admiration of every intelligent traveller and artist who has seen it. A copy of it should adorn the houses of all who would wish to accustom themselves to the highest conceptions of the human form. As Byron writes :— " There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills The air around with beauty ; within the pale We stand, and in that form and face behold What mind can make, when Nature's self would fail; And to the fond idolaters of old Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould." The Venus de Medici represents woman at that age when every beauty has just been perfected. The head is not predominantly large, but rather gives that preference to the nutritive system which is peculiarly the system of woman. The eyes are just large enough to give a soft, sweet expression, and not so large as to give her the air of a blue-stocking or a scold. The ridges of the eye-brows are softly, exquisitely rounded. She looks loving, but not like some modern pictures of Venuses, lascivious. The nose is in proportion to the other parts of the face, and is evidently intended to smell, and as Winkleman observes, " smell is peculiarly associated with love." The mouth is rendered sweet and delicate by the lips being undeveloped at their corners, while being fairly developed at their centres. The neck shows, in its beautiful curves, a thousand capa- bilities of motion, being of a straight, easy and soft make, rather The Female. 69 long than short. The whole figure displays profound physiological and physiognomical knowledge even in the minutest detail, and worthy of careful study by the lover of the beauty of his species.* Walker, in his " Elements of Beauty," thus describes the rest of this celebrated model :— " The admirable form of the mammae, which, without being too large, occupy the bosom, rise from it with various curves on every side, and all terminate in their apices, leaving the inferior part in each precisely as pendant as gravity demands ; the flexile waist gently tapering little far- ther than the middle of the trunk; the lower portion of it beginning gradually to swell out higher even than the umbilicus; the gradual ex- pansion of the haunches, those expressive characteristics of the female, indicating at once her fitness for the office of generation and that of par- turition—expansions which increase until they reach their greatest extent at the superior part of the thighs; the fullness behind their upper part, and on each side of the lower part of the spine, commencing as high as the waist, and terminating in the still greater swell of the distinctly-se- parated hips; the flat expanse between these, and immediately over the fissure of the hips, relieved by a considerable dimple on each side, and caused by the elevation of all the surrounding parts ; the fine swell of the broad abdomen which, soon reaching its greatest height, immediately under the umbilicus, slopes gently to the mons veneris, but, narrow at its upper part, expands more widely as it descends, while, throughout, it is laterally distinguished by a gentle depression from the more muscular parts on the sides of the pelvis : the beautiful elevation of the mons vene- ris ; the contiguous elevation of the thighs which, almost at their com- mencement rise as high as it does ; the admirable expansion of these bo- dies inward or toward each other, by which they almost seem to intrude on each other; the general narrowness of the upper, and the unembrace- able expansion of the lower part thus exquisitely formed;—all these ad- mirable characteristics of female form, the mere existence of which in woman must be, one is tempted to think, even to herself, a source of in- effable pleasure." Well might Byron say :— We gaze and turn away, and knew not where, Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart Reels with its fulness ; there—forever there— Chain'd to the chariot of triumphant Art, We stand as captives, and would not depart. * Lord Jeffrey, in describing the countenance of a young and beautiful woman, goes on to say that her physiological developments " are but signs and tokens of cer- tain health, youth, delicacy, and vivacity, universally recognized as proper objects of admiration." 70 How to Drill the Eye to Beauty HOW TO DRILL THE EYE TO BEAUTY OF MALE AND FEMALE FORM. Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honor clad, In naked majesty seemed lords of all, And worthy seem'd; for in their looks divine The image of their glorious Maker shone, Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure, (Severe but in true filial freedom plac'd) Whence true authority in men ; though both Not equal, as their sex not equal seem'd; For contemplation he and valor form'd, For softness she and sweet attractive grace ; He for God only, she for God in him. In the eyes of the majority, the male and female differ in model only in their muscular power and weight—the male being taller and stronger than the female. These, however, are very superficial dif- ferences, for, although doubtless the male must be stronger and taller than woman, to provide for the wants of the family; yet height is of little value unless all other parts of the organization perfectly accord with it. Tall men are not always the most intel- lectual—height, when very great, is generally injurious, as it is fre- quently associated with thinness and feebleness. It is only by care- fully regarding the admirable models of the ancients, that we can gain correct notions of manly beauty, or female loveliness. In couples about to wed, the female should be some two or three inches less than the male, and both should be proportionally devel- oped in their separate systems—she in the nutritive predominating, he in the nervous or mental and locomotive. Weak haunches in the male indicate lumbar weakness, and overgrowth in the procreant functions. On the contrary, wide haunches are a beauty to the female, proving that the reproductive organs are well developed. A well-formed man should have his shoulders wider and more pro- minent than his hips—A well-formed woman should be the reverse. He should taper from the shoulders up and down—she should taper up and down from the abdomen and hips. The female should have shoulders and chest small but compact, arms and limbs relatively short; her hips apart and elevated, her abdomen large, and her thighs voluminous. The male should be large about the chest to Of Male and Female Form. 71 indicate expansive lungs; small round the hips, to imply locomotive power and vigor. The length of the neck should be proportionally less in man than woman, because the dependence of the mental sys- tem on the nutritive is connected with the shorter distance of the vessels of the neck. The back of woman should be more hollow than that of man, to give sufficient depth for parturition. The loins of woman should be more extended at the expense of the superior and inferior parts, than in man, to allow easy gestation. The sur- face of the whole female form should be characterized by plump- ness, elasticity, delicacy, and smoothness, because all this is not only essential to beauty in woman, but is necessary for the gradual and easy expansion of her person during gestation and delivery. Man should be muscular and wiry, as indicative of strength and energy. In their bodily relations, man should have the appearance of a machine of strong and just proportions ; woman, of a machine highly polished, and more easy in its movements ; her form should be rounded and smooth; his form straighter and coarser, and more adapted to wear and tear; her motion should be light and gentle ; his more forcible and sudden ; her voice should be soft like the flute; his strong like the trumpet; her tongue should be more voluble, and speak more readily and agreeably, and eyes and lips should have the same activity for the same reason. A man generally speaks what he knows ; a woman, of what pleases her; the one's reason should be best developed, the other's taste and feeling. The princi- pal object of a true man's discourse is of what is useful; that of a true woman's is of what is agreeable ; there should be nothing in common in their discourse but truth—nothing in their feeling but mutual affection. Man is the proud and lofty pine, That frowns on many a wave-boat shore ; Woman, the young and tender vine, Whose curling tendrils round it twine, And deek its rough bark o'er. 72 Practical Directions, etc. PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS FOR ATTAINING AND PRESERVING BEAUTY OF PERSON. " If you use cosmetics, 'Twill blot your beauty as frosts bite the meads ; Confound your frame as whirlwinds shake fair buds ; And in no sense is meet or amiable. A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty ; And, while it is so, none so dry or thirsty Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it." Cosmetics are the grave of living beauty. Health of body is as surely the fountain of beauty. Let every woman who would avoid the ugliness which the users of cosmetics are " heir to," emancipate herself from the bondage of constrained clothing, and develop every power of her body and mind. Let man and woman who are confined to cities, try every month the recuperative effects of a day's relaxa- tion among hills, groves, woods, and meadows. Follow the example of the English nobility of both sexes, who either ride or walk several miles every day, taking deep draughts of joy-giving air, and inflating the lungs to their utmost capacity. No cosmetics are equal to mod- erate diet, exercise, light, heat, and air. The famous Diana of Poictiers, who maintained her loveliness until she was 60 years of age, has admitted that she owed this extraordinary result to her daily bath, early rising, daily riding and walking, and plenty of pure air. No woman can become beautiful, in the real sense of that term, or remain even tolerable, without healthful, open air exercise, and daily ablution, than could a plant flourish in a dark cellar. Cosmetic-made-women are only wilted plants or artificial boquets— unfit to be worn in the button-hole of any healthy man. This dis- regard of the organic laws of beauty, and trusting to cosmetic cul- ture are seen all around us in characters not to be mistaken. Pain, joint- torturing, burning fevers, throbbing inflammations, hectic flushes, and pale, ghostly faces, remind the promenader of Broadway of the devia- tions from the paths of nature. A walk on this favorite promenade always forcibly reminds us of the parody by a Western editor :— These girls are all a fleeting show, For man's illusion given : Their smiles of joy, their tears of woe, Deceitful shine, deceitful flow— There's not onk true in seven. How to Choose a Wife. 73 HOW TO CHOOSE A WIFE. Enough of beauty to secure affection, Enough of sprightliness to cure dejection, Of modest diffidence to claim protection, A docile mind, subservient to correction, Yet stored with sense, with reason, and reflection, And every passion held in due subjection— Just faults enough to keep her from perfection ; When such I find, I'll make her my election. No subject can be more important than the choice of a wife. It is upon this question that every effort should be made for the im- provement of the next generation. Every young man should be taught that much of the future welfare of this country depends upon the posterity he will leave behind him, as well as his own gratification in the present. He should be instructed that if he can transmit bet- ter bodies and minds to his offspring by improving both in himself, and by his marriage with a woman his superior in each, nature, so- ciety, and religion demand it of him, for by such intelligent action only can mankind be approximated to perfection. This step is both curative and preventive—it is not only in accordance with high and just principle, but is in accordance with man's highest personal inter- est. It can be no one's interest to have a sickly, ill-formed wife, or stunted and diseased children. To prevent marriages, as it were blindfold, as to the form, constitution, and temperament of each other, we give a few suggestions. Every man should familiarise himself very minutely with the out- line of the statue of the Venus de Medici, so that although his choice of a wife may be different, he may have an idea of what he may expect. Though every man would wish his wife to be perfect in every limb as that celebrated model, yet in forms and faces men vary ;—many preferring the slender, some the plump, others the petite, a few the tall, the dark, the fair—each singling out his own beauty-----but good shape, lively expression, regular features, sound internal organs, good nature, fair intellect, are absolutely indispensa- ble qualifications to men of sense ; or to the production of beautiful children. Outward visible denotement of sound structure and 10 74 How to Choose a Wife. organic fitness is to be prized by every intelligent male, not only for its own merits, but for its collateral advantages. Hufeland gives the following rules for marriage, which will bear reflection:— 1st. A person should not marry unless into a family remarkable for longevity. 2nd. He should not marry a woman advanced in life, delicate, feeble, or affected with any deformity or disease, more especially those trans- missible by generation—as gout, stone in the bladder, gravel, herpes, syphilis, scrofula, mania, or haemorrhoids. 3rd. The age most proper for women is eighteen years, and for men twenty-four or five. 4th. They must not give themselves to the pleasures of reproduction but when the impulse is strong, and, above all things, avoid propagation during drunkenness. 5th. Every pregnant woman ought to be considered as a laboratory, in which she prepares a new being, to which the slightest physical or moral emotion is injurious. 6th. Women of a nervous temperament, those who are very irritable, nervous, hysterical, subject to convulsions or epilepsy, ought to avoid matrimony, as they will give birth to infants who can live but for a short time. In addition, we recommend young men to marry women—not la- dies. Women are like oaks, grown in the fields and sunshine ; they never feel the winds blow, nor the rains beat; they are likely to be strong and long-lived—ladies, on the contrary, are the offspring of hot-beds—the growth of green-houses—who are good for nothing but to harrass their husbands with their ailments, leave a puny pro- geny, and finally slip into early graves. We say again, select women like the following :— Up early in the morning, Starching the "fixings " for Sunday, Just at the peep of day, Churning the snowy cream, Straining the milk in the dairy, Rinsing the pails and strainer Turning the cows away— Down in the running stream. Sweeping the floor in the kitchen, Feeding the geese and turkeys, Making the beds up stairs, Making the pumpkin pies, Washing the breakfast dishes, Jogging the little one's oradle, Dusting the parlor chairs. Driving away the flies. Brushing the crumbs from the pantry, Grace in every motion, Hunting for eggs at the barn, Music in every tone, Cleaning the turnips for dinner, Beauty of form and feature Spinning the stocking yarn— Thousands might covet to own. Spreading the whitening linen Cheeks that rival spring roses, Down on the bushes below, Teeth the whitest of pearls; Ransacking every meadow One of these country maids is worth Where the red strawberries grow. A score of your oity girls. How to Choose a Wife. 75 A paragraph going the rounds of the papers says :—" Some young men marry dimples, some ears ; the mouth, too, is occasionally married ; the chin is not so often. Only the other day, a young fellow fell head over heels and ears in love with a braid—braid, we believe young ladies style that mass of hair that, descending from the forehead, forms a sort of a mouse's nest over the ear. He was so far gone in his infatuation, that he became engaged to this braid ; but the Eugenie mode of hair-dressing coming in just then, the charm was dissolved, and the match was happi- ly broken off, and there is no present appearance of its being renewed. What do young men marry % Why, they marry these and many other bits of scraps of a wife, instead of the true thing. And then, after the wedding, surprised to find that, although married, they have no wives. He that would have a wife, must marry a woman." In conclusion, Fowler's " Matrimony " recommends the selection of a wife whose feelings, sentiments, objects, tastes, desires and moral qualities harmonize in their leading elements with our own. And also whose physical organization is good, and whose constitution has not been ruined by fashionable training and dress. He thinks the majority of American ladies are mere patched up things, kept alive by tea, coffee, narcotics and other nostrums, who give birth to doctor's bills for the relief of dyspepsia, liver complaints, hypochon- dria, sour stomach, heartburn, nervousness, ennui, &c. ; and also give birth to delicate, sickly, nervous, peevish, short-lived children. The great sine qua non of the science of wife-choosing may be summed up in the author's own words :— " So marry as to gratify, not one, nor a few only, but all of your facul- ties. This harmonious exercise of them all, constitutes the pinnacleof human enjoyment. And if you cannot secure this harmonious exercise and gratification of them all—which might perhaps be too sweet a cup for erring mortals to drink, unming'ed with any bitter—then gratify the largest number, or rather the largest amount possible. If you are pre- vented from attaining this very acme of human bliss, ascend as high as you can, to do which, mind how you start. Let no one quality of body or of mind, nor even a few. determine your choice. It is to the character as a whole that you should mainly attend." 76 How to Choose a Husband. HOW TO CHOOSE A HUSBAKD. Of beauty just enough to bear inspection ; Of candor, sense, and wit, a good collection ; Enough of love for one who needs protection, To scorn the words—" I'll keep her in subjection;" Wisdom to keep him right in each direction, Nor claim a weaker vessel's imperfection. Should I e'er meet with such in my connection, Let him propose, I'll offer no objection. A human being is social, formed for intercourse and society. " And the Lord God said, it is not meet that the man should be alone ; I will make an help meet for him." Therefore was woman created to be his boon companion and friend—the bearer and guardian of infancy, and the centre of the social system, round which all society revolves. The desire and necessity for the marri- age state is as desirable to woman, and even more so, than it is to man. Neither man nor woman can be happy as individuals, except in the matrimonial state ; as a writer says, " marriage is not the effect of human reflection, but an original decree of the Creator. It is there- fore equally desirable for woman as for man, that in seeking a mate for life she should choose such an one as will be likely to render her happy. It is thought by many women, that strong affection, and fond hopes will be amply sufficient to secure matrimonial happiness, but this is anything but the case. A true union must be based on an organic law. For instance, oil and water will not mingle. A lion will not lie down quietly with a lamb, nor can ill-assorted marri- ages be productive of aught but discord. It is a law of God, and no hopes or wishes can alter it. Cupid is always represented as blind, and it ought to be added, stupid. Why should the most im- portant step of a woman's life be taken in the dark, blindfolded ? There can be no rational reply. The choice of a husband requires the coolest judgment and the most vigilant sagacity. The Poet says : Select that man, Whose blood, and bone, and muscle, are so well joined, That they are not pipes for disease's finger To sound its horrid discord. How to Choose a Husband. 77 It is said that woman's negative position renders the selection of a companion limited—that she waits to be courted and won—that the usages of society cause her to jump at almost any chance for a husband in her early years, lest she be neglected in the future. Much of this is true, but not all. Although her position is verbally negative, yet women are very far from being uninfluential in engaging attention, awakening affection, or directing their matrimonial destiny. If the male nominally makes the proposal—woman is really omnipotent in encouraging or discouraging the avowal. The sexes are about equal in number; the chances, therefore, for a woman to select a proper father for her children are as good as the man's for a wife. As for being in a hurry to marry, this is an error in America. "Sweet sixteen" is no greater snare to the man of sense, than " dis- creet twenty-four." In England twenty-five is considered a good age to marry, even for a female. In Wurtemberg, no woman dare marry before eighteen. Shakespeare, who was a thorough student of human nature in all its phases, in speaking of the ages of man and wife, and of the necessities to render their union congenial, says : Let still the woman take An elder than herself: so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart. For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, Than woman's are. A happy marriage is the alpha and omega of every woman's hopes. There is no event in her life comparable to marriage, if unalloyed by physical or mental disqualification ; but alas! how rarely is such a consummation found. Marriage is indeed a happy state described as in Proverbs :— - When the fountain is blessed, and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth, and she is to him as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, and he delights in her continually." But see how woman's choice of a husband is generally consumma- ted. She is mostly in a state of excitement, in which her judgment can have little influence. Examine the first choice of a young girl. 78 How to Choose a Husband. Of all the qualities which please her in a lover, there is, perhaps, not one which is valuable in a husband or father. What can be ex- pected but disappointment and repentance, from matches made in the present state of physiological knowledge by our youth ? In the ardor of affection, without foresight, without a knowledge of the structure of each sex—of temperament, or of the health and vitality of each other—such is the common process of marriage ! A maiden meets by chance, or is brought by design, to meet a youth ; they ex- change glances, reciprocate civilities, go home and dream of one another ; and having little to divert attention and diversify thought; they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore con- clude they flhall be happy together. Without a word of advice as to the physical qualifications necessary for such a state as matrimony, from either parents or friends, they marry, and discover what nothing but mental blindness before had concealed. They burden the earth with scrofulous, deformed offspring, or wear out life with altercations, and curse nature and their " luck" with being cruel to them. Every girl should be inducted into the knowledge that the natural law of marriage is, that the body be well developed—the constitu- tion sound ; that her husband should possess those faculties of mind fitted to meet his duties. So far from being indelicate to criti- cally regard the health, vigor and constitution of the future father of her children, it is neither natural, moral, or delicate to risk per- petuating a race of moral or physical imbeciles. A man should have a broad chest—should have about equal proportions of the muscular, nutritive, and nervous or mental systems, as a constitution of this character implies durability, power, and activity. If a woman is deficient of any of these temperaments, she should counterbalance it by marriage with a male with a superabundance, and so on. The feebleness of one faculty aspires after the strength of the other. So of the two sexes—they are counterparts which when conjoined form a oneness. The instinct of females of all animals leads them to prefer the best formed and most vigorous males. And every woman of ripened judgment will admit, that she has a particular predilection for a fine Each Sex should Seek its Opposite. 79 figure, a noble gait and manner, a broad chest, the head elevated, the eyes full of fire, the cheeks with warmth, the manners loving and polite. In the same way, man is instinctively fixed by the full bosom, the well developed figure, the supple and graceful carriage, the fond eye, and the blooming skin of the healthy and mature female. The path of nature therefore points out the necessity of discrimi- nation in the choice of a husband. Let women be guided by the promptings of reason and instinct in this matter, and they will un- doubtedly escape many unhappinesses arising from unsuitability, and an offspring debilitated by transmission. Almost all the sentient be- ings around us adhere with true fidelity to the laws of their several existences, but really it seems that men and women exert their su- perior intellects in superseding the laws which nature has established. Man is the only animal which deliberately seeks to overturn and transgress the laws of his being, and to make himself as unlike as possible, that which he was obviously designed to be. A correction of much of this irrationality it is to be hoped will be found in the subject matter of this book. We repeat, whatever may be the in- dividual taste, every father of a family should have organic condi- tions the reverse of the female—he should be muscular, for that im- plies strength—his shoulders should be broader than his hips—his back should be straighter than woman's—his forehead high and square—his neck inclined to thickness—his chest full, and his pro- genitors long-lived. These general characteristics, with manners according to his external appearance, a moderate share of prudence, confidence, and intellect, a woman has some chances of a happy union. Other qualifications will be referred to under the head of " Hereditary Transmission." EACH SEX SHOULD SEEK ITS OPPOSITE. —" They bred in-and-in, as might be known, Marrying their cousins—nay, their aunts and nieces, Which always spoils the breed, if it increases." Each sex naturally and necessarily seeks for qualities which are 80 Each Sex should Seek its Opposite. its own ; but for those of which it is not in possession. An animal does not feel sexual excitement towards itself; it can feel little to- wards that which is like itself; it must feel most towards that which is most unlike it in the same species. " A black man is a pearl in a fair woman's eye ;" melancholy men fall in love with lively women— men of dark complexions admire women with light hair and blue eyes—nervous persons admire the sanguine ; muscular men admire the nutritive or plump—blustering men gentle women, and so on. Nature in all this points out to men a method by which the human species may be improved. By cross-breeding, that is, by joining two persons of different families and temperaments, the male gives the back-head, containing the organs of the passions, and the limbs or locomotive system. The female gives the face and trunk, or nu- tritive organs. By in-and-in breeding, that is, between persons of the same family and temperament, the female gives the back-head and limbs, and the male gives the face and trunk. The former method is found to be that which most developes a beautiful and healthy or- ganization in the family, the latter method quickly degenerates it. When both sexes are in their highest vigor and perfection, it is the strength of the male which predominates, that gives the locomotive system or character to the progeny ; and it is preferable that the female should give the vital or nutritive system, which, in her, should always be most developed. Dr. Powell, of Kentucky, in the New York Scalpel, refers the birth of sickly and deformed children to similarity of temperaments in the parents. Thus, " if a man of dark complexion, robust con- stitution, and bilious temperament, be united to a female of similar peculiarities, their offspring will neither be healthy, intellectual, or beautiful." He rather recommends that one partner be light com- plexioned, the other dark—the one locomotive, the other nutritive in temperament—if the one is feeble, the other should be strong— if the one be mentally gifted, and the other only moderately endow- ed, their offspring promises to be unsurpassed in mental and physical excellence. The Doctor's words are these :— \ Male and Female Women, etc. 81 " If each man and woman will, as far as practicable, select their com- panions out of those who shall the least resemble themselves, they will very much avoid the commission of a serious blunder. The exceptions will be with those who are, when young, of a lean habit of body, but des- tined to acquire a full one; but even here, the difficulty can be obviated by directing attention to that side of the family of the individual which he or she may resemble." MALE AND FEMALE WOMEN, OR WHY MODERN MEN ARE UGLY. " On manhood, when the race was young, The beard in upshorn beauty sprung, And nations felt what poets sung— Man's great and matchless majesty." Alphonse Karr, a celebrated French writer, gives a very clever analysis of the causes of male and female beauty, in a work recently published in Paris. There is some satire and much truth in the extract, and we give it without comment, only premising that much of the effeminacy of both sexes arises from indolence of body and< mind—from a want of out-door exercise and amusements—from a dread of the weather—to a bolting of food—to dress that confines the chest and limbs—to an unnatural system of hours, whereby the night is the period of company, and day-light that of sleeping. The following is the extract:— "If you, ladies, are much handsomer than we, it is but just you should acknowledge that we have helped you, by voluntarily making ourselves ugly. Your superiority in beauty is made up of two things; first, the care which you take to increase your charms; secondly, the zeal which we have shown to heighten them by the contrast of our finished ugliness —the shadow which we supply to your sunshine. Your long, pliant, wavy tresses are all the more beautiful because we cut our hair short; your hands are all the whiter, smaller, and more delicate, because we reserve to ourselves those toils and exercises which make the hands large and hard. We have devoted entirely to your use flowers, feathers, rib- bons, jewelry, silks, gold and silver embroidery. Still more to increase the difference between the sexes, which is your greatest charm, and to give you the handsome share, we have divided with you the hues of na- ture. To you we have given the colors that are rich and splendid, or soft and harmonious; for ourselves we have kept those that are dark and dead. We have given you sun and light; we have kept night and dark- ness. ' We have monopolized the hard, stony roads that enlarge the feet; we have let you walk only on carpets. Think you your feet would have been so narrow and finely curved but for that 1 Man received from na- ture as his companion a sort of female man, probably less handsome than 11 82 Male and Female Women, etc. himself, as is the case with the female of other animals : of this female he has made woman. So much did he feel the desire and need of adoring you, that he dressed you in long clothes. Note, that these long clothes are only allowed to men filling functions in whose holders it was neces- sary that no personal imperfections should be discernible. Kings, priests, and magistrates wear long garments, like you. But, by this very divi- sion, man entered into possession of his own particular and legitimate beauty, which consisted in strength, endurance, and dignity. In making woman more womanly, he made himself more manly. Everything which increases the difference of the sexes adds charm to love. Distance is necessary; loving-room is as requisite as fighting-room. Nothing was more rational than this distribution of parts. The man had short hair and a long beard; his complexion was bronzed by sun and wind; his muscular arms terminated in shorty, knotty hands; his legs, with their salient muscles, were supported on feet hardened by the toils of war and the chase. He was to please the woman by his strength, by his courage, by the protection which he gave her : there was a little fear in the wo- man's love for the man—a sentiment which civilization has not been able to destroy entirely. A real woman truly loves no man but one who is her master. It is said that woman's pleasure is to command; I maintain that her happiness is to obey. Women like commanding as great ladies like dining at a country tavern—once in their lives by accident. Never would a woman, before the progress of civilization, have accepted the love of a languishing, frail, elegant man. The man had to defend her against men, and other wild animals. He had to bring to the hut the deer or the wild boar for her and her children, to lift her up and carry her when the road was too rough, to help her in swimming across rivers, etc., etc. But things changed with the advance of civilization. Woman, protected by law and by custom, had no actual need of man's strength. Man took less exercise, renounced the fatigues and pleasures of the chase, and made war by proxy. The civilized man, the man of the world, lost his manly beauty, and from that time slily tried to get back from woman a portion of what he had conceded to her. Then he began to let his hair grow, and curl it, and part it accurately on one side; then he wanted to have white and delicate hands, small feet, and a slim waist. He took back silks and velvets, under the name of waistcoats ; he loaded his fin- gers with rings, and put diamonds into his shirts; he wore gold and jewels; the cravat afforded him a pretext for reclaiming his share of rib- bons. He demanded a new distribution of colors, and not only regained red. blue, and green, but usurped pink, azure, and lilac. Having no long- er the true beauty of a man, he took it into his head that he would share in that of the woman—and consequently he became very ugly. Let a man lace himself as tight as he will, his waist will never be as Bmall as that of a moderately sized woman. It is of no use for him to torture his feet into boots too small for him ; a man's small foot is larger than a woman's large one. Equally useless is it for him to do nothing with his hands, and to put them into gloves that are too tight; the smallest man's glove can hold both a woman's hands. No matter how he bedizens himself with flashy cravats and sparkling waistcoats, his dress must look mean and dingy beside a woman's, since he dares not lay aside his awful coat and trousers, or his hideous hat; still less put flowers in his hair. Nature made male and female man. Man made man and wo- man. We are now on the road to have male a,ndfernale women. When What is Love ? 83 women see man seeking, with very middling success, to arrive at beauty by the same means as themselves, they compare men's faces with their faces, men's feet with the'r feet, men's clothes with their clothes, and na- turally find men ugly, and ill-dressed. Besides the indisputable infe- riority to which men subject themselves in their ridiculous pretension to dispute the palm of feminine beauty with women, they do themselves wrong in another way, which some of them do not yet perceive; but the importance of which will soon be too obvious to the majority of them. It is this : They become old much sooner. If a man's beauty were sup- posed to consist—as it really should—in dignity, strength, endurance, courage, and intelligence, as that of a woman consists in grace, elegance, lightness, freshness, and timid simplicity, his old age would begin only when he began to loose his strength, intelligence, and courage—that is to say, when his muscles relaxed; when his step became heavy and drag- ging, when his eyes lost their fire. But if you require in a man beauties like those of a woman—a slim figure, a fresh complexion, and the like— it is clear that by this rule a man of twenty-five is less handsome than a lad of eighteen ; that at thirty he is no longer young, and at forty is old. Whereas if we looked for the man's beauty where it ought to be, and really is, he would regain fifteen years, which he loses by the present doubly erroneous estimate." WHAT IS LOVE' " Even love is sold ; the solace of all woe Is turned to deadly agony;—old age Shivers in beauty's loathing arms, And youth's corrupted impulses prepare A life of horror from the blighting bane Of commerce ; whilst the pestilence that springs From unenjoying sensualism, has filled All human life with hydra-headed woes." The above quotation from Shelley, is equally applicable to this day and this country, as it was in his day to England. We despair, therefore, of saying anything new or trite upon the subject of Love. For thousands of years, men and women have been thinking, speak- ing, feeling, and writing upon it. The passion has been refined into all sorts of sentimentalities, Platonisms, Transcendentalisms, and Socialisms. Indeed, most other passions have been made quite sub- ordinate to it. In novels, love affairs end in marriage, and there usually ends the story. Neither novelists nor dramatists seem to think that there often is love without marriage, and marriage with- out love. So too, is there often a new passion evolved, Phoenix-like, 84 What is Love ? from the ashes. The object of this work is to bring science into play in the diplomacy of love—so that those people may love, whose natures and persons sympathize, and who are, in every way, fitted for each other. As it is, the bride has no assurance that her hus- band may not inspire disgust, rather than affection ; and vice versa. It has been justly said, that if men and women drew partners in lot- teries, there would be about as many suitable matches as there is at present; whereas, as the Fowlers and others have shown, partners may as easily be selected by physiology, phrenology, and physiog- nomy as not. Miss Hays, an English authoress, indignant at the selfish per- vertions of the holy feeling of love, which is depraving the ideas of purity throughout the community, thus defines true love :— " Love, the true marriage, has been laughed at, scorned, till it scarcely finds a resting-place upon earth; but go where it still dwells! go, if it be to the laborer's hearth, to the one room, both parlor and chamber, so that its holy light be but there, and say if there be such joy, such heavenly peace and happiness in the proudest palace of earth, where love is not! Love is laughed at, scorned; but that it lives to bless and hallow, there is not one of us who cannot bear witness from amidst the circle of his private acquaintance. That it lives at all, when society has done its best for years to crush it; when modern female education shuts it out in its calculation, or, when forced to notice it, ranks it as a necessary evil; a juvenile complaint like measles or small-pox: when we find it living through all this, we affirm that it is an instinct of the heart, as deep and true as a mother's love, and can no more be uprooted and denounced than that sacred feeling. Behoves it, then, each man and woman to know that it is a passion of God's ordaining; in its pure state the richest bless- ing that life can give. Behoves it, then, each man and woman to pre- serve the heart's truth." Nature has instituted certain laws in the universe which are made obvious to man by the causes and effects which are in operation around us. Thus, it is a law of Nature that all bodies are attracted towards the centre of the earth—that the sun causes light and heat —that things like each other assimilate—water blends with water, oil with oil, clay with clay, clouds with clouds, and " birds of a feath- er flock together." It is in accordance with this feeling, that ani- mals are attracted towards other animals of their own species and genus. A very humorous illustration of the law of attraction is given in the address of What is Love ? 85 THE CHEMIST TO HIS LOVE. I love thee Mary, and thou lovest me ; So that thou mightest be Soda. In that case Our mutual flame is like th' affinity We should be Glauber's salt. Wert thou Mag- That doth exist between two simple bodies; nesia, I am Potassium to thine Oxygen Instead, we'd form the salt that's named from 'Tis little that the holy marriage vow, Epsom. Shall shortly make us one. That unity Could'st thou Potassa be, I Aquafortis, Is, after all, but metaphysical. Our happy union should that compound form, O, would that 1, my Mary, were an acid, Nitrate of Potash—otherwise Saltpetre. A living acid ; and thou an alkali, And thus, our several natures sweetly blent, Endowed with human sense, that brought together, We'd live and love together, until death We both might coalese into one salt, Should decompose the fleshly tertivm o_uid, One homogeneous crystal. Oh! that thou Leaving our souls to all eternity, Were Carbon, and myself were Hydrogen ; Amalgamated. Sweet, thy name is Briggs, We would unite to defiant gas. And mine is Johnson. Wherefore should we not Or common coal, or naptha—Would to Heaven Agree to form a Johnsonate of Briggs 7 That I were Phosphorus and thou wert Lime ! We will. The day, the happy day is nigh, And we ol lime composed a Phosphuret. When Johnson shall with beauteous Briggs com- I'd be content to be Sulphuric Acid, bine. Love is the necessary precursor of true marriage—it is a feeling, passion, or instinct necessary to the procreation and perpetuation of the race. This feeling is stronger than the judgment, and it is re- quisite for the continuance of the species it should be so. It has been well observed that man parries reason, avoids future interest with present pleasure ; but love of sex, is a sun, against whose melt- ing beams winter cannot stand—it is a soft, subduing slumber which wrestles down the giant—in short, it is a passion in which there is not one human being in a million whose clay heart is hardened against it. Aristotle saith—" no man loves but he that was first delighted with comeliness and beauty." Beauty is the common object of all love ; as this varies so doth our love. But although love may be divided, and subdivided into devotional, musical, literary, pecuniary or other, yet the strongest, original, and purest, is the love of the sexes. And no one can be so prudish as pretend that the feeling of love is divested of sexual association. This is its true origin. Wo- man, at full puberty, has a superabundance of Hfe. She gives it off by secretion and exhalation. These processes provoke pleasurable sensations. They invite her to receive and seek—they give her animation of frame—her eyes speak desire—and a tender and vivid interest attracts her towards the opposite sex. The male is excited by corresponding longings—his vital system is equally superabundant. As each is the other's sole desire, they at length see nothing but themselves—believe each other to be divinities. Such is the pro- gress of love ; sexuality is its basis ; its consummation gives posses- sion—or marriage. 86 Object of Marriage. MRS. SWISSHELM ON WOMAN'S LOVE. The following from this lady's pen requires neither comment nor commendation:— " All that stuff about woman's love has been said over and over again fifty thousand times, to the great detriment of the best interest of hu- manity. There is no kind of necessity for using the press to persuade silly girls that it is very romantic and womanly to love a scoundrel, to leave her affections unguarded by reason or experience, and drift help- lessly into sin, shame and despair, as an evidence of her unsuspecting womanhood. It is not true that woman's affections are stronger or more durable than man's. We think the very opposite is the case; and that two-thirds of all the women who pine or die for love, do so for want of something better to do. Everything calculated to make love-sickness a becoming feminine accomplishment, is a great injury; but to strew the path of the suicide with the flowers of poesy and romance, is in a very high degree reprehensible. The best motto to guard a young girl through the mazes of love is. " Do right, and trust in God." A girl who has done nothing wrong has little cause to mourn over the fickleness of a pretended lover. Better he should change his mind before marriage than after." OBJECT OF MAKMAGE. Marriage is a matter of more worth, Than to be dealt with by attorneyship. The result of love is marriage, and for no one circumstance of civilization have we more reason to rejoice, that in such an institu- tion. The wisdom of marriage as we now understand it, has been acknowledged by every modern civilization. It is the basis of a nation's prosperity, and of individual happiness. It gives legal and strong possession of the object of our love. It establishes regulation and order, forms links of relationship, and renders each country one large family. A happy marriage is the alpha and omega of every man and woman's hopes. There is no pleasure in life com- parable to it, where it is unalloyed by physical or mental disqual- ifications ; but, alas ! for want of just such knowledge as this book contains, how rarely is such a consummation to be found. It is a happy state indeed, " when,'' as the Psalmist says, " the foun- tain is blessed, and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth ;" or, as the eloquent poet of the Seasons so beautifully, truly, and naturally pictures the happy state of marriage :— The Obligations of Marriage. 8* O happy they, the happiest of their kind! When gentle stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. 'Tis not alone the tie of human laws, That binds their peace, but harmony itself, Attuning all their passions into love ; Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, With boundless confidence : for nought but love Can answer love, and render bliss secure. • Thompson. Dr. Ryan, in his "Philosophy of Marriage," thus eloquently dis- courses : " The perfection and sincerity of friendship can only be found in the marriage state, where an identity of interest shuts out all petty jealousies and vexations, and a unity of thought, sentiment, feeling, and conduct exists. The qualities essential to conjugal happiness are chiefly of a mental or moral nature, and not merely a physical kind. Marriage was instituted between the first of our species as a natural, civil, and religious contract, and has ever since been celebrated with a degree of solemnity and importance suitable to its dignity. It is a sacred compact, for which those entering into it forsake their nearest relations and best friends. A mutual love should subsist between them—a mutual charity, to bear reciprocally their natural defects, tempers, and all other inconveniences and infirmities of life. They mutually vow to observe an inviolable fidelity towards each other; they are bound to labor with inde- fatigable industry, so as to augment their means for the sustenance and education of their future offspring, and to provide for themselves in their infirmities and old age." THE OBLIGATIONS OF MARRIAGE. Are we not one 1 Are we not joined by Heaven 1 Eaeh interwoven with the other's fate! Are we not mixed like streams of meeting rivers, Whose blended waters are no more distinguished, But roll into the sea, one common flood 1 The obligations of marriage, then, are to afford the legitimate use of amative enjoyments ; to regulate the procreation of children ; to en- sure succession, and thereby to transmit one's identity and property; to cultivate domestic happiness, and thereby give all an equal incen- tive to aspire to the same possession. If any deception be practised towards each other, either as regards their health, vigor, or form, the culpable party will incur, or both parties, sooner or later, the never- failing punishment—disappointment in their pleasures, their do- 88 The Physiology of Marriage. mestic anticipations, and their hopes of hereditary succession. The obligations of marriage are imperative. Both parties should be able to fulfill them. The law affords some equivocal redress where one is a defaulter, but it is seldom availed of, and jealousy, duplicity, inconstancy, and disease are the result. Addison justly says, " two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species, with design to be each other's comfort, have in that action bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, forgiv- ing, patient, and respect each other's frailties and imperfections, and think of their offspring.'' THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MARRIAGE. But when the nuptial rite together binds Two hearts and corresponding minds ; When something more than passion's throb controls The mutual admiration of their souls ; When in each other they enraptured find, The grace of conduct and the light of mind ! The physiology of marriage consists in a knowledge of the con- ditions necessary for the due performance of the physical observ- ances, marriage rites, and the harrassments and ailments inci- dental to the marital couch and the generative act. Our pur- poses being honest, we shall proceed to describe some of the neces- sary facts connected with this subject, without prudery and with delicacy. Drs. Dewees, Beck, Ryan, Sir Charles M. Clark, and many other esteemed authorities attest that the sexual consumma- tion of marriage ought to be effected with gentleness and modera- tion as of enlightened beings, instead of with the impetuation of brutes; as violence in its accomplishment gives more or less pain, laceration, effusion of blood, and inflammation of the external and internal genital organs. Premature exertion of the generative func- tion is most injurious to the health of the individual and offspring. Agriculturists are so well aware of this fact, that they always pre- vent the premature intercourse of the inferior animals. The genital function, at certain periods of life, is as imperious as the digestive, and requires exertion with moderation, if the health is to be pre- Physiology of the Sexual Feelings ? 89 served and the offspring vigorous. The essentials requisite for the marriage fulfillment are. on the male side, a healthy condition of the entire generative apparatus. It should be no effort on the part of n young and healthy man to be able to repeat the conjugal embrace in conformity with the desires of his wife, moderated by reason. The reproductive organs of the female should not to be too lax by various secretions or unnatural habits, or offspring becomes improbable ; nor should there be too great a disproportion in stature between the male and female. A slightly formed woman, with small pelvis, marrying a large, robust individual, may produce offspring so large as to mutilate if not kill the mother. It is well known that small bitches impregnated by large dogs, sometimes die undelivered ; and the Princess Charlotte, of England, died in child-birth from a similar cause. The conjugal act should never be indulged in until there is a na- tural desire and vigorous impulse ; nor before the adult age. It ought entirely to be abstained from during the presence of the men- ses, the child-bed evacuation; and used but moderately during pregnancy and suckling. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL FEELINGS, List, lady, be not coy, and be not cozen'd, With that same vaunted name virginity. Beauty is nature's coin, must not be hoarded But must be current, and the good thereof Consists in the enjoyment of itself. If you let slip time, like a neglected rose, It withers on the stalk with languished head. The sexual feeling commences at puberty and continues until old age. It is announced in both sexes by a number of changes, which transpire in the development of the body, but which, says M. Buffon, must be described with great circumspection, so as not to excite other than philosophical ideas. We shall therefore introduce the causes of the sexual feeling in the words of Dr. Ryan, in his " Varieties of the Human Species :" 12 90 Physiology of the Next arises puberty, which is justly considered that which is the prin- ciple of life, and effulgent Aurora, the season of pleasure. At this age, a sudden increase of the whole body takes place, sometimes in a wonder- ful manner ; the voice becomes hoarser in males, the pubes, axillae, face and whole body, become covered with a whitish down. The genital or- gans, which were previously small and useless, increase with the rest of the body, and being much augmented, secrete a prolific semen, by whose Btimulus the youth is incited to the enjoyment of the agreeable gifts of Venus. About the same age at which boys are puberous, girls become nubile; the genital organs are evolved, the pubes appear, and the breasts are developed; a new loveliness appears on the countenance, a new ele- gance of the whole figure ; and if the individual was previously delicate, she often and suddenly enjoys good health ; a secretion somewhat simi- lar to the appearance of blood is effused every month from the uterus; and this organ is rendered fit for the formation and nourishment of the offspring. Hence, by the laws of nature, the sexes are impelled with a desire to be united, whence offspring similar to themselves is propa- gated. Twelve to fourteen in females, and from thirteen to fourteen in males is the age prescribed, when nature begins to develop the sexual feeling At this period vitality becomes prominent in those organs destined for the procreation of other beings. The other func- tions of the body, as digestion, respiration, circulation, thought, and the senses, seem diminished by comparison, to the rapid development of the sexual organs. At this age an indisoribable commotion be- gins to agitate both sexes ; all their functions become deranged ; the digestion becomes bad, the action of the heart and arteries irregular ; the individuals love solitude, their desires and affections are now altered; those whom they formerly considered dearest to them come to be regarded with indifference ; the genitals enlarge, and the secretions increase. The prolific fluid of both sexes increases, and gives a superabundance of life, which compels them to approach each other, after the term of courtship, and in accordance with the precepts of religion, morals, and prudence. In the words of Dry- den :— Stirr'd with the same impetuous desire, Birds, beasts, and herds, their males require. , 'Tis with this passion the mother lion stung, Scours o'er the plain, regardless of her young ; Demanding rights of love, she sternly stalks, And hunts her lover in his lonely walks. Sexual Feelings. 91 In a series of lectures on the physical education and diseases of infants from birth to puberty, it is therein stated, that _ " All researches on the reproduction of plants and animals from the highest to the lowest in ancient and modern times were made with n view of explaining the generation of the human species. But all have hitherto signally failed to explain the mystery of reproduction of man— the transmission of the vital and immortal principles from parents to off- spring ; and after the investigations of ages, the reference must be for explanation to the Omnipotent Creator of all things. Man is still ignor- ant of how life begins or ceases. It is all mystery to him. He cannot reason but from the analogy afforded by the vegetable and animal king- doms. This is the most unsatisfactory. As in plants and animals, the propagation of the human species is confided to two sexes, male and female. Both are endowed, for this object, with particular organs, called sexual, whose united action and reciprocal contact, are indispensable to the formation of the new being. " Sexual approach or contact reunites the constituent parts of the future being. These elements are the spermatic fluid of the male, and the ovum or germ of the female. The human female possesses from fif- teen to twenty germs, ova, or vesicles in each ovary, but these are never separated during the function of sexual commerce. The process by which these elements are united is the same, as will hereafter be described, in other mammiferous animals. " Man and woman, like other animals, do not enjoy the faculty of pro- creation at all periods of life : it is only at that age when the body has acquired complete development, and this is from the period of puberty or nubility to old age. The phenomena of this age have been detailed in the description of puberty, and the proper age for marriage. l; The sexual organs having acquired perfect development, are excited by the secretion of the seminal fluid in man, and the development or per- haps secretion of the germ or egg in the ovary of woman : and this ex- citement leads to sexual union, by which the elements of both sexes are united and the new being is formed. " The reciprocal action of the male and female fluids does not produce at first, but an animated point in the female ovary possessing all the vitality of a plant. It gradually develops during pregnancy, at a certain period passes into the womb, and it is only after the lapse of nine months that the new being is perfect. " The period of foetal development is termed pregnancy or utero- gestation." When this has terminated, the new being is born, and the func- tion is called labor, delivery, or parturition. Arrived at a certain age, both man and woman lose the myste- rious and brilliant power of procreating new beings, and this is the age of decline, the critical turn of life. 92 Marriage and Maternity MARRIAGE AND MATERNITY THE NECESSITY OF WOMAN. ■•Give me children, or 1 die."—Rachel. The etymology of the words marriage and maternity give the significations " to do as a man," and " the possession of the womb," and imply the true nature of the offices of the sexes. Each has a reciprocal duty to perform. But to woman is assigned the greatest necessity for a state of marriage and maternity. She is by nature a producer, former, and educator of her race. She is instinct with the desire of offspring, which nothing else can satisfy. Her soul is silently, ceaselessly on fire for children. The perils that attend pregnancy and parturition sometimes occupy her attention ; the joy of offspring always. " Man's love is of man's life a part, 'Tis woman's sole existence." A true woman's form, make, organization, thoughts, and feel- ings, are expressly constituted for offspring. The eye is not more evidently formed for seeing, the hand for holding, and the feet for walking, than is a real woman for offspring. It is only half-women who are spouters and "women's rights women"—their organization is a near approach to that of the male, and the womb of such women is unfit to be the holy shrine wherein is created another image of their race. Conceive the penalty inflicted on the eye, when subjected to the privation of all objects of sight, while basking in the blaze of unre- flected light; consider what misery, if the hands had no occupation, or any other organ or sense had no employment! If the organs of our body were forbidden their use, while the blood within them stim- ulated to action, like the steam within an engine, it must explode or derange the whole machinery. So is the inwrought desire of woman for offspring. A thorough woman is personally constructed for this very purpose. Her abdomen and hips—her soft and yield- ing bosom—and as already referred to in another place, every beauty of form and feature has no other use in her organization than the production and sustenation of offspring. What is her womb ? A The Necessity of Woman. 93 pear-shaped organ, with a cavity which opens to receive the em- bryotic seed of a new being, and then instinctively closes up itself, in order that it may incorporate with a miraculous ovum, and nourish and develop it into a foetus. What are the ovaries or egg- beds, but two organs, which supply and send off the ova or the eggs which crave for impregnation ? The satisfaction of the womb is in receiving and retaining. It is the most intense misery for a well- formed woman to be unmarried and barren. With what pathetic longing Rachel exclaims, " give me children or I die!'' The sun is not more native life than is the womb of woman to marriage and maternity. Woman's mental and moral qualities are admirably adapted to her peculiar organization, and willingly minister to the particular necessities of her body. Woman has a mental taste and a moral feeling for the value and delight of offspring. The only mode by which she cm make known her thoughts and feelings is by her organs. They are compelled to manifest the deep intentions, and deeper sympathies of her nature. Let this sink deep into the minds of parents, that woman's organs of body and mind point to the desire of offspring as an integral and most essential part of her ex- istence ; and that, if she, by the force of circumstances, is reduced to a vegetable apathy, her nature and character must be fatally perverted and changed. SYMPTOMS OF SEXUAL FEELING. This is the secret sympathy, The silver links, the silken tie, Which heart to heart, and mind and mind, In body, and in soul can bind. The previous remarks will have prepared the reader to understand that for a woman to expect or be in need of marriage, and to be disappointed, is perhaps the most mortifying and humiliating occur- rence of her being, more especially if she be of a full and warm tem- perament, and her every organ fitted for reproduction. This state of 94 Symptoms of Sexual Feeling. body and mind is easily discoverable by any intelligent parent. From the age of fifteen to twenty, a boy emerges mentally and phy- sically into a new order of being. The childish frivolity is thrown aside, and he imitates men of a larger growth ; his walk is more steady and erect, the whole frame exhibits a rapid increase of de- velopment, the effeminate tone of voice is exchanged for the sono- rous one of puberty. New sensations are felt, a freedom of motion is now experienced, the mind enlarges, the physical indications of manhood are more apparent, the beard begins to grow, a new sen- sation is felt towards the other sex, bashfulness and timidity give place to boldness. A corresponding advancement brings woman to the same eventful epoch. From the age of twelve or fourteen to nineteen or twenty, the physical changes are as follows: the breasts begin to enlarge, the countenance becomes more animated, the eyes sparkle, the lips assume a more lively redness, the hips enlarge, the whole stature increases in bulk, the perspiration throws off a pecu- liar odor, and that most important feature in female economy, the menstrual discharge occurs. Woman is now fitted to be impregnated and to bear offspring. UNGRATIFIED SEXUALITY PRODUCES SELF-ABUSE, CONSUMPTION AND DEATH. Now, it must be apparent that at the time when these changes are occurring the most rigid watchfulness should be kept over the young of both sexes. It is now that the pernicious habit of self-abuse is acquired. Unless an early marriage checks this dreadful habit, the consequences are not, long in developing themselves. Independently of the lassitude it occasions, many functions of the body are deranged by it. To the males the dreadful practice leads to impotency, debil- ity, stricture, deafness, and death. To females the practice of self- abuse brings first irregularity in their periodical secretions, lassitude, drowsiness, nervousness, rupture, weakness, and sterility, ending in consumption and death. To both demoralization of mind ensues : the act is a misappropriation of the purposes for which they were designed. In the words of a Divine, "Self-abuse chesks the DE- VELOPMENT AND DERANGES THE STRUCTURE OF THE TESTICLES AND Causes and Effects, etc. 95 PENIS--IT CREATES STRICTURE OF THE URETHRA--IT PRODUCES PRE- MATURE DEBILITY--IT GIVES PAINS IN THE LOINS--IT ESTABLISHES GENERAL WEAKNESS, AND INDUCES EVEN CONSUMPTION. The MENTAL FACULTIES ESCAPE NOT—THE MIND BECOMES FATUITOUS --THE VERY SENSES IMPERFECT IN THEIR ACTION ; and the whole economy of nature becomes perverted." " Of all the dangerous gratifications that strew the path from youth to manhood, none are so mischievous as the indulgence in Onanism. It un- happily offers two powerful inducements, it can be practiced in seclusion, and its effects on the health and appearance, unlike those produced by drunkeness, a night's revelry, or any other appetital excess which tell their tale the next day, from the insidious manner in which the under- mining process is going on, can be at least for a while, if not entirely, at all events partially concealed. Unfortunately why the habit is so preva- lent, is because the evil consequences are not known, and consequently not anticipated. It is folly to mince the matter. There is no doubt that it is most extensively indulged in. How few persons, indeed, can deny the imputation of having, at one time or other, given way to it. The Btudent or divine are not exempt, nor are those whose exemplary and moral conduct might refute such a charge, if suspicion were the only ac- cuser. The disease, for such it is, is not confined merely to our own sex, but I am at least a sceptic in the frequently expressed opinion, that it pre- vails to anything like a similar extent in the other." CAUSES AHD EFFECTS, ESPECIALLY TO WOMEN, OF SELF-ABUSE. We—ignorant of ourselves, Beg after our own harm, which the wise powers Forbid us—for our good ; so find we profit, By losing our desires. The cause of self-abuse is more necessary to be known than de- tailing the effects. Sexual desire is the cause. The sensation of sexual desire is of the same class as hunger, it is metaphorically called " carnal appetite." It indeed depends somewhat on hunger, for hunger is the sensation which prompts us to give the body its requi- site nourishment, and sexual desire is the sensation which incites us to rid the body of its superabundant nourishment. It is therefore as sinful to eat food, as it is to enjoy sexual intercourse when nature demands. Celibacy or protracted marriage, though preferable to a life of dissipation, is fraught with peevishness, restlessness, vague 96 Causes and Effects, etc. longings and instability of character ; the mind becomes unsettled, and the judgment warped. Even the very instinct which is thus mortified, especially to females, assumes an undue importance, and occupies such a portion of the thoughts as does not of right or na- ture belong to it, and which, if the conditions of society allowed early marriages of affection, it never could obtain. No man or woman, if properly formed, and at a ripe age, can consistently with nature, be chaste in body, without being lewd in mind, or practising self-abuse. To deprive a woman of marriage when healthy, of age, and well developed, and capable and necessarily yearning for off- spring, is next to murderous. Through want of marriage we see numbers of fine women pass through the spring, bloom, and autumn of their days in a state of cheerless and hopeless virginity, and de- prived of the company of the other sex and of the endearments of offspring. Is it any wonder that such unnatural barrenness renders self-abuse prevalent, and consumption and early deaths notorious among our young women ? Nature has implanted within them the passion of love and maternity, and intended it should be gratified, like its counterparts, hunger and thirst, and by not attending to its call, we must expect a proper punishment for the disobedience. In young men and women who are marriageable yet unmarried, we find them subject to plethora, giddiness, and all inflammatory com- plaints—females especially to suppression, and consumption, besides hysterics and other spasmodic complaints, which are but natural efforts to get rid of excessive nervous irritability, the system not hav- ing received the proper nervous shocks which would occur if their natural demands of marriage had been complied with. If other ani- mals pine and lose their flesh when debarred from cohabitation, which is the case with horses, cattle, &c, why should not mankind also ? Children should be taught the various ends of the human economy, by slates and the manikin : they should be shown the number and variety of the bodily organs and their functions; how colds, fevers, headaches, stomach-aches, are contracted, and how abuse of the genital organs, brings premature decay on body and mind. Marriage and Maternity, etc. 97 MARRIAGE AND MATERNITY THE GLORY OF WOMAN. " Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring !— By thoe, Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure, Relations dear, and all the charities. Of father, son, and brother, first were known, Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets. We have seen that maternity and maturity is a necessity of woman —that the function of the womb at certain ages cannot be left un- tended without perversion ; it cannot be left in a state of dormancy without self-abuse. It necessarily influences all the other faculties of woman. If this function be rightly tended, whether in an active or passive state, the female character is softened, elevated, and refined. If it be neglected or rudely treated, or perverted, it gives a rough- ness, coarseness and ferocity to woman, unsexing and Lola-Montes- ing her. Not only, however, is marriage and maternity a necessity, as is shown by the largeness of the hips and abdomen, by the function of the beasts, and by keenness of desire, but it has inevitably been guarantied by the laws of nature, providence and human reason, that offspring is also the glory of woman. Throughout the Scrip- tures, offspring is spoken of as a reward of God. Children are said to be a rich estate—a valuable possession and protection. A prolific wife is likened to a fruitful vine. The beauty and the value of chil- dren are compared to olive plants—and to see your children's chil- dren, the perfection of human happiness. The consoling termination of Job's trials was in this happiness. " He had seven sons and three daughters." This was the crown of all his riches and his bliss. Hannah's praises for her long-wished-for offspring are compared to the feeling of hunger. " My heart rejoiceth in the Lord—my horn is exalted__/ rejoice in thy salvation—they that were hungry ceased— so that the barren hath borne seven.'' Among the blessings promised to the Israelites by the Lord, the greatest was that of offspring. " Thou shall be blessed above all people, there shall not be male or female among you barren." In short, anatomy, physiology, philosophy, and poetry, are all re- 13 98 Effects of Early Marriages plete with proofs that the end of commerce with the other sex is offspring ; and that lovely, healthy, and well-formed children only— that beauteous images alone of the being she loves are her glory—a perfect offspring is the perfection of her function. EFFECTS OF EARLY MARRIAGES UPON OFFSPRING. By sweet experienbe know, That marriage, rightly understood, Gives to the prudent and the good, A paradise below. Although the anxiety of the sexes to be together begins to be felt at periods varying from thirteen to eighteen years of age, yet such desires are precarious compared with the constitutions of human be- ings, specially in such latitudes as ours. Aristotle has said, that " precocious marriages oppose a good generation ; for in the entire animal kingdom the fruits of the first signal of reproductive instinct, are constantly imperfect, and have not any well established form." " Proofs are abundant in the human species, that precocious marri- ages procure small and contemptible men " Montesquieu stated that the fear of military service in France caused a number of young men, almost of the age of puberty, to many, and that these marri- ages, when fertile, gave a deseased, miserable and puny population. It has been testified, that it was precocious marriages as well as im- moral sexual intercourse, that gave rise to the dreadful alternative of abortion. M. Marc, in the Diet, des Sciences Med. Art. Co- pulation, says : '•' It is to be desired, for the prosperity of states, that sovereigns should be the first to perceive the importance of the reasons which are opposed to precocious marriage. A man elevated by birth to rule the destinies of a nation, ought, to render it happy, and to be so himself, to unite physi- cal vigor and moral power in an eminent degree; so that his progeny should sustain and enjoy the same corporeal advantages as himself. A precocious union forms the greatest obstacle to the accomplishment of these views." It is well known to the farmers of America, that when cattle breed too early, their young is not worth rearing. Common sense and ob- Upon Offspring. 99 servation prove that young boys and girls who want discretion to govern themselves, should not either be able to produce a healthy or fully developed offspring, or to rear them when obtained. As already observed in another part, it is impossible to determine the proper age for marriage, so much depends upon constitution, climate, and other circumstances. The generally conceived proper age to marry, in most countries, is from nineteen to twenty-four for females, and between twenty-two and thirty for males. Previous to these ages, as a general rule, either party is inadequate to the requirements of matrimonial intercourse. The following article from a newspaper, is illustrative of the prudent view of this subject. " The practice of early marriages, so common in the United States, is one of the worst features of society. Under the most favorable circum- stances it involves too many considerations, and entails too many liabili- ties on all parties, to be entered into without deep and serious reflection. It is well enough, when young people love each other, to think they can- not live apart; but it is not well for them to marry without some good provision for the future. The common saying that it costs no more to maintain two than one, is a fallacy, which is every day exposed, to the great dissatisfaction of its deluded dupes. Besides, the bodies and minds of the young need development in the school of experience. What could be lightly borne at thirty, would be their ruin at eighteen. Nature, at that age, has not ripened us mentally or physically, and all premature developments must be fearfully atoned for in after years. Youth does not know its own weakness. Lacking depth and sound judgment, what it adores to-day, it is often indifferent to on the morrow. Many have mar- ried on the strength of first affections, and awakened from the dream to find themselves utterly and irretrievably miserable. There is a halo about youth it is not well to trust overmuch. Better mistrust it altogether, and depend upon manhood and the future. The affection that cannot " learn to labor, and to wait," can never endure for any length of time. " Above all others, the poor should avoid early marriages. In a single state, poverty is a curse ; but the double poverty of marriage is a hell to endure. Want and distress soon rob love of its charms, and life of its bloom. Affection will not make the pot boil, neither will it pay house- rent and buy new dresses. What was irksome to be borne alone, becomes doubly so when the law has bound its victim to another for life. Then there are the young innocents, who should not suffer, but who do suffer, for the folly of their parents. The thousands of idle, ragged, and vicious children in our streets and poor-houses, are the fruits of early and improv- ident marriages, and half the misery of the poorer classes results from the same cause. But rich or poor, the generality of early marriages are unhappy, and should serve as warnings to the young and ardent, who contemplate such folly." 100 Evil Effects of Late Marriages. The Rev. Mr. Inskip, in a recent lecture, says :—" In this country and Great Britain, the greatest number of marriages takes place between the ages 22 and 28, and 18 and 23. From statistics kept by Dr. Gran- ville, of 876 marriages, 752 were 25 and under; 428, 20 and under; 124 over 25, and only 30 over 30 years of age—which latter was a very ominous fact for single ladies over thirty. EVIL EFFECTS OF LA1E MARRIAGES. Oh ! some think that the day of our marriage will stay Like a dead leafless branch—in the summer's bright ray ; The beams of the warm sun—play round it in vain. It may smile and look bright, but it blooms not again. An equal contempt or violation of the laws of God are late mar- riages. We are all created not merely to exist, but to live, and to be active—to attain perfection by the development of our every fa- culty—to be wedded to pure, strong, and healthy persons, and thus using and controlling all our passions and appetites. True virtue consists in the " happy mean between the two extremes," and not in the premature development of the marriage functions on the one hand, or their unnatural inactivity on the other. As already ob- served, that portion of life between eighteen and twenty-four in the females, and up to thirty in males, is so evidently that in which na- ture dictates the use of all her forces in order to form the frame, fit not only to endure the trials of life and the vicissitudes of climate, but be able to transmit health to offspring, that any very extensive failure to attain this result, shows a bad social arrangement, or a bad state of organization. Old bachelors and maids are never the design of Providence—they are only the result of man's folly. In _" Ryan's Philosophy of Marriage," it is forcibly depicted that " late marriages are also highly detrimental to the welfare of society, and espe- cially those between persons of a very advanced age. Fecundity cannot follow after the woman has ceased to menstruate; but there is no age at which we can declare man to be absolutely sterile. These facts do not, however, oppose the general rule as to the proper age for marriage, though a man or woman at a very advanced age cannot fulfil the end of this union—the procreation and physical education of the species. Thus when two aged persons, deprived of the faculties necessary for genera- tion, marry for the purposes of affording mutual cares in old age, and What is the Best Age for a Lady to Marry ? 101 sweetening the last years of life, there is no inconvenience to society, ex- cept that of favoring celibacy, and deferring conjugal union to a period when it is useless to population. But when the woman is not beyond the term of fecundity, the consequences of late marriages are often very serious. She may be barren, which is frequently the case, or she may beome pregnant at a period of life when the rigidity of her fibres may not readily yield to the efforts of parturition. Such is often the condi- tion of women between the age of thirty-five and forty; they suffer se- verely during a first labor, their lives are endangered, and often destroyed. If they become mothers, their offspring are extremely debilitated; or when the parent is still more advanced in age, her infant is often de- stroyed at the portal of life, or if born, it inherits the languor of its pro- genitors, it becomes an orphan before it is reared, it remains a charge to the public, if there is not a property left to render it independent. When marriages are contracted between persons of a disproportionate age. they are usually followed by great immorality. The power of fecundity ceases with one party, while it is continued with the other. These unions, there- fore, gives less infants at one time than at another. It is also a matter of observation, that in many instances young women bear no children when united to old men, though they often become mothers on future marriages. Another evil consequence of this class of late and ill-assorted marriages is the physical debility of infants ; for the youth of the mother sometimes is counterbalanced by the languor of the father. " Conjugal union between a young man and an aged woman causes bad effects upon the social order, for it is a kind of sanction for concubin- age. Man can engender to an old age, but woman is sterile after the cessation of the menstrual function. These marriages generally take place on account of pecuniary, or other worldly considerations ; they lead the husband to debauchery, and the wife to all the excesses of jealousy. They are, therefore, injurious to society, and to the increase of the popu- lation. " The laws of ancient nations on late marriages merit notice. In Sparta, when a woman brought a fortune to an aged and impotent man, he was compelled to permit her to choose an adjunct to his family. In Italy, certain ladies stipulate for their cesisbeo and cavaliere servanti, and in Spain for certejos or individuals with similar privileges. " According to the Roman law in the reign of Augustus, men who were more advanced in life than sixty years, and women than fifty, were not allowed to form matrimonial unions. Numerous other examples might be given of laws against late marriages." WHAT IS THE BEST AGE FOR A LADY TO MARRY 1 This question was lately asked in the " N. Y. Sunday Times," and was replied to as follows:—" Some ladies are never of the right age to marry. As a general rule, we should say that as soon after twenty years of age as a young lady knew anything of the management of household affairs would be a proper time to enter into the matrimonial state. Unti she does know some- thing of this subject she is unfit for a wife, no matter how old she may be. What men of the present day want, particularly business men, who are subject to such constant revulsions in financial affairs, is, wives who understand the 102 The Theory of Conception. art of economy, which consists not altogether in spending but little, but in taking care of what is purchased, and seeing that, as old housewifes say, " it goes a good ways." In hard times like the present, when up-town fashiona- bles are carrying their jewelry to the grocer's as security for unpaid bills, a frugal, economical housewife would be an invaluable piece of furniture. She would command a good husband in the tightest time of the money market." The Rev. Mr. Inskip, speaking on this subject, says, " that a female at 20 was as fully prepared to enter into the married state as a man at 25. But the age of maturity depended much upon circumstances, edu- cation and climate. In Rome a law was enacted that men under four- teen, and girls under twelve, should not marry, neither should a man over sixty or woman over fifty— a very wholesome regulation." It is impossible to add more to determine the exact age for mar- riage, so much depends upon constitution, clime, age, and other cir- cumstances. Parents, however, ought to study these circumstances, and prevent, by their judicious conduct, the ill effects, not only of those resulting from early and late marriages, but from runaway marriages,whose details are ever to be met with in the newspapers. If parents really won and preserved the confidence of their daugh- ters, matches clandestinely formed with thoughtless and incapable youths would cease. But their daughters know nothing of the phy- siology of themselves, of their natures, duties, and responsibilities, and invest the idea of marriage with a halo of cupids, darts, altars, hearts and hymens. As a writer observes :— "We are satisfied that the great majority of runaway marriages owe their origin to novel reading. Silly giris peruse fietions of European life, where parents really are cruel, and not perceiving how different Ameri- can life is, persuade themselves that their father is a tyrant also. Often they go further, by falling in love, according to the orthodox novel fashion, with some lack-a-daisical dandy. u a love of a man " as nursery-maids say, or with a whiskered roue, whom they profess to be able to reform, but whose vices make him all the more interesting, as they did Byron's heroes, and Bulwer s Paul Clifford. Others think it romantic in itself to runaway. Their names, they tell themselves, will be in the papers; editors will pen congratulatory paragraphs, and '; sympathizing hearts" over thirty States will waft wishes for life-long happiness to the perse- cuted pair." L THE THEORY OF CONCEPTION. 'Tis the Creator's primary great law, That links the chain of beings to each other, Joining the greater to the lesser nature. Much has been said and written of the theory of conception but Theory of Reproduction. 103 enough in a work of this kind is it to know that the generation of plants and polypi, of the oviparous and viviparous animals, and all that enjoy life, belong essentially to the same principle and mode. The oviparous, such as reptiles, fishes, insects, certain worms, birds, plants in general, engender by eggs or ova. Viviparous are those that suckle—cetacea, quadrupeds and the human species. The gemmiparous are those that engender by prolongations, sections or offsets, as zoophites, polypi, infusoria animalcules, and plants that are not animals. Plants and animals must acquire perfect develop- ment before they can reproduce their young. The act of conception itself requires the combined and simultaneous action of every bone, muscle, organ, and physical function of the human being. So import- ant an act of nature is conception that it so taxes the pulsations of heart, respiration, and perspiration, as to cause a literal panting for breath to recruit the exhausted system. The act therefore, can only be pleasurably and beneficially executed in proportion as every muscle and function of the body is perfect, sound, and vigorous. Virey, in the Diet, des Sciences Med. says, "What pomp, what joys, what glory, and what magnificence, are pre- pared by nature, for the marriages of plants and animals! How the lion and the bull pride themselves on their strength! the antilope on its figure! the peacock and swan on their plumage! the fish on its silvery coat, and on the splendor of the gold and brilliant appearance of its body! How the butterfly expands its diamond wings; how the flower displays its charms to the rays of Aurora, enjoys in silence, and drinks the pearly drops of the dew ! All is the radiance of beauty in nature ; the earth covered with verdure, resounds with accents of joy and sighs of pleasure; all exhale love, all search for it and enjoy it—in a word, it is the common festival of beings. But. in a short time, the flov.xr fades away, and lan- guishes on its stem; the butterfly declines and dies; the lion and the bull, as if fatigued by long contested fights, search for peace and retreat; and man himself, overcome with languor, retires in silence, full of recollec- tions and sadness, seeing the approach of death, which presses its iron hand on all that breathes." THEORY OF REPRODUCTION. No marvel woman should love flowers, they boar So much of fanciful s;niilitude To her own history ; like herself, repaying With such sweet interest, all the cherishing, That calls forth Woman's Beauty—Children ! Reproduction consists in the growth of the ovum, egg, germ, seed, 104 Seasons of Procreation, etc. or embryo, in a living part, from which it is separated when capable of independent existence. The females of plants and animals supply the germ, the males secrete a fluid which, placed in contact with these, fecundates or vivifies them. It is therefore wise to reflect and think before we engender, that if the couple are not well- formed, healthy, and vigorous, and the whole mind absorbed in the act, the products will be feeble and delicate, and we shall have ex- hausted and shortened our own existence to little purpose. THE SEASONS OF PROCREATION INFLUENCE THE VIGOR OF OFFSPRING. Men judge actions—always by events ; But when we manage, by a just foresight, Success is prudence, and possession, right. All the tribes of animals inferior to man, produce their species at the time of life and the season of the year best suited to the inten- tions of nature ; there is no such thing with them as too early sexual desire, provoked by the ten thousand errors of early life in the human family, and actual instruction by impure associates. Animals, it is true, roach at different period in the same genus ; but this is al- ways found to depend upon some circumstance, favorable to early development. The mind and nervous system furnish the powerful means of too early development of the sexual desires in man, which as we have seen, generally results in precocious marriages or self- abuse . Aristotle eulogised spring as the genital or procreative season of plants and animals. Virgil sung, " In spring the lands swell and de- mand the reproductive seed. Then the omnipotent father ^ther descends in fructifying showers on the bosom of his joyous spouse, (the earth,) and great himself, mingling with her body, nourishes all her offspring. Then the shrubs resound with tuneful birds, and ani- mals reproduce at certain times." The season of rut or amorous impulse, is to animals what floration is to plants. The maturity of the fruits and seeds of these is analo- gous to the time of gestation and incubation with animals. But the Tristram Shandy's View, etc. 105 conventionalities and artificialities of society, have destroyed all har- mony of season for procreation of the human species. Still the fol- lowing hints may assist the reason and instinct a little in this matter. Morning is considered the most rational period, because the fati- gues of the preceding day are dissipated by repose. The beginning of summer, when the vernal sun is shedding heat and life into grains, fruits, flowers, and birds, must be the most fitting for the procreation of children. But the act should never be indulged in, unless there is a natural and strong impulse, and the body is healthy. Nor should the act be consummated when the mind is depressed, or during in- toxication, mania, or when there is venereal disease. It ought not to be attempted during the presence of the menses, child-bed evacu- ation, during the far-gone pregnancy, or the early period of suck- ling. It is very injurious if indulged in immediately after much food. TRISTBAM SHANDY'S VIEW OF THE PROCREATIVE ACT. True philosophy discerns A ray of h«avenly light—gliding all forms Terrestrial,—in the vast, the minute, The unambiguous footsteps of a God, Who gives his lustre—to an insecfs wing, And wheels his throne, upon the rolling worlds. Sterne, in his life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, makes his hero give the philosophy of the influence of circumstances on the procrea- tive act, and of consequence on the offspring, in the following words: " I wish my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in dutv both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing ; that not only the production of a rational being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and tem- perature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind,— and perhaps the fortunes of his whole house, might take the humors and dispositions then uppermost; had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly, I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that the reader is likely to see me. Believe me, good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many of you may think it. You have all heard of animal spirits, &c, 14 106 The Procreation of Either Sex. &c. Well, you may take my word, that nine parts in ten of a man's sense or his nonsense, his successes and miscarriages in this world, de- pend upon their motions and activity. Children begot when muscular strength and virility is worn down, are heirs to a thousand infirmities of body and mind which no skill of the physician can ever afterwards set to rights. Tristram Shandy's misfortunes began nine montfis before ever he came into the world." THE PROCREATION OF EITHER SEX. That happy minglement of hearts, Where, changed as ckemic compounds are, Each—with its own existence parts, To find a new one, happier far. Both ancient and modern physiologists have attempted the solu- tion of the query whether either sex could be procreated at will. Many have denied such power—many have affirmed that man has such power. M. Millot is one of the latter, and attests the names of those who obtained the sex they desired through his information. Venette, a French author, attests the same, and gives the following rules for observance :— "1. That persons should not procreate until the body is fully devel- oped at the adult age, as the most vigorous generate more males than fe- males ; 2. They should use nourishing food and drink ; 3. They should avoid all excesses at the table ; 4. To obtain male infants the pleasure of love must be used moderately ; for after reiterated enjoyment girls are conceived; 5. That women who menstruate moderately should not de- liver themselves to sexual pleasure until after the end of each period; those who menstruate profusely or too frequently, should not deliver themselves to enjoy the same function but only a short time before or after the evacuation ; 6. That girls are begotten most frequently when the heat of the weather is excessive; 7. To obtain sons, the generative act should be performed when the wind is northerly." It is made certain, by many experiments, that vigorous men do generally engender more boys than girls; and also that the most vigorous adults of either sex determine the sex of the offspring. A French work on the breeding of cattle, by M. Charles G-irou de Bu- zareingues, states that demonstration proves that very young and very old mothers, whether cows, mares, or sheep, produce more males than females ; whilst mothers of a middle age produce, gener- ally, more females than males, especially if the first were coupled with old males, and the second with young males, which he considers in accordance with the views of nature. Transmission of Qualities. 101 At a meeting of the Agricultural Society of Severac, on the 3d of July, 1836, it was proposed to divide a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a greater number of males or females, at the choice of the proprietor, should be produced from each. The experiment was conducted in the following manner :— " Young rams were put to the ewes from which it was wished to have female offspring, and the pasture was the very best; while to the ewes from which males were wanted, were put strong rams of four or five years old. The following table gives the result:— FLOCK FOR. FEMALE LAMBS. Age of mothers. Sex of the Lambs. Two years, Three years, Four years, Total, Five years and older, Total, Males. 14 16 5 35 18 58 Females. 26 29 21 76 84 N. B. There were three twin births in this flock. Two rams served it, one fifteen months, the other nearly two years old. FLOCK FOR MALE LAMBS. Age of the mothers. Sex of the Lambs Two years, Three years, Four years, Total, Five years and older, Total, Males. 7 16 33 55 25 80 Females. 3 14 14 31 24 55 N. B. There were no twin births in this flock. Two strong rams, one four, the other five years old, served it. Other experiments were made with results still more confirmatory of the belief that the sexes can be procreated at will. M. Girou relates many other experiments with horses and cattle, in which his success in producing a greater number of one sex rather than another was most decided ; enough to demonstrate that parents, with a good constitution, unenfeebled by excessive or corporeal exertion, are ca- pable, and should be held responsible for diseased or delicate off- spring, of either sex. These experiments afford ample proof of the physiological facilities for the production of whatever will be most conducive of society's welfare or the glory of God. TRANSMISSION OF PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND MORAL QUALITIES. " To avoid the pains, The disappointments and disgusts of those Who have an offspring, scrofulous and ricketty; The precepts hero of a divine old man I could recite." There is to-day no better established fact than that all pro- 108 Illustrations of the Transmission geny, vegetable or animal, takes its physical, mental, and moral qualities from those which predominate in the parents during the period of conception and gestation. The form, face, temper, dispo- sition, and constitution are stamped, at these periods, on the off- spring by parents. It is well known that all the secretions partake of both the general and particular states of body and mind, and physicians often judge by them, and so prescribe. It is also by closely observing this law of animated nature that agriculturists pre- serve the health, and improve the breed of their animals. Passing strange is it, however, that this observation was never made appli- cable to the human species, where its application was more wanted! Yet so it is ; we see every day very sensible people, who are anx- iously attentive to preserve or improve the health and breed of their horses and the like, at the same time entailing upon their children, not only tainted blood and loathsome diseases, but mad- ness, folly, and unworthy dispositions. Even those children so born, are not trained and developed so as to counteract the entailment, but left to grow as they can. And all this, too, in the face of their treatment to cattle; and transpiring, too, when they cannot plead being stimulated by necessity, or impelled by passion. Dr. Gregory graphically describes the influence of the parental stock in these words:— " Parents frequently live over again in their offspring; for children certainly resemble their parents, not merely in countenance and bodily conformation, but in the general features of their minds, and in both vir- tues and vices. Thus the imperious Claudian family long flourished at Rome, unrelenting, cruel, and despotic; it produced the merciless and detestable tyrant Tiberius, and at length ended, after a course of six hundred years, in the bloody Caligula, Claudius, and Agrippina, and then in the monster Nero." ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE TRANSMISSION OF OUR BEAUTIES AND DEFECTS. If disease affect you The growing pest, whose infancy was weak, And easy vanquished with triumphant sway, O'erpowers your offspring. A lady of Bheinthal had during her pregnancy a desire to see the execution of a man who was sentenced to have his right hand cut Of Our Beauties and Defects. 109 off before he was beheaded. She saw the hand cut off, and ran home without waiting to see more. This lady bore a daughter, who had only one hand—the right hand came away with the after-birth. Hundreds of well attested facts have been noted of persons born with squinting eyes, from the mother being scared at those who squinted,—with flat noses, from the mother seeing persons with none, —with hare-lips, from the mother seeing wounded lips or persons with hare-lips,—with pig or other monstrous faces, the mother being frightened with those animals. Maternal fright, it must be observed, is a frequent cause of idiocy in the offspring. In the " Transactions of the Linnaean Society of London," is an account by a Mr. Milne, of a pregnant cat, his own property, the end of whose tail was trodden off with so much violence as to give the animal intense pain. When she kittened, five young one's ap- peared, perfect in every respect except the tail, which was in each of them distorted near the end, and enlarged into a cartilaginous knob. Among the South-Shetlanders it is a well attested fact, that in killing the sea-elephant, if the skull.be indented in the killing of the female with young, the indentation is found also upon the skull of the young. A mare, belonging to Lord Morden, England, having a mule by a quagga, had three foals in succession by a black Arabian horse, but they were all striped more or less like the quagga. Mr. Mustard, of Angus, Scotland, tells us that he was present when a pale grey horse was objected to—that the groom, there- upon, presented before the eyes of the female another female from the stable, of a very particular but pleasing variety, asserting that the latter would determine the complexion of the offspring, and that in fact it did so. The experiment was tried in the case of another female, and the result was precisely the same, that the two young horses, in point of color, could scarcely be distinguished, although their spot* were extremely uncommon. Hundreds of striking instances of the same law are recorded by the phrenologists and physiologists of the day, to whom we refer the skeptical reader. 110 How Intermarriages The same law seems to have been understood in the time of the patriarchs. We read of Jacob's putting streaked rods before the eyes of Laban's flocks, "and the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle streaked, speckled, and spotted." The Spartans embellished their houses with beautiful statues and pic- tures for the purpose of stamping beauty on their progeny through the imagination of their wives. We find in negro families which have dwelt long with the whites, as domestics, through successive generations, that they become less marked in their African features, in the thick lips and flat nose—they gradually acquire the Caucasian physiognomy, though perfectly black. Moreau, a French author, states, that in one of the great towns of the north of Franoe, the women, half a century ago, were noted for their ugliness; but a de- tachment of the guards being quartered there, and remaining several years, the population changed in appearance very considerably for the better. At Potsdam, where Frederick the Great stationed his regiment of guards, men of the most gigantic stature, the population at the present day are noted for extreme tallness. Lawrence, in his " Lectures on Man," observes, that a superior breed of human beings could easily be produced by careful selections and exclusions such as we employ in the rearing of our valuable ani- mals." Dr. Pritchard also remarks " that did men only employ the same care in the production of their children that they do in the production of their dogs, there is no doubt the influence would be ten times greater." HOW INTERMARRIAGE AFFECT OFFSPRING. " Visiting the sins of the father upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations." Never was a truer declaration, or a more philosophical enuncia- tion uttered than the above. The Christian and the skeptic, the phi- losopher and the savage, must alike receive it as the inexorable law of their existence. The injunction is founded in nature, based upon the physical condition of man, thoroughly sustained by natural phe- Affect Offspring. Ill nomena, and proved by science and experience. And a well found- ed conviction of the evil consequences of intermarriages of blood rel- atives, and of people whose feeble intellects and deformed and dis- eased bodies have a strong relative resemblance, may open a wide field for the philosophic jurist and philanthropic Christian, who will carefully examine the criminals of our prisons. Among them will be found persons whose criminal propensities have been derived from the feeble intellects and diseased frames of stupid and drunken pro- genitors. Drs. Brigham of America, and Dr. Sampson of England, have done much to throw light on the subject of idiocy. They rep- resent idiocy not as " a mysterious dispensation of Providence," but as an outward sign of inward derangement—that mental idiocy and bodily deformity are the fruits of organic sin and ignorance. In a Massachusetts report on the condition of the idiots of that state, by Dr. Howe and others, they say, " that in searching for the cause of this wretchedness, in the condition of the progenitors of the suf- ferers, there is found a degree of physical deterioration, and of men- tal and moral darkness which will hardly be creditable. Out of 420 cases of congenital idiocy examined, information was obtained of the condition of 359. One or both of the immediate progenitors of these idiots had widely departed from the normal condition of health." As an instance that neither physical nor moral laws can be trans- gressed with impunity, we give the following cases of calamity as re- corded in the press. " Among a family of eight children, residing in Union, Ohio,five were born blind; and three of them, youths, lately entered the institution for the blind, of Columbus. The cause assigned for tiiis severe calamity in one family, is frequent intermar- riage among its relatives of consanguinity." " Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord." The blind family of Ohio are suffering tor the sins of their progenitors. While we write, we read another visitation of the sins of man to his descendants. The Fredericksburgh News, says : " In the country in which we were raised, for twenty generations back, a certain family of wealth and respectability have intermarried, until 112 Excessive Sexual Intercourse there cannot be found in three of them a sound man or woman. One has sore eyes, another scrofula, a third is idiotic, a fourth blind, a fifth bandy- legged, a sixth with a head about the size of a turnip, with not one out of the number exempt from physical or mental defects of some kind. Yet this family perseveres to intermarry with each other with these living monuments constantly before them. History also proves that reproduction without crossing the blood and temperament, becomes dwarfish, deformed, stupid, and vicious. The royal families of Europe, through intermarriage, are eaten up with scrofula and idiocy. And this visitation " equally extends to all organisms, even those of vegetation* If any plant be reproduced from the same seed on the same soil, it gradually degenerates until it becomes extinct. EXCESSIVE SEXUAL INTERCOURSE THE CAUSE OF STERILITY, DISEASE AND DEATH. Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty ; For in my youth I never did apply Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood ; Nor did not, with unbashful forehead, woo The means of weakness and debility There is nothing in the world which lies so much at the root of disease and death as excessive sexual intercourse. The frames of the stoutest animals become exhausted by the pleasurable shock of sexual commerce ; and the feeble frames of many of the insect tribes are incapable of recovering from the exhaustion, and perish imme- diately afterwards,—the female alone surviving, but to give maturity to her eggs, and then dies. The same effects occur after the same consummation in plants. The stoutest tree, if super-fructified, is impaired for bearing fruit, the next year, while plants of feeble structure die as soon as fructification has taken place. Hence, by preventing fructification, we are enabled to prolong their duration; for, by taking away the styles and stigmas, the filaments and anthers, and especially by plucking off the entire corols of our garden flowers, we are enabled to make biennials of annuals, and triennials of bien- nials. In the human species we find that excess in sexual inter- course produces a lassitude and debility, as plainly shown by the The Cause of Sterility, Disease, and Death. 113 countenance and gait, and a liability to catch cold, or any neuralgic or inflammatory disease to which the frame is predisposed. On the contrary, persons who are obliged to check those desires, preserve the bloom and vigor of youth to a very advanced age. The act, though necessary, is the natural precursor of death ; for the exercise of that faculty, which enables us to form another individual, shows that we must consequently die to make room for it; and when we consider that the fluids lost in sexual commerce are those which quicken or form another being, it is no wonder, that being saved, it should circulate and invigorate the system, giving it a healthy and blooming appearance. Luxuriousness is destructive of a vigorous population. We find that the pampered and precocious inhabitants of large cities are not half such good breeders as the worse fed and less luxurious peasantry. Among the higher classes of cities in Europe families often become extinct—an incident which perhaps never occurred among their inferiors. The Libertine, owing to exhaustion by sexual indulgence, is generally characterized by physical and moral impotence ; the brain becomes as incapable of thinking as the muscles of acting; fear and cowardice often indicate its enfeebled condition. Nothing destroys courage more than excessive sexual commerce. EFFECT OF TOBACCO ON VIRILITY. The New York "Scalpel" thus discourses:—"What evils and what virtues have not been imputed to tobacco! If we could believe its advo- cates, it combines within itself the origin of all good, and if its opponents, of all evil. We do not design at present to defend either side of the question, although we have a constitutional horror of the weed in every shape; we merely wish, in a few lines, to direct the attention of the reader to its great power as an ante-aphrodisiac. How this remarkable property of tobacco should have failed to convince every one who uses it to excess, we cannot imagine ; very extensive observation, and the most confidential intercourse with patients, has satisfied us of its uniformity as a result. We think it will be observed as a more rapid and lasting con- sequence of chewing than smoking ; our observation on snuff takers is necessarily imperfect, as most of those who snuff, are past the age for any very positive demonstration of the passion in question. It is impossible to detail cases of this peculiar character in a popular journal, but we have been astonished at the confession of more or less complete loss of virility, in a great number of persons, whose age, natural temperament, 15 i 114 Excessive Sexual Intercourse the Cause, etc. and external conformation, gave every evidence of an original and well- balanced condition of all the powers. There is little doubt that such dreadful results follow with far greater certainty the excessive use of to- bacco, in those whose nervous temperament has early fitted them for a keener enjoyment of the. venereal passion, and therefore it may often be aided by sexual excess or self-abuse. Still, we have observed it many times in immoderate tobacco chewers, whose corporeal developments greatly overbalanced the intellectual or nervous; indeed, we have seen it, and that too in its extremest degree, in such a mere mass of vegeta- tive life, that no regret was expressed at the loss." THE RELATION OF INTEMPERANCE TO IDIOCY. Dr. Howe, in his Report on the "Causes of Idiocy," says, " Probably, the habitual use of alcoholic drinks does a great deal to bring families into that low and feeble condition of body alluded to as a prolific cause of idiocy. By inspection of the tables, it will be seen that out of three hundred and fifty-nine idiots, the condition of whose progen- itors was ascertained,—ninety-nine were the children of drunkards. But this does not tell the whole story, by any means. By drunkard is meant a person who is a notorious and habitual sot. Many persons who are habitually intemperate do not get this name, even now, much less would they have done so twenty-five or thirty years ago; and many of the parents of the persons named in the tables have been dead longer than that time. A quarter of a century ago, a man might go to his bed every night muddled and sleepy with the effects of alcohol, and still not be called an intemperate man. The men who, in that day, abstained from alcoholic drinks, were remarkable exceptions to the general rule; they would be known; we shall come nearer to a true estimate, there- fore, by ascertaining how many such there were. By pretty careful in- quiry, with an especial view of ascertaining the number of idiots of the lowest class, whose parents were known to be temperate persons, it is found that not one quarter can be so considered." EFFECTS OF MISERY AND TAINTED BLOOD IN FAMILIES. A child begotten and reared in a narrow, close, and cribbed hab- itation, by parents suffering from misery and distress, never can bear any comparison to one produced in affluence, comfort, health, and hope. It is, therefore, a portion of the vegetative laws of man, that persons in ill health—leading a dissolute or miserable existence —living in a damp basement, or in a confined atmosphere—or who are laboring under debility of fibre, distress of mind, scrofula, con- sumption, insanity, gout, die, can only beget a sickly and miserable brood. Such persons should not put themselves in the way of pro- ducing offspring, as it will only become a source of cankering and knawing reflection in after-life, and the children become eyesores to society. The Sexes should Sleep Apart. 115 Bad blood is inherent in some families, and it requires generations of cross-breed marriages to purge it out. A writer has said truly, that a dunghill origin is as apparent in a man as in a fowl, while a plebeian extraction in a woman, no matter what may be her sur- roundings, is as manifest as the odor attendant upon putridity. A low-born woman marries her daughter to decrepit wealth or dissolute abundance, while a young man whose claims are only tenable to virtue and talent, is snubbed as unworthy of her union. A news- paper paragraph very curtly remarks, " that nothing perhaps betrays the cloven-foot of base birth more conspicuously, than when female purity and youthfulness are immolated before the withered smiles of octogenarian gold. We believe, that if Belzebub can be said to enjoy any special gratification, it would be in affording the warmest corner in his domicile, to the accommodation of people of that ilk, or in sticking his toasting fork into their worthless shades, while the basting process was being conducted by a pair of imps with a dish of sulphur, and two pewter ladles." THE SEXES SHOULD SLEEP APART. " Men love a mistress as they love a feast, How grateful one to touch and one to taste; But sure there is a certain time of day We wish our mistress and our meal; away." Among the other usages of society, married persons have a custom of passing their nights together in the same bed ; and this with little regard to the health or sickness, desire or satiety, of either party. They thus excite themselves to inordinate excesses and debilitated embraces, being afforded a continual opportunity of intercourse, which is indulged in upon the slightest inclination of either party. They cannot restrain themselves where there is no check ; they can- not be always on their guard against an intestine feeling, when there is everything to excite the dull appetite. Short, indeed, must be the reign of love, when the flame is thus constantly blown up with- out receiving any solid fuel. A glutton forever wallowing in his victuals, may give us some idea of the state of those whose indeli- 116 The Spartan Method of cate appetite leads them to the passing their nights in sexual em- braces destitute of impulsive sexual inclinations. Common decency demands that the modest reserve of the sexes should be inculcated. Where two persons sleep together the whole night, though they may be the most perfect and the most sweet, the natural infirmities of their bodies are betrayed to each other, and assist to extinguish sex- ual admiration. They separate in the morning, pallid and perhaps disgusted; they see no charms in each other's pale countenance, sleepy eyes, and distempered mouths. Woman was intended to be adored by man, and man by woman. She was made to be his brightest and most costly jewel; but why should he tarnish her lustre by wallowing with her until surfeited ? Nature points out the path we should follow. She has endowed the sexes with certain feelings of shyness and bashfulness towards each other; and in each she has given certain inclinations by which they confine themselves, in a certain degree to the company of their own sex. These barriers should be retained after marriage to prohibit couples from tiring each other. Love and friendship are always the strongest where the parties are so situated as to feel the hunger be- fore the enjoyment. We would recommend that the sexes be sepa- rate during the hours of sleep, so that woman may preserve her de- licacy, man his dignity—and then offspring may be vigorous. THE SPARTAN METHOD OF OBTAINING A VIGOROUS OFFSPRING. Nature all compulsion hates. Ah ! let not luxury nor vain renown Urge you to feats you well might sleep without; To make what should be rapture a fatigue, A tedious task. The famous Spartan commonwealth was formed by Lycurgus. Among the many necessities he saw necessary to be adopted for the perpetuating a community, he considered the greatest and most glo- rious was that of the education of youth. He began with it at the very source, taking into consideration their conception and birth, by regulating the marriages. In these the bridegroom carried off his. Obtaining a Vigorous Offspring. 117 bride by violence, and she was never chosen in a tender age, but when she had arrived at full maturity. They were obliged to carry on their intercourse by stealth ; and this they did, not for a short time only, but some of them even had children before they had an interview with their wives in the day-time. This kind of commerce not only exercised their temperance and chastity, but kept their bodies fruitful, and the first ardor of their love fresh and unabated; for as they were not sated with their wives, there was still place for unextinguished desire. Lycurgus had observed the vanity and ab- surdity of other nations, where people study to have their horses and dogs of the finest breed they can procure, either by interest or money, and yet select wives from whom they can have nothing but doting, decrepit and infirm children ; as if offspring when sprung from a bad stock, and consequently good for nothing, were no detriment to those whom they belong to, and who have the trouble of bringing them up to early graves ! These regulations of the Spartans, although apparently tyrannical, tended to secure a healthy and beautiful offspring. The father was obliged to carry the child to a place called Lesche, to be examined by the most ancient men of the tribe who were assembled there. If it was strong and well proportioned, they gave orders for its educa- tion, and assigned it a share of land ; but if it was weakly and de- formed, it was destroyed, concluding that its life could be of no ad- vantage either to itself or the public, since nature had not given it at first strength or goodness. Great care and art was also exerted by the nurses ; for as they never swathed the infants, their limbs had a freer turn, and their countenances a more liberal air ; be- sides they used them to the plainest food, to have no terrors in the dark, nor to be afraid of being alone, and to leave all ill- humor and crying. Hence, people of other countries were desir- ous of obtaining Lacedaemonian nurses for their children. All these children were enrolled in companies at seven years of age, where they were all kept under strict discipline, order, exercise, and recreations. The virgins were ordered to be exercised in running, wrestling, and throwing darts, that their bodies being 118 The Beauty, Form, and Stature of Man, etc. lithe and vigorous, the children they afterwards produced might be the same; and that thus fortified by exercise, they might the better support the pangs of childbirth and be delivered with safety. These Youths and Maidens begot a race of Heroes. THE BEAUTY, FORM, AND STATURE OF MAN INFLUENCED BY CIR- CUMSTANCES. The wildest scorner of the natural laws, Finds in a sober moment time to pause, To press the important question on his heart, Why formed at all, and wherefore as thou art 1 Man, generally speaking, is dark at the equator, and fair in tem- perate regions ; animals themselves, whatever color they may be in sunny regions, become white in the regions of snow. Children bred in the dark alleys of London and our " Five Points," are generally small, pale, and deformed. Country chil- dren, on the contrary, or those bred in light and open situa- tions, may be known by the blooming skin and well developed limbs. Sailors have swarthy and wrinkled countenances, and are not so tall as landsmen; the exposure to all weathers, and the ex- tremes of heat and cold, cause the same difference between them and persons living a more easy and parlored existence, that there is between the rough thick-set horses bred on the prairies and those properly stabled. Every animated being seems to have an affinity to the place in which it exists. Animals and vegetables of the brightest colors flourish in the sunny tropics. A toad, constantly kept in the light, changes to a pale green; while it lurks in the earth it is of the color of the earth." The caterpillar is characteristic in appearance to the leaf on which it feeds ; but when changed to a butterfly, it resembles the flower whose nectar it sips. The mantis-beetle can scarce be distinguished from the dead leaf which is its food. The hideous bat characteristically belongs to the caverns and the Females who Beget Beautiful Children, etc. 119 night. The leech and the frog to stagnant waters. The scor- pion and the centipede to decayed wood. The louse to the un- combed scalp. Birds which are much amongst flowers are vivid colored as the goldfinch; but the lark, quail, and partridge are the color of the leaves on which they rest. Thus we have only to place man in his proper sphere, and under suitable organization and condi- tions, to see him spring quickly up into that godlike being which his Creator designed him. FEMALES WHO BEGET BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN SHOULD WEAR BADGES OF DISTINCTION. The mother in her office, holds the key Of the soul: and she it is who stamps the coin Of character, and makes the being who would be feeble But for her prudent cares, a vigorous man ! Then crown her queen of the world. Thomas Ewbank, late " Commissioner of Patents," wisely and well said, that a " wise custom of old—wise because founded on a knowledge of the human heart, and of the springs of human action— was to strike medals in honor of remarkable men ; hence the names and features of classical conquerors, statesmen, orators, historians, philosophers, and poets, that have come down." Similar compli- ments should be paid to women who shine in the peculiar character- istic of their sex. Enough surely has been said in these pages to convince the reflecting, that the highest benefit a female can bestow on society, is to impart to her offspring a high physical and mental character. Surely, therefore, it is desirable we strive to eradicate, by every means in our power, whether by " baby-shows," lectures, and books, the deformity, ugliness, and stupidity, with their accom- panying depravity and disease so astoundingly prevalent, and which is so frightfully increasing in our land ! Let it be our part, therefore, when a child is a twelve month old, (before which period its features are hardly discernible,) supposing it to be agreed that it is a handsome child of the full size, and with the skull well developed, to present 120 To Mothers who Wish Healthy the mother not only with a prize, but also with a star of honor. Such a mother is well deserving of some testimony to her merits— for her merits tend not to depress or destroy, but to bless and exalt the race. And supposing also, that in after years, a child of nega- tive appearance should shine in intellect, talent, philanthropy, strength, or person, the mother should still have a share in these honors which are decreed on her child. What will be more noble, more worthy of manly admiration, than when American mothers prove themselves capable of generating, and educating, perfect children! They may then imitate the Roman matron we have all read of whose modesty and neatness excited the envy of a May-day dressed one, " one who spent her time betwixt a comb and a glass, and would rather be fair than honest, and who, after boasting of her finery, provoked the Roman mother to an ex- hibition of her jewelry, and so forth. The latter lady patiently en- dured the taunts and jeers of her companion till the arrival of her beautiful children from school—when, with feelings a virtuous woman only can know, pointing to them she exclaimed—'' These are my treasures, my only ornaments !" and so rebuked a vain-glorious but- terfly." TO MOTHERS WHO WISH HEALTHY AND BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. Her children rise and call her blest, While joy pervades her husband's breast; Though many daughters have done well, Yet thou, my Fair, do'st all excel. Mothers! in the economy of nature, you occupy the most promi- nent position. Your influence is felt to a far greater extent than is supposed by " womens' rights folks." All that is wanted to render you enthroned, among the good and wise, over the world, is not the liberty to gabble in meetings, but that you should know well your duty, the relations you sustain to the world, the true nature of these relations, and have the power, energy, and disposition to fulfill the designs of your creation. You are not expected to possess the firm- ness of muscle, the power of endurance, and the physical develop- And Beautiful Children. 121 ment of a sturdy man, but you ought to possess stamina sufficient to be useful, strong and healthy. Like every other sentient being, you are made for action, and your health and happiness is dependant upon it. It is in your power to transmit to posterity, through your offspring, unnumbered ills, or health and vigor: you may bless or curse the world ! The knowledge of the laws of your being—easily to be obtained—may be made available for a beautiful, or for a puny, deformed, diseased, and miserable offspring. Your offspring may be your pride and your boast—or, it may remind you of your remiss- ness of duty, and curse you for its being. Mothers ! bear in mind that the conditions of health are various— as various indeed as the organization is complicated. But these conditions and laws of life are easily learned—indeed, the gist of them is, the proper exercise of all the powers of the human body. It is not enough to exercise the different organs of the mind, but its physical organ, the body, prefers its claims. Nor is it sufficient to take a walk " occasionally "—continued exercise of the arms and legs, with due regard to rest, is the law of development, of health, and happiness. To avoid the " ills which flesh is heir to," you must develop every power of body and mind. You should as much as possible stroll among the beauties of nature, over hills, dales, moun- tains, through groves and meadows, taking deep draughts of joy- giving air, and inflating the lungs to their utmost capacity. The English girls, it is said, are almost the only girls who climb up the sides of the Alps, or struggle, ankle-deep in the ashes of the Vesu- vius. They gain by this exercise, health, soundness of constitution, free and easy carriage, sweet breath, and longevity. What do American girls gain who neglect such hygienic agents as out-door air and exercise ? They gain consumption, ghastliness, dyspepsia, and an early grave. The following quotation from a city paper is apropos:— " The English Girl spends more than one-half of her waking hours in physical amusements : that is, in amusements which tend to develop and invigorate, and ripen the bodily powers. She rides, walks, drives, rows upon the water, runs, dances, plays, swings, jumps the rope, throws the ball, hurls the quoit, draws the bow, keeps up the shuttlecock, and all this without having it forever impressed upon her mind that she is 16 122 Season for Parturition. thereby wasting her time. She does this every day, until it becomes a habit, which she will follow up through life. Her frame, as a necessary consequence, is larger, her muscular system better developed, her nervous system in subordination to the physical; her strength more enduring, and the whole tone of her mind healthier. She may not know as much, at the age of seventeen, as does the American girl; as a general thing she does not, but the growth of her intellect has been stimulated by no hot-house culture, and though maturity comes later, it will last propor- tionably longer. Eight hours each day of mental application, for girls between the ages of ten and nineteen years, or ten hours each day, as is sometimes required at schools, with two hours for meals, one for religious duties, and the remainder for sleeping and physical exercises, are enough to break down the strongest constitution." SEASON OF PARTURITION. How blest the alliance where no int'rest rules, The bane of bliss, and perquisite of fools ; Where love its full unmiugled joys displays, And reason dictates while the heart obeys. Solomon asserted, "there is a time for all things. A time to be born, and a time to die." He doubtless could have added, a time for procreation. Montesquieu well observed that those who assert that a blind fatality could be productive of human beings, must not only be very absurd, but have very little observation. Everybody must observe that the seasons, places, years of abundance, and scar- city, have modifying influences on reproduction. Baron Larrey in- forms us, that during the expedition of the French army to Egypt, there were many women who accompanied it, who had no children in Europe, but became pregnant in the East. Then again, abundance of aliment, as a general thing, in temperate climates, increases the number of mankind, and of animals ; while years of famine or pes- tilence decrease both. The act of birth is connected with conception in the same man- ner as the effect is connected with the cause. To the act of birth we attach the idea of necessity—to the act of conception that of free will. Stewart, in his Moral Philosophy, observes, that numberless examples show that nature has done no more for man than was ne- cessary for his preservation, leaving him to make many acquisitions for himself, which she lias imparted immediately to the brutes. Season for Parturition. 123 Spring is universally the season most favorable to conception. At this season all animals and vegetables reproduce—the purity of the air, the odor of flowers, the singing of birds, the germination of seeds, the blossom of the trees, and the general exhiliration of na- ture proclaims this the season of generation. And so of man ; the laws which affect his career during life, also affect his procreations and parturitions. Thus, the heat of the summer is less favorable to conception than the spring, because the warmth causes perspira- tion, exhaustion, etc., and though amativeness is strong, its enjoy- ment is followed by debility greater than in spring. The variable state of the weather in autumn often induces diarrhoea, dysentery, typhus, cholera, etc., and this season is the least favorable to repro- duction. Winter is more favorable to fecundity than either sum- mer or autumn, as the body is more braced, vigorous, and electric. It is an axiom that fecundity diminishes in proportion as we advance from the poles to the equator. But the end of winter or commence- ment of spring is proved, by multiplied experience, to be the season when most conceptions take place. Statistics show that January and February are the months in which the maximum of births take place—the minimum in July. Now, the duration of pregnancy is generally nine months, showing that conceptions happen generally in April and May, when the vital powers regain all their activity, after the severity of the winter. These cited facts prove, notwith- standing our civilization and our artificiality, we are still in some measure subjected to the periodic influences which are manifested by plants and animals. M. Villerme, in a statistical report read before the Academy of Sciences in Paris, gives of 12,000 births, 1093 took place in Janu- ary, 1136 in February, 1117 in March, 1057 in April, 1000 in No- vember, 981 in September, 964 in October, 965 in May, 927 in August, 896 in June, and 884 in July. This shows that sexual in- tercourse is most prolific in the months of March, April, or May. The agriculturists of France and America have often observed that season also determines the sex of animals. When the weather is dry and cold, and the wind northerly, mares, ewes, and heifers pro- 124 The Symptoms of Pregnancy. duce fewer females than when the season is in the opposite con- dition. The general result of large medical experience and testi- mony confirms, first: that the spring is the most natural season for conception, for the reasons already given ; second, that morning is the proper time for generation, as the body is repaired by the repose of the night from the agitation, distraction, studies, and business of the day ; third, that the best period in the season is when the atmos- phere is highly charged with electricity, such as in cold, dry air, because the body being vigorous and active, is more likely to be pregnant with vitality, and therefore more likely to be productive of beautiful, well-formed offspring. THE SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY. Eight happy honeymoons her life Has owned since she became a wife, And now the anxious hour draws nigh That gives her one more earthly tie. The cessation of menstruation at the usual period of its occurrence —a darkening round the nipples, slight loss of flesh, sharpness of features, particularly of the wings of the nose, slight palor of the countenance, heaviness and glassy expression of the eyes, morning sickness, pains in various parts, increase of abdomen, and swelling of the extremities are the symptoms. Quickening occurs usually during the fourth month, after which the motions of the foetus are decisive. THE DURATION OF PREGNANCY has usually been calculated at nine calendar months, or two hundred and eighty days, but ranges from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and twelve days. The commencement of pregnancy is generally dated two weeks after the last menstruation, but this cal- culation may lead to an error of two or three weeks. THE ACCIDENTS OF PREGNANCY. Expectant mother ! all delight, All sunshine and no shade of night, Too much of bliss for earth to know, Beware, fond wife, of coming woe. The woman who takes not care of herself during the critical pe- The Accidents of Pregnancy. 125 riod of pregnancy, commits an act of malignancy against the beauty, health and life of her unborn offspring. An omission to ascertain the necessary management of her body during the period, is a cruel act of perversion of her true functions—is a marring her offspring— arefusal to fulfill her noble destiny, and a leaguing with ignorance and willfulness, to make a deformed and wretched being. On the contrary, nothing exceeds in man's imagination the beauty and en- chantment of the woman filling up the duties and enjoying the de- lights of her creative phase—who strives to render her living and life-giving womb the recipient of a beautiful, healthful, and immortal being, instead of carelessly leaving it as a charnel house for an abor- tion, miscarriage, or a deformity ! Dr. Trail has well observed that " nearly all the maladies to which the child is subject may affect the fatus ;" and when we consider how unhealthfully the majority of females live while in the pregnant state, and how readily the organic instincts, true to the all-pervading law of self-preservation, throw the morbid conditions of the mother upon the new being within, it seems wonderful that so great a ma- jority can live until the time for the child to be born. But the foetus does often die in the uterus, and it is sometimes important to ascer- tain the fact. The signs are : a cessation of its motions ; flaccidity or falling in of the abdomen; recession of the umbilicus; a sensation of coldness and of dense weight in the abdomen ; frequent chills, &c. A writer in the London Lancet says :—" I happened, the other day, to meet with a most extraordinary account given by Baron Percy, an emi- nent French military surgeon and professor, said to have occurred after the seige of Landau, in 1793. If true, it is a most interesting fact, and one well worthy of deep investigation. He says, that ' in addition to a violent cannonading, which kept the women for some time in a constant state of alarm, the arsenal blew up with a terrific explosion, which few could listen to with unshaken nerves.' Out of ninety-two children born in the district within a few months afterwards, he states, that " sixteen died at the instant of birth ; thirty-three languished for from eight to ten months, and then died ; eight became idiotic, and died before the age of five years; and two came into the world with numerous fractures of the bones of the limbs, caused by the convulsive starts in the mother, excited by the cannonading and explosion!' " Here, then, is a total of nearly two out of three actually killed through the medium of the mother's alarm, and its natural consequence upon her own organization." 126 Parturition Bendered Nothing but entire ignorance can excuse any woman for subject- ing the fruit of her womb to any of the many accidents of pregnancy, a few of which we enumerate. The appetite should not be indulged in voracity, but with moderate repasts of well cooked, nutritious, and easily digested food, else the child may be a glutton and voracious; The dress of a pregnant woman should always be loose. Tight lacing is highly injurious at all periods, but during pregnancy doubly murderous—it impedes the breathing, prevents the full development of the abdomen and breasts, arrests the growth of the infant, induces spitting of blood, palpitation of heart, swelling of the lower limbs, en- largement of the veins, piles, costiveness, &c, and ends in a scrofu- lus or consumptive offspring. Moderate exercise should be taken during the whole period of pregnancy. Women living in the coun- try who use greater exertion than those of the city, have easier con- finements and healthier children. Walking is the best kind of exer- cise. Balls, theatres, exhibitions, or crowded rooms, as the air in all such is impure, should be avoided. Cold air also should be avoid- ed unless in due exercise. Violent passions, frights, longings, imag- inings, or improper indulgences of any kind should be avoided, else the effects will be transmitted to the child. The bowels should have a daily evacuation ; those whose bowels during pregnancy are healthy, are insured against many disorders incidental to this period, and are more likely of an easy delivery and a vigorous infant. These direc- tions are sufficient for a healthy, well-formed, and intelligent mother —for others, medical advice is recommended. PARTURITION RENDERED EASY AND SAFE. " The play of pain Shoots o'er her features, as the sudden guwt, Crisps the reluctant lake that lay so calm Beneath the mountain shadow." The process of parturition being a natural one in a state of health and in a state of physical proportion, it is now all but universally acknowledged, that where a woman is agonized in the operation, she has either transgressed the laws of health in her own person, or re- Easy and Safe. 127 ceived a faulty organization by transmission from her progenitors. It has been stated as demonstrable that the firmness and density of a foetus depends upon the amount of earthy matter deposited, or entering its constitution ; and as the foetus is built up, nourished and supported by the mother's blood, the mother's blood must be the source of the bony matter which hardens and consolidates the foetus. But blood is derived from food and drink—consequently if different kinds of food and drink contain different proportions of this bony matter, it follows that according to the diet will the parturition be more or less difficult, as the foetus will be more or less firm or un- yielding. Especially is this view correct, by the fact that in various coun- tries of the world, the females are comparatively free from the evils attending those of our country and England. In " Stevenson's Twenty Years Residence in South America," it is stated that among the " Arancanian Indians, a mother, immediately on her delivery, takes her child, and going down to the nearest stream of water, washes herself and it, and returns to the usual labors of her station." Professor Lawrence in his Lectures on Physiology, says, " the easy labor of some races of women is not explicable by any prerogatives of physical formation, for the pelvis is smaller in these dark-colored races than in the European or white people/'' That it is not climate that favors these women has been proved time after time, but is solely attributable to a simple but unearthy kind of food, such as fish, flesh, sago, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits, bathing, fresh air, exercise, and attention to the healthy action of all the organs. Bread and grain diet, which produces a large per centage of phosphate and car- bonate of lime, should be sparingly used. As an instance of the benefits of avoiding grain diet during parturition, the following state- ment is given by a resident of this city: " A case occurred to our own knowledge, but a few years ago. A lady who had given birth to four children, suffered from the two first and the fourth, all the dangers and difficulties usually attending parturition, while the third was born with the greatest ease. It was quite fresh in the memories of her friends, that from an early period, and during the whole time of gestation of the third child, she was excessively fond of oranges, limes and lemons, which she took in such abundance that she required but very little other food. Her desire for these fruits was so very 128 The Mother. great that, although the husband remonstrated, and friends advised her to leave them off Test she should injure herself, she continued to live al- most entirely upon tkem. To her own and her friends' surprise, however, she gave birth to a fine child with so much ease and safety, that notwith- standing the supposed impropriety of so doing, she was able to resume her ordinary duties in a few days afterwards. During her first, second and fourth periods of gestation, she lived in the ordinary way." THE MOTHER, When on the noble plant that blows Once in a hundred years, The small pale flower, so dearly prized. For rarity appears, Its owner gazes on the sight With pride and pleasure, and delight; But when upon her first born-child The mother's joyous eyes have smiled, No other bliss, how sweet, how rare With her emotions can compare. Suppose the best medical aid obtained, and a safe and easy de- livery effected. What position more incontestably proves the fact, that woman's true destiny is to bear children, and that she can have no greater happiness than that of devoting all her time to the pre- servation and development of them ? Of all the maternal duties, none so sacred as that of nursing children. At this period every thing concurs to accomplish the design of nature :—the inward and imperious sentiment acquaints the mother with the cares due her child, and involuntarily obliges her to turn her tender regards to the little creature stepped from her womb. See the invariable order with which the new functions are performed, and by which the mo- ther, satisfied of the existence of her child, presents it with the nour- ishment necessary—the flow of milk ! At the first cry of the child, the mother is agitated; a slight shiver, which seems to begin at the feet, passes rapidly over the whole body, and stopping at the bosom, produces upon it the most lively impression. At that moment, the parts are evidently swelled and tense ; the mammae are soon filled with an abundant secretion of milk—and the sacred obligation of Treatment and. Diet of the Nursing Mother. 129 suckling that child in her arms, which she has nourished in her womb, is imperiously demanded by the laws of nature. Thus, like a sailor by the tempest hurl'd Ashore, the babe is shipwrecked on the world; Naked he lies, and ready to expire, Helpless of all that human wants require. TREATMENT AND DIET OF THE NURSING MOTHER. Her wants are little, were her judgment true; Nature is frugal, and her wants are few ; Those few wants answered, bring sincere delights, But foolishness creates new appetites. We have shown that a woman who has nourished a child for nine months in her womb, is now called to nourish that same child at her breasts with milk secreted from her blood—that is, she is a manu- factory of milk. Milk is made from food subjected to animal chem- istry. Now good milk can only be secreted from good blood, and good blood requires a plentiful supply of good food. This, in good condition, may be solid animal food cooked in the most agreeable way —vegetables, farina, and fruits, rendered easy of digestion. The appetite of a moderate woman is generally an unerring guide for the food most specially demanded for her sustentation. There are spe- cial reasons when particular foods are requisite. If the child suck much at night, the brain becomes exhausted, and then that food which furnishes the most phosphorus, hydrogen, sulphur, and alkali, is most needed—meat, fish, eggs. Sometimes the chlorine or diges- tive element, is required, and then something salt is wanting. Some- times the nitrogen and albumen are defective, and then oranges, peaches, or pulpy vegetables are required. Sometimes the stomach is flaccid and inactive, and then bitter, acid herbs, as water-cress and celery are necessary. Let a woman only calmly learn to study the wants of her body, and there is an amplitude of dietetic resources to supply her. Her clothing should be loose, but as agreeable to her feelings as her food to her appetite. She needs, nor requires, less clothes for nurs- 17 i-3-J Hints How to Make ing. The easier and freer the breasts are, the better for herself and the ohild. Cleanliness of the skin should be thorough. A natural and daily exercise of all the functions of the body and bowels—some daily amusement and liveliness—a sufficiency of pure air and sleep —a pleasant state of mind, and a real love of children, are needed requisites for her child's health, and to fit her for the dignity of a real mother. HINTS HOW TO MAKE CHILDREN UNHEALTHY. Satire like mine no honest man shall dread, But babbling blockheads may, instead. The following admirable satire is from an English Journal, and of course is intended to be read by the rule of contrary. " In laying a foundation of ill health it is a great point to be able to be- gin at the beginning. You have the future man at excellent advantage when he is between your fingers as a baby. One of Hoffman's heroines, a clever housewife, discarded and abhorred her lover from the moment of his cutting a yeast dumpling. There are some little enormities of that kind which really cannot be forgiven, and one such is to miss the oppor- tunity of physicking a baby. Now I will tell you how to treat the future pale-face at his first entrance into hfe. A little while before the birth of any child, have a little something ready in a spoon, and after birth be ready at the first ^opportunity to thrust this down his throat. Let his first gift from his fellow-creatures be a dose of physic—honey and calomel, or something of that kind; but you had better ask the nurse for a prescription. Have ready, also, before birth, an abundant stock of pins, for it is a great point, in putting the first dress upon the little naked body, to contrive that it should contain as many pins as possible. The prick of a sly pin is excellent for making children cry, and since it may lead nurses, mothers, now and then even doctors, to administer physic for the cure of imaginary gripings in the bowels, it may be twice blessed. Sanitary enthusiasts are apt to say that strings, not pins, are the right fastenings for infants' clothes. Be not mis- led. Is not the pincushion an ancient institution? What is to say, " Welcome little stranger," if pins cease to do so 1 Resist this innovation. It is the small end of the wedge. The next thing that a child would do, if let alone, would be to sleep. I would not suffer that. The poor thing must want feeding ; therefore waken it and make it eat a sop, for that will be a pleasant joke at the expense of nature. It will be like wakening a gentleman after midnight to put into his mouth some pickled her- ring ; only the baby cannot thank you for your kindness as the gentleman might do. This is a golden rule concerning babies—to procure sickly growth let the ohild always suckle. Attempt no regularity in nursing. It is true that if an infant be fed at the breast every four hours, it will fall into Children Unhealthy. 131 the habit of desiring food only so often, and will sleep very tranquilly during the interval. This may save trouble, but it is a device for rearing healthy children ; we discard it. Our infants shall be nursed in no new- fangled way. As for the child's crying, quiet costs eighteen-pence a bottle ; so that argument is very soon disposed of. Never be without a flask of Godfreys cordial, or Daffy, in the nursery; but the fact is, that you ought to keep a medicine chest. A good deal of curious information may be obtained by watching the effects of various medicines upon yuur children. Never be guided by the child's teeth in weaning it Wean before the first teeth cut, or after they have learned to bite. Wean all at once, with bitter aloes or some similar devices; and change the diet suddenly. It is a foolish thing to ask a medical attendant how to regulate the food of children; he is sure to be overrun with bookish prejudices : but nurses are practical women who understand thoroughly matters of this kind. Do not use a cot for infants, or presume beyond the time-honored in- stitution of the cradle. Active rocking sends a child to sleep by causing giddiness. Giddiness is a disturbance of the blood's usual way of circu- lation ; obviously, therefore, it is a thing to aim at in our nurseries. For elder children swinging is an excellent amusement, if they become giddy on the swing. In your nursery a maid and two or three children may conveniently be quartered for the night, by all means carefully secured from draughts. Never omit to use at night a chimney-board. The nursery window ought not to be much opened; and the door should always be kept shut, in order that the clamor of the children may not annoy others in your house. When the children walk out for an airing, of course they are to be little ladies and gentlemen. They are not to scamper to and fro; a little gentle amble with a hoop ought to be their severest exercise. In sending them to walk abroad, it is a good thing to let their legs be bare. The gentleman papa, probably, would find bare legs rather cold walking in the streets of London ; but the gentleman son, of couf se, has quite an- other constitution. Besides, how can a boy, not predisposed that way, hope to grow up consumptive, if some pains are not taken with him in his childhood ? It is said that of old time children in the Balearic Islands were not al- lowed to eat their dinner until, by adroitness in the shooting of stones out of a sling, they had dislodged it from a rafter in the house. Children in the British Islands should be better treated. Let them not only have their meals unfailingly, but let them be at all other times tempted and bribed to eat. Cakes, and sweetmeats of alluring shape and color, fruits and palatable messes, should, without any regularity, be added to the diet of a child. The stomach, we know, requires three or four hours to digest a meal, expects a moderate routine of tasks, and between each task looks for a little period of rest. Now, as we hope to create a weak digestion, what is more obvious than that we must use artifice to circumvent the stomach %. In one hour we must come upon it unexpectedly with a dose of fruit and sugar ; then, if the regular dinner have been taken, astonish the digestion while at work upon it with the appearance of an extra lump of cake, and presently some gooseberries. In this way we soon triumph over nature, who, to speak truth, does not permit to us an easy 132 The Bequisites of a Prize Baby Mother. victory, and does try to accommodate her working to our whims. We triumph, and obtain our reward in children pale and polite, children with appetites already formed that will become our good allies against their health in after life. Principiis obsta. Let us subdue mere nature at her first start, and make her civilized in her beginnings. Let us wipe the rose-tint out of the child's cheek, in good hope that the man will not be able to recover it. White, yellow, and purple, let us make them to be his future tri- color. THE REQUISITES OF A PRIZE BABY MOTHER. Mark her majestic fabric! She's a temple, Sacred by birth, and built by hands divine : Her mind's the deity that lodges there; Nor is the pile unworthy of the God. The previous section, although satirical, points to one moral—that a mother of well-formed and beautiful offspring requires to be wise and ob- servant. A statesman requires wisdom that he may so advise or direct as to secure the prosperity of the nation ; but should one act unwisely, another may step in to repair the evil, and so his country may be saved from impending ruin. The merchant needs wisdom and skill, foresight, and tact, that he may guide his affairs with discretion; but should his plans be frustrated, and riches make themselves wings and fly away at one period of his life, he may have them restored at another, so that at the close of life he may leave his family in ease and comfort. The farmer needs wisdom in cultivating his land, and arranging his stock so as to bring him the best return for his labor and toil; but should he fail one year to realize his hopes, the next may make up the deficiency. The nav- igator needs wisdom to guide his frail bark over the trackless deep, so that he may escape the rocks, and quicksands, and whirlpools which may lie in his way; bjut should he be unfortunate, and become a wreck, he has a chance of being saved by holding on to the rigging, or in his boat, and may find help. But the mother, if she make a mistake in her mighty work, the probability is that it will be fatal. Her little bark will find many rocks, and quicksands, and whirlpools in its way; she, the mother, is to be the pilot for the most important part of the voyage, and if she fail to guide it aright, dreadful will be the wreck when it dashes over the precipice into eternity: There will be no kind hand to help, no re- turning seasons to repair the injury; the work is done, and done badly; and eternity will echo and re-echo the dreadful tale of a child lost through the mother's neglect. How important, then, that the mother should comprehend her duty and discharge it! prize baby mothers seem also to be especially addressed by Dr. Erasmus Wilson, in the fol- lowing dialogue : " Doctor: Many mothers of families, to my knowledge, are enthusiastic students of physiology; and I believe they will every year increase. Patient: But I have heard it objected as an indelicacy in women to study these subjects. I don't think there is much in that. But what do you make it 1 Doctor: The supposed indelicacy is a fiction. The notion is degrading. Physiological studies contract, enervate, or Air and Food of Infants. 133 sully the mind ? impossible! On the contrary, no other human knowl- edge is so calculated, to expand, to strengthen, and to purify both the heart and the head, the affections and the intellect. Such is my con- scientious opinion. What mothers of future generations shall we have— What early trainers and teachers—what nurses when women will be prepared for the discharge of their duties by the inculcation of the knowl- edge and formation of the habits we contend for! Would a physiologi- cally instructed mother send her feeble boy to school ere he was hardly recovered from a severe illness, to receive him back in six months palsied at the lower extremities ? Would a physiologically instructed mother teach her child not to be a juvenile glutton only, but a glutton for life— by pampering him with all manner of delicacies, or allowing him babit- ualiy to gorge himself with plain food"? Would she develop a premature taste for strong drinks by indulging him often with a glass of wine after dinner ? Would she allow him to sleep in an unventilated bed-room, under smothering loads of bed-clothes, even in mild weather, and with curtains close drawn around the bed, lest the tender plant should take a ' breath of air,' and so be blighted V the prize baby mother's mission. BY MRS. SWISSHELM. " A distinguished preacher thus sums up the history of a woman who had been called to her long home : " She ate, she drank, she slept, she dressed, she danced, and she died!" The Lily says this is the history of the mass of women, but we think some important chapters are left out. The mass of women are born, go to a boarding-school, get married, go to church, bring up a family, and die after that; and our opinion is that any one who eats well, and drinks well, sleeps well, dresses well, dances well, and dies well, has done more for the world than many distinguished people succeed in doing. If, in addition to this, she is born well, goes to school well, marries well, goes to church well, and brings up a family well, she has been a public benefactor of no ordinary kind. A woman who is well born—who has received from her parents a healthy mental and physical organization, and who conducts herself well in the ordinary relations of life, is a very great woman. To know how to eat and drink, and sleep, and dress, and dance, and die, is the sum of knowledge, and he or she who does all these things well, is wise and pru- dent above the common order of Christians and philosophers. Let no one speak lightly of eating, drinking, sleeping, dressing, danc- ing, and dying, for the catalogue embraces more than half the important business of life, and he who does these well, will do more, and is an honor and blessing to the race." AIR AND FOOD OF INFANTS. By degrees, The human blossom blows; and every day, Soft as it rolls along, shews some new charm, The father's lustre, atid the mother's bloom. The care of the young, therefore, is the essential duty of woman. 134 Air and Food of Infants. Good and sufficient food, pure air, cleanliness, exercise, are essen- tial to the health of the young as of their elders ; and they are more absolutely necessary, for the tender frames of the young suffer more readily from the absence of these essentials, than the frames of their more seasoned elders do. In providing that infants have pure air, care must be taken that they are not exposed to cold winds or to draughts of air, for their bodies are very apt to suffer from these causes, and, indeed, they are amongst the most common causes of illness in infants. The food of infants should be carefully regulated; give neither too much nor too quickly. The mother's milk is the most proper food of infants, and if the infant takes more than enough of that, or takes it too quickly, it readily throws it up again ; but if it has been spoon-fed, and has taken too much or too quickly, the food commonly remains on the stomach, and the infant is made sick. COLD FATAL TO INFANTS. New-born children should always be kept warm; besides other ill-effects, the impressions of cold are extremely painful to the skin, scarcely covered with the epidermis, and the sudden change expe- rienced by a child, which has just passed from a temperature of 97 degrees. Instinct, experience, and statistical records, all agree in the importance of warmth to the young child. One of the mani- festations of the love of all animals to their young, is to protect them from the vicissitudes of the atmosphere, and to impart to their off- spring warmth from their own bodies. Nature also appears to shun the production in winter of such as suffer the most from cold. It is established that the power of producing heat is at its mini- mum in a new-born child—the temperature at the arm-pits being 80 degrees, while in the adult it is 90 degrees. The demand for heat, therefore, is greatest at this period of life when the supply is most limited. Also, that the youngest children are those that chill the most easily, and that much of infant mortality is dependent on this condition of the system. Varied experiments all show how in- jurious cold is to the young of all animals. Every farmer knows how disastrous a backward spring is in the poultry-yard. The Skin, Clothing, etc* 135 THE SKIN, CLOTHING, AND EXERCISE OF INFANTS. No beauteous blossom of the fragrant spring, Tho' the fair child of nature newly born, Can be so lovely. It is necessary that the skin and clothing of an infant should be kept very clean, because, in addition to the ill-effects of uncleanli- ness in stopping up the pores of the skin, and thereby preventing the healthy excretion from it, and the proper action of the air on the external surface of the body; the skin of an infant is very tender, and if it is not kept clean and dry, it will be covered with sores. The best times for washing a child, are in the morning as soon as it is out of bed, and in the evening before being put to sleep. On ac- count of the great susceptibility of cold which exists in infancy, and the difficulty with which the system resists the influence of sudden changes, the temperature of the water ought, at first, to be nearly the same as that of the body—that is about 96 to 98 degrees Fahrenheit. In infancy, motion of the body is very essential to health, and the appetite for it is as unequivocally manifested, as at any period of life. Exercise gives strength to the body even of young infants, and therefore their limbs should be free, and should be moved about often; but they should not be kept long sitting up in their nurse's arms, whilst their backs are too weak to hold up their heads. It is especially necessary that we should carefully guard infants from all the causes of ill-health, because the young body requires increase of growth, whilst the elder body requires only to be kept in its present state, and because the young cannot take care of them- selves. Nor should children at all delicate, be allowed to walk too long at a time. Short efforts, with intervening repose, should be the motto of the nursery. When the bones are in the least soft, as in rickets, scrofula, etc., it is incredible how much mischief may be done, by keeping the limbs much on the stretch or allowing them to support the trunk too long at a time. Even healthy children of two or three years of age, have become indisposed, by walking about a mile, without being hurried. 136 The French Model Nurseries. hired nurse girls. Few customs are so injurious to infants as constant confinement in the arms of a nurse girl; it compresses the chest, cramps and distorts the limbs, and very often gives a twist to the body, if great care be not taken to carry them alternately on either arm. In con- sequence of constant confinement, too, in the arms, the infant either has too much or too little exercise, or is exercised at a time when it is indisposed to have it. Great discretion is requisite in the common custom of dandling, swinging and jolting young infants. In moderation such exercise may be agreeable to them, but in the rough way often adopted, it mus^generally prove the reverse. Nei- ther should nurses ever be allowed to tickle children for the purpose of keeping them quiet, or for amusement, as the practice is both stupyfying and injurious. Never if possible let a nurse-girl put a child to bed, lest she en- deavor to frighten it into sleep by ridiculous stories. Thousands of ohildren are mentally stultified annually by the tales and language of ignorant nurses. The child should be put to sleep by the mother with some affectionate remarks, and all light and noise carefully ex- cluded. Mrs. Swisshelm, in speaking of the importance of a care- ful attention to the health, diet, and education thus concludes :— • We should as much think of giving our child a bottle of vitriol to amuse her, as hiring a girl out of some alley, of whose morals we knew next to nothing, and placing her as the child's attendant. Reverse the common order of things, and instead of giving your child a companion who is too mean to sit at table with you, you may receive many visitors in the best room as your companions whom you should never entrust with the care of your child. If you do not have the entire charge of your child, employ some one the nearest possible approach to your ideas of a model lady and a Christian, to take your place. The difference between her wages and that of a servant will be the respect with which you treat her and the position she occupies in your family. THE FRENCH MODEL NURSERIES. The French as an artistic people, are in advance of all other na- tions, while in science as applied to domestic economy, they are at The Affections of an Infant. 137 least equal to any in the world. From the subjoined paragraph, we seejthem turning their attention to the requirements of the nursery— recommending the proper capacity, temperature, and ventilation of the dwellings of adults, and of the nursery-rooms. The French savans say, there can be no model men or women without this preliminary step :— At the model nurseries for children in Paris, the physicians recommend that every room be at least ten feet in height, and that the dimensions of each room should be such as to allow 7 cubit meters, or 189 cubic feet of air to every child; the temperature of 10 degrees Reaumer, which is 54 3-4 deg. Fahrenheit, is also recommended. Among other rules are those which require constant ventilation; no draught; the cradle-curtains not to be closed ; every child to be washed twice every day ; no rocking at all; the children to be allowed to creep or walk; filtered water to be used, pure milk, clean salt, no sugar plums, no cakes; the children to be fed in regular order. THE AFFECTIONS OF AN INFANT. " Correct your little one by winning arts Of soft persuasion ; but forbear to grieve His tender heart." From the very beginning of infant life the affections should be care- fully trained. The infant is capable of affections, which are produc- tive of pain or pleasures from the beginning of life, and these affec- tions are becoming habits in an infant which will influence the after character for weal or woe. The causes of the good and evil affec- tions of infants and young children, are principally the good and evil affections which they witness in their nurses. If in very early life a child is frightened or distressed by a nurse's cross looks, or ill-tempered word, it will grow up ill-tempered or timid, and every repetition of the cause will more readily produce the ill-effects. Therefore, an infant or young child should never be scolded or be allowed to perceive the expression of ill-feeling. A young child should never require scolding, because its mother should never allow it to do anything that she calls wrong. She should be ever dili- gent and watchful to prevent the child doing ill, by exciting, encour- aging, and surrounding it with circumstances to be ever doing well. By smiles, fondling, and sweet words, she should make the child 18 138 The Right Training of Children. happy ; and when it can use its little hands, feet, and tongue, she should say pretty words, and do playful things fit for its imitation. The Gracchi, we are told, were educated, not so much in the lap, as in the conversation of a mother. Corporeal punishments were never resorted to. Kindness, in words and looks, effects wonders in children, who are governed more by what they feel and see than by reason. THE RIGHT TRAINING OF CHILDREN. " In the spring of youth, plant rich seeds, To blossom in their manhood, and bear fruit, When they are old." Blackwood's Magazine recently discoursing on the subject of the rising generation, thus concludes : " The family" is the very root of the people's civilization, for all virtues begin by being home virtues. Has this institution been sufficiently con- sidered in connection with our educational views'? I fear not. The temp- tation of early wages under which parents of the lower classes have broken up their homes, and dispersed their young children to the towns, has unquestionably damaged this institution of the family. How have I heard you, Eusebius, pity the poor children ! I remember your looking at a group of them, and reflecting, "For of such is the kingdom of Heaven;" and turning away thoughtfully, and saying " Of such is the kingdom of Trade !" A child of three years of age, with a book in its infant hands, is a fearful sight. It is too often the death-war- rant, such as the condemned stupidity looks at—fatal, yet beyond his comprehension. What should a child three years old—nay, five or six years old—be taught? Strong meats for weak digestions make not bodily strength. Let there be nursery tales and nursery rhymes. I would say to every parent, especially every mother, sing to your children, tell them pleasant stories ; if in the country, be not too careful lest they get a little dirt upon their hands and clothes ; earth is very much akin to us all, and, in children's out-of door play, soils them not inwardly. There is in it a kind of consanguinity between all creatures : by it we touch upon the common sympathy of our first substance, and beget a kindness for our upoor relations," the brutes. Let children have a free open-air sport; and fear not though they make acquaintance with the pigs, the donkeys, and the chickens—they may form worse friendships with wiser looking ones : encourage a familiarity with all that love to court them—dumb animals love children, and children them. There is a language among them which the world's language obliterates in the elder. It is of more import- ance that you should make your children loving than that you should make them wise—that is, book-wise. Above all things, make them loving; then will they be gentle and obedient; and then, also, parents, if you become old and poor, these will be better than friends that will never neglect you. Children brought up lovingly at your knees, will never shut their doors upon you, and point where they would have you go. Laws of Life. 139 LAWS OF LIFE. Age sits with decent grace upon his visage, And worthily becomes his silver locks ; He wears the marks of many years well spent, Of exercise, pure air, good food, and wisdom. Both vegetables and animals are subjected, as the very conditions for their integrity of structure and healthy existence, to particular laws, which are called vital or organic. The first term, or vital, seems to distinguish them from the laws of inanimate matter ; the second, or organic, is used in reference to the peculiar construction of their several parts, which are instruments for the performance of special offices or functions. Now every organ of the animal frame is so constituted, by the first fiat of the Creator, as to be in particu- lar relation with external bodies, destined alike to nourish and pre- serve it in activity. The stomach, for example, requires food of a certain quality and quantity, that digestion may be performed pro- perly—the lungs must have air of such temperature and purity as shall not force them to hurried and violent movements in breathing. The eye and ear can bear only light and sound of medium intensity, if the functions of seeing and hearing are to be executed without pain and inconvenience. But not only is each organ impressed in a particular manner by external agents—it is moreover affected by the actions of the other organs of the same living body, of which it forms a component part. Thus, for instance, the lungs, the organ of respiration, may be made to suffer by cold and moisture applied to the skin ; the stomach will be disordered by an injury done to the head—as the latter will be pained by whatever disturbs digestion. There are then a necessary connexion and mutual dependence among all the organs of a living body, and also particular relations between them and the objects in inanimate nature. This connexion and dependence, and these relations, are what we call organic laws, which can never be infringed without punishment, that is, without suffering. No matter how pure and elevated may be our intentions, how philanthropic our actions, we cannot escape the operation of these laws, since they are part and lot of the constitution of our na- ture or in other words, of the ordinances of the Creator himself. 140 Laws of Life. If we apply fire to combustible materials, we expect them to burn— if we cast a body from the border of a precipice, it must fall down into the hollow beneath. To expect the reverse, would be to look for a miracle ; so, if we overstrain unduly our lungs or our muscles, we suffer in these parts—whether we do it in ministering to our own idle pleasures, or to the support of a needy family, or to alleviate the miseries of our fellow men at large. The fervid preacher of the gospel—the eloquent advocate of liberty and innocence—the mariner exposed to the storm—the mechanic bent double in his shop—or the man of study, leaning for hours over his desk, are all equally sub- jected to the organic laws; and yet presumptuous men, (we say it tenderly of some of them,) they hope that there will be an exception in their favor—that the goodness of their intentions will protect them from the penalty for their breach of these laws—the laws which form part of the grand scheme of creation. However simple may be the omission—however beneficent may be our motive in the omission—however small the error of commission of the laws of nature, the ever watchful sentinel of life visits the error with a proportionate punishment either of positive pain or of lessened enjoyment. We cannot better illustrate the requirements of the principles of life than by giving an account of a case of in- fringement of the organic laws, from " Combe's Constitution of Man :"— " An individual, in whom it was my duty, as well as pleasure, to be greatly interested, had resolved on carrying Mr. Owen's views into prac- tical effect, and got an establishment set agoing on his principles, at Or- biston, in Lanarkshire. The labor and anxiety which he underwent at the commencement of the undertaking, gradually impaired an excellent constitution ; and without perceiving the change, he, by way of setting an example of industry, took to digging with a spade, and actually worked for fourteen days at this occupation, although previously unaccustomed to labor. This produced haemoptysis, (discharge of blood from the lungs.) Being unable now for bodily exertion, he gave up his whole time to di- recting and instructing the people, about 250 in number, and for two or three weeks spoke the whole day, the effusion from his lungs continuing. Nature rapidly sunk under this irrational treatment; and at last he came to Edinburgh for medical advice. When the structure and uses of his lungs were explained to him, and when it was pointed out that his treat- ment of them had been equally injudicious as if he had thrown lime or dust into his eyes after inflammation, he was struck with the extent and consequences of his own ignorance, and exclaimed, how greatly he would The Muscles. 141 have been benefitted, if one month of the five years which he had been forced to spend in a vain attempt at acquiring a mastery over the Latin tongue, had been dedicated to conveying to him information concerning the structure of his body, and the causes which preserve and impair its functions. He had departed too widely from the organic laws, to admit of an easy return : but it impaired his constitution so grievously that he died, after a fingering illness of eleven months. He acknowledged, how- ever, even in his severest pain, that he suffered under a just law. The lungs, he saw, were of the first-rate importance to life, and their proper treatment was provided for by this tremendous punishment, inflicted for neglecting the conditions requisite to their health. Had he given them rest, and returned to obedience of the organic law, at the first intimation of departure from it, the door stood wide open and ready to receive him; but, in utter ignorance, he persevered for weeks, in direct opposition to these conditions, till the fearful result ensued." THE MUSCLES. Let him who crawls enamor'd of decay, Cling to his couch and sicken years away; Heave his thick breath, and shake his palsied head; Ours—the fresh turf, and not the feverish bed." The constitution of external nature shows that man was destined for an active existence, as without labor the gifts of nature are not to be made available. In perfect harmony with this character of the material world, we are furnished with a muscular and mental system, constructed on the principle of being fitted for action, and requiring it also for healthy existence. It is not possible to be healthy without muscular energy. There are some four hundred muscles in the body, each designed to serve some particular end in locomotion or in operating upon external objects. Beauty of person depends very much upon each of these muscles being brought into action in proper circumstances and to a suitable extent. There is a law operating within a certain range, by which each muscle will gain in strength, soundness, and beauty, by being brought into proper activity. the growth of the muscles consists in their permanent and steady exercise. The process of waste and renovation always going on in the body, becomes active just as the muscular system is. A greater flow of blood and nervous energy 142 The Muscles. is sent to every muscle, and continues as long as it is kept in activity. When one state of action follows close upon another, the renovating part of the process rather exceeds the waste, and an acretion of new substance, as well as an addition of fresh power takes place. On the contrary, when a muscle is little exercised, the process of renovation goes on languidly, and to a less extent than that of waste, and the muscles consequently become flabby, shrunken, and weak. Even the bones are subject to the same laws. If these be duly exercised in their business of administering to motion, the vessels which per- vade them, are fed more actively with blood, and they increase in di- mensions, solidity, and strength. If they be little exercised, the stimulus required for the supply of blood to them, becomes insuf- ficient ; imperfect nutrition takes place; and the consequences are debility, softness, unmanliness ; and in women, unfitness for their office. Bones may be so much softened by inaction as to be cut with a knife. LOCAL AND GENERAL EXERCISE OF MUSCLES. It must be carefully observed, that the exercise of the muscles of any particular limb, does little besides improving that limb. In order to increase our general vigor, the whole frame must be brought into exercise. The blacksmith's right arm by wielding his hammer, is increased in volume beyond all proportion to the rest of his body. Those persons whose profession is dancing, walking, or leaping, gen- erally have the muscles of the legs disproportioned to the other parts of their body. A hundred instances of particular applications of certain muscles obtaining an undue proportion to the other muscles of the body might be given to show, that in order to increase and maintain beauty of the person and the sound energies of our bodies, we must duly exercise them. If we desire to have a strong limb, we must exercise that limb; if we desire that the whole frame should be beautiful, sound, and strong, we must exercise the whole of our frame. It is mainly by these means, that men and women will im- prove their health, and strength, and improve the beauty of their off- spring. Armstrong, the poet, says very happily : The MuscteS. 143 As beauty still has blemish, and the mind The most accomplished, its imperfect side, Few bodies are there of that happy mould But some one part is weaker than the rest; The legs, perhaps, or arms, refuse their load, Or the chest labors. TO MAKE WEAK MUSCLE8 STRONG. To cause weak muscles to become strong, there must first be suf- ficient health to endure exertion. A system weakened by disease or long inaction, must be exercised very sparingly, and brought on to greater efforts very gradually; otherwise the usual effects of over exercise will follow. In no case must exercise be carried beyond what the parts are capable of bearing with ease, or a necessary loss of energy, instead of gain, will be the consequence. Exercise, to be efficacious even in the healthy, must be excited, sustained, and directed by that nervous stimulus which gives the muscles the principal part of their strength, and contributes so much to the nutrition of parts in a state of activity. CONDITIONS OF MUSCULAR FORCE. Unless with exercise and manly toil You brace your nerves, and spur the lagging blood, Your muscles will be flaccid—weak, and worthless. To produce motion requires the co-operation of the muscular fibre with two sets of nerves, one of which conveys the command of the brain to the muscle, and causes its contraction, while the other con- veys back to the brain the peculiar sense of the state of the muscle, by which we judge of the fitness of the degree of contraction which has been produced to accomplish the end desired, and which is ob- viously an indispensable piece of information to the mind in regulating the movements of the body. The nervous stimulus thus created will enable a muscle in the living frame to bear a weight of a hund- red pounds, while, if detached from the body, it would be torn asunder by one of ten. It is what causes men in danger, or in the pursuit of some eagerly desired object, to perform such extraordina- ry feats of strength and activity. In order, then, to obtain the ad- vantage of this powerful agent, we must be interested in what we art doing. A sport that calls up the mental energy, a walk towards a 144 The Kind of Schooling, etc. place we are anxious to reach, or even an exercise which we engage in through a desire of invigorating our health and strength, will prove beneficial, when, if performed languidly, it would be ineffectual. The waste occasioned by exercise must be duly replaced by food ; as, if there be any deficiency in that important requisite, the blood will soon cease to give that invigorating influence to the parts upon which increased health and strength depend. THE KIND OF SCHOOLING FOR MODEL BOYS AND GIRLS. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms ; And then, the whining school-boy, with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail, Unwillingly, to school. No wonder either the boy goes unwillingly to school. Schools are not made delightful places, but beget lassitude, weariness, and de- crepitude of body, through long confinement in badly ventilated apartments, and disgust of knowledge from long application. A work entitled " Three Hours School a Day : a Talk with Parents," by W. L. Crandal, of Syracuse, is well worthy of persual. The follow- ing are the leading ideas of the book :— "1. A ' sound mind in a sound body' is the proper end of education. But health of body and vigor of mind are both assailed and impaired by a daily confinement of six hours in the school-room. " 2. Even with the best ventilation no school-room in which a score or more of persons are daily collected can be so healthy as the open air. No pupil, therefore should be kept in school longer than his attention can be absolutely fixed upon, absorbed in his lessons. And experience has proved that three hours per day is as long as such attention can unflag- gingly be given. " 3. The first duty of every child is to grow. It is of course a primary duty of every parent to see that the amplest facilities of growth and de- velopment are secured to his children. To this end the constant, or all but constant, enjoyment of pure, fresh air, unconstrained attitudes, ample exercise, exhilarating play, &c, are indispensable. " 4. The mind naturally loves knowledge, seeks it, receives it with de- light, and assimilates it. Each child is a natural seeker, and absorbs truth as naturally as the growing plant or tree imbibes carbon. We should so adjust our educational machinery as to preserve this thirst for intellectual acquirement fresh and keen through life. But most children are stupefied and stultified by the mephitic dens in which they are con- fined through six hours on each school-day—they are over-tasked and wearied, until, by reason of these abuses, the very thought of school be- comes abhorrent—and, having for years been driven to study what they did not comprehend and therefore could not relish, they retain through after life the disgust and hatred of study which have thus been excited or implanted." Exercises for Boys. 145 EXERCISES FOR BOYS. Begin with gentle toils ; and as your nerves Grow firm, to hardier by just steps aspire. The prudent, even in every moderate walk, At first but saunter : and by slow degrees Increase their pace. This doctrine of the wise Well knows the master of the flying steed. First from the goal the manag'd courses play On bended reins. The young of animals have a natural disposition towards bodily exertion. They frisk and bound in a thousand gamesome ways, and indulge their sportive humor with almost everything. It is enough that they have life and are young, to lead them to perpetual motion. It is the same with children, whose noisy play springs from their ex- uberant spirits, which are given them for their enjoyment, and to supply motives for the requisite practice and strengthening of their limbs, their body, and their lungs. Their games are well adapted as first lessons to learn the use of their physical condition. Their frame is light, and they have to learn to carry it about—to exercise their legs, rendering them by use secure and ready implements of locomotion. Their perpetual falls only show that they are but learn- ers how to walk, run, jump, and lift. The games of thier age, there- fore, are running, hoop, ball, marbles, and the like. Parents should teach their boys and girls to Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed. The breath of night's destructive to the hue Of every flower that blows. Go to the field, And ask the humble daisy why it sleeps Soon as the sun departs. Every mother should be convinced that her children should as naturally be skipping and bounding about as breathing. Nature bids them exercise, in defiance of the wretched mandates of ignorant parents, nurses and teachers, who scold them for restlessness. If mothers wish their children to be pale-faced, diminutive, weak, dys- peptic, deathly-looking things, always order them to " keep quiet and stay in the house." If mothers wish their boys to be healthy, well-developed, and beautiful, encourage and accustom them to face fearlessly a bracing north-wester, and bravely to meet the cold of 19 146 Exercises for Boys. winter, by running upon the snow, gliding on the ice, jumping, throw- ing balls, quoits, and taking every kind of exercise that will tend to invigorate and develop every separate muscle and joint, and also call into play the social and moral feelings. Contrast a boy reared in a city with an Indian boy of the same age. The walk of the one is careless, slovenly, his arms are but weak, he is easily tired, and his habits apathetic—the Indian is supple as an eel, the body playing upon its joints as upon springs, each posture elastic, prepared to throw out on the instant all the energies of the frame, promising the agile bound of the panther—in short, has a complete command of all the resources of his muscular frame. All mothers may, by under- standing the law of gymnastics, expand the chest, muscularize the arms, give clearness to the eye and complexion—strengthen the limbs, give an easy, graceful carriage, enlarge the lungs, and increase the circulatory power of the blood of her children. It is to their shame if they do not.* DO NOT ENCOURAGE PRECOCITY. All other things being equal, the boy who excels in games and feats of strength and skill, is most likely to excel in more important ways in manhood. To develop the mind and let the bodily health shift for itself, is the way to get a plentiful blossom, but very little fruit. A late maturity is worth waiting for. If the child be really extraordinary, it ought to make it the more easy to wait with confi- dence for what time only can produce in perfection. The experi- ment of forcing, cannot safely be followed in education as in horti- culture. If bodily health is not enjoyed by the grown man, his ac- quirements will be exercised at a disadvantage, if they are not ren- dered positively useless. * " Heretofore, those who have been among the foremost and most active in the fulfillment of the duties of educating the intellect and morals of the community, have been strangely neglectful of all connected with the body, either as regards its more perfect development, or its preservation from disease o* derangement."—Dr. Dixon, of Scalpel. Exercises for Girls. 147 EXERCISES FOR GIRLS. As beauty still has blemish ; and the mind The most accomplished its imperfect side ; Few bodies are there of that happy mould But some part is weaker than the rest; The legs, perhaps, or arms, refuse their load, Or the chest labors. These assiduously, But gently, in their proper arts employ'd, Acquire a vigor and elastic spring To which they were not born. But weaker parts Abhor fatigue and violent discipline. A Calisthenic Academy, under a scientific and practical instructor, with the proper apparatus, for the physical education of women, is much wanted. The most of female complaints, consumption in- cluded, is the result of foul play, and murderous management of girls. Such an academy would demonstrate to mothers, how useful variety of exercise was in adding to the symmetry of form, and light- ing up and invigorating the life by which that form is animated! But now, while boys are allowed to pursue the sports of their ad- vancing age, their sisters, whose bodily strength requires exercise equal in proportion to their natures, are forbidden its enjoyment. They are to be trained to artificial feminineness of mind, manners and accomplishments. The consequences of this delicacy and fragility are plain enough to be seen. While one hundred are receiving a " complete education," namely, a smattering of two or three lan- guages, a little skill among the mathematical branches, some skill in singing, music, and drawing—all to be obtained by sixteen years of age—twenty-five have died by the " disease of learning,"—twenty- five have lost their rosy cheeks and cherry lips, for sallow complex- ions, irremediable deformities, and certain consumption—while the balance, through the neglect of the physical system, have been dulled down into mere breathing automata; like the trees of old French gardeners, all cut by the same stiff pattern into the same formal shape. And this is " improving nature" according to the etiquette of fashion ! Nature protests against the violation of her laws, and if it is unlady-like to be active, healthy, and full of bound- ing emotions, she soon proclaims her rights. Nature accommodates 148 The Girls of Past and Now-a-days. fashion by rendering the body inactive, weak, and unhealthy, and what is mind worth then ? It is merely a diamond hidden in a coal- hole—a rich perfume hermetically sealed. ROCKING CHAIRS. A writer in a recent periodical says : "Nearly half a young lady's in-door life is spent, the body half sus- pended by the elbows, and the muscles of the back entirely relaxed in the rocking chair. The necessary consequence is a crooked spine, a weak back, a high pair of shoulders, and an awkward manner of carrying the head—effects perfectly incompatible with graceful movements of any kind. The majority of the laboring men carry the head and shoulders less ungracefully than the majority of ladies, merely because exercise with them strengthens the back, and the forming rocking chair has never humped their shoulders, and pitched forward their heads." Every mother who wishes to rear beautiful, healthy, and long- lived daughters, should endeavor to ascertain the best exercises for developing the muscles and joints, and join in them herself, as they will contribute much to her own health and happiness. There are systems of calisthenics published, which show how to bring every part of the system into action—how to expand the chest—to bring down the shoulders—to make the form erect—to give grace to mo- tion—to increase muscular strength—give a light, elastic step in walking—to restore the distorted or weakened members of the sys- tem. These exercises also contribute to domestic happiness, for good temper is consequent upon health. Lord Bacon said truly that " deformed persons had deformed minds and morals." The due exercise of the body is the best assistant to the mind. In fact, the old saying is a great physiological truth, "A sound mind in a sound body." It it well known that after an hour spent in intense mental application, fifteen minutes spent in exercise, will more than be re- deemed in the next hour's mental labor. THE GIRLS OF PAST AND NOW-A-DAYS. Nature's own beauty—can it be Fresh, as in pleasant infancy 1 The ancient Greeks were right; health and beauty are one and the same thing. Beauty cannot exist without health, and health cannot exist without proper exercise, fresh air, full chests, daily Formation of Beautiful Girls. 149 washing the skin, and recreative food. Dr. Bedford, the most cele- brated obstetrician of America, admits that females now-a-days do not receive this, and says, " Compare, for example, if you desire to appreciate the influences of education and mode of life on the health of the female, the buxom lass of the country with the tender and frail belle of this metropolis !" Some observant female thus gives utterance to similar sentiments : " Alas '. how every thing has changed Since 1 was sweet sixteen, When all the girls wore homespun frocks, And aprons nice and clean; With bonnets made of braided straw That tied beneath the chin, The shawl laid neatly on the neck, And fastened with a pin. " I recollect the time when I Rode father's horse to mill, Across the meadow, rock, and field, And up and down the hill : And when ' our folks ' were out at work (It never made me thinner), 1 jumped upon a horse, bare back, And carried them their dinner. " Dear me ! young ladies now-a-days Would almost faint away To think of riding all alone In wagon, chaise, or sleigh : And as for giving ' pa' his meals, Or helping ' ma ' to bake, Oh dear 1 'twould spoil their lily hands, Though sometimes they make cake. " When winter came, the maiden's heart Began to beat and flutter ; Each beau would take his sweetheart out Sleigh-riding, in a cutler. Or, if the storm was bleak and cold, The girls and beaux together Would meet and have the best of fun. And ' never mind the weather !' " But now, indeed, it grieves me much The circumstance to mention. However kind the young man's heart, And honest his intention; He never asks the girls to ride. But such a man is caged; And if he sees her once a week, Why, surely,' they're engaged!'" FORMATION OF BEAUTIFUL GIRLS. Health and strength, give beauty to her face, Blending the physical with mental grace. Br. Bedford, of New York, whose anxiety for the welfare of wo- man is as unremitting as it is intelligently directed, speaking to his class, says. " Woman in health is our pride—she is the idol of our hearts." Speaking of her violation of the laws of health on her frame, he observes: " The refinements of civilization, and the consequent departure from those salutary influences so necessary to that harmony of action without which a healthy condition of the system cannot be maintained, are mak- ing fearful inroads on the females of the present generation; so that, whilst on the one hand the scholar is gladdenedby the triumphs of civil- ization, the philanthropist on the other cannot but lament the evils which necessarily follow in its train. It was the pride of the ancients to impart to their children robust and vigorous constitutions; and could a mother of those sensible times again visit earth, look upon the present condition of society, and examine its effects on the females of our day, she would indeed think that human nature had near run its course; she would search in vain for those who would remind her of her own ruddy and vigorous daughters—and, from the fullness of her heart, she would drop a tear over poor degenerate humanity." 150 Formation of Beautiful Girls. An English lady, giving a recipe for the formation of beautiful girls, says corsets should have neither buckram, whalebone, wood or steel, but be as simple and as easy as can be made. " Nothing more in the use of them should be sought than to give a dress a tidy ap- pearance. Health cannot be preserved, the physical powers cannot acquire energy, nor the form be symmetrically developed, if cramped by those life-destroyers, fashionable corsets. More deformity has been produced than ever was prevented by them ; yet it is a com- mon idea, that the form is improved, while growing, by the use of them. Nature is amply and adequately provided with the means for bringing her works to perfection, and it is only when her efforts are thwarted by extraneous causes, that disorder and derangement are produced. How strange, how whimsical have been the ideas of dif- ferent nations on this subject. Some nations have fancied that nature did not give a good shape to the head, and thought it would be better to mould it into the shape of a sugar-loaf. The Chinese think a woman's foot much handsomer, if squeezed into a third part of its natural size. Some African nations have a like quarrel with the shape of the nose, which they think ought to be laid as flat as possible to the face. We laugh at the folly and are shocked at the cruelty of these barbarians, but think it a very clear case that the natural shape of a woman's chest is not so elegant as we can make it by the confinement of stays. But nature has shown her resentment of this practice in a very striking manner, by rendering above half the women of fashion deformed in some degree or other. Deformity (of this kindj is peculiar to the civilized part of mankind, and is almost always the work of our own hands. The superior strength, just proportion, and agility of sav- ages, are entirely the effects of their hardy education, of their living mostly in the open air, and of their limbs never having suffered any confinement. Menstrual Period of Young Girls. 151 MENSTRUAL PERIOD OF YOUNG GIRLS. Youth is the gay and pleasant spring of life, When joy is stirring in the dancing blood, And nature calls us with a thousand songs To share his general feast. The future beauty of girls depends altogether upon the knowl- edge, courage and prudence of mothers. If girls are to attain the perfection of womanhood—to be blest with sound understandings, clear intellects, and moral principles of action, they must be carefully educated from infancy to puberty. Their full development depends upon the influence and the right direction of the dormant system of reproduction. The strongest manifestations of the instincts natural to woman coincide with the development of the organs which in- fluence their energy and satisfy their desires. It should be a sacred duty of the mother to retain the affections and confidence of her female children, and to possess correct ideas relative to the function of menstruation ; for upon its proper management depends the health and beauty of the future woman. Nor should any false deli- cacy prevent mothers from freely imparting to their girls that inform- ation so necessary to their health and happiness. Thousands of young girls are annually imperilled and killed through misconduct during the puberal period. Hear Dr. C. D. Meigs, on " Diseases of Females:—" "I wished to show you, that if you do not take wise care of the health of the growing females of a family committed to your care as physicians, you will have the pain to witness their early subjection to dangerous and fatal disorders, or else to see them—even after the puberic phenomena shall have been all made manifest, and the age of puberty indeed past— suffering those derangements of the health which serve to render them useless to their friends, inefficient as the heads of families, and unfit to encounter and discharge the stern obligations and duties of life. Many are the examples I could cite from my memory of the persons who, even after being married for years, and after having been regularly menstrual, still continued to labor under the effects of a badly-passed puberty, show- ing these effects in an over-excitable circulation, excessive nervous sus- ceptibility, dysmenorrecea—though regularly menstrual—sterility, and the impatience and discontent that necessarily wait on feeble health and disappointed expectations, some recovering completely under a careful treatment, and others falling into weakness, becoming at last victims of consumption, menorrhagia, or other disorders of which the foundations had been laid in an improperly-conducted physical and moral education." 152 Pure Air a Necessity Tilt, on the "Health of Women," gives the following summary of rules for the guidance of mothers and others, who have the charge of girls approaching to womanhood. Having given the subject some attention, and noted the many evils attendant on parental neglect, the author endorses the summary and trusts its perusal will partially dispel the ignorance which clouds the subject of menstruation, for whatever disturbs the body at this period, deranges the future hopes and health of the woman. " I. To keep a girl in the nursery as long as possible. II. Not to let her be taken unawares. III. Never to seek to determine first menstruation by forcing medicines. IV. Never to give or to take forcing medicines to promote the reappearance or the increase of the menstrua', flow. V. Never to give or take purgatives during the week before and after men- struation, unless by medical advice. VI. Never to allow a daughter's constitution to be undermined by profuse or very painful menstruation, or by permitting it to return at shorter periods than once a month. Vll. Never to be so reckless of her own, or her daughters health, or so un- just to her medical adviser, as to let him prescribe in ignorance of her state. VIII. A respect for whatever may have received life. IX. A knowledge of the possibility of menstruation continuing during pregnancy, and of the danger of confounding this with other sanguin- eous uterine discharges. X. A knowledge of the possibility of menstruation continuing during lacta- tion without in any way forbidding it. XI. A knowledge of the reality of the dangers by which the change of life is attended. XII. A conviction that these dangers can for the most part be avoided by a judicious line of conduct." PURE AIR A NECESSITY OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. The balmy air around me lends its aid To freshen my heart's feelings—draughts of health Come with each breeze, turning the indolence Sickness had woven round me, into life, And whispering to the renovated soul, Strength may be thine,—never despair ! Dr. Southwood Smith, in his " Philosophy of Health" gives many interesting descriptions of the functions of the lungs, and the great Of Health and Beauty. 153 importance of pure air. We naturally, or in health, perform about 18 respirations a minute, or 24,950, every 24 hours. At each res- piration a pint of air is sent to the lungs ; 18 pints a minute, 2 hogs- heads an hour, or 57 hogsheads every 24 hours. The whole mass of blood in an adult person is about 28 pounds, which is forced, by means of the heart through every portion of the body in about every two minutes and a half; so that about seven hundred pounds of blood pass through the heart every pour. In this circulatory process it loses its healthy qualities, changes its color and becomes dark, or venous blood, and in order to purify it again, pure air, through the medium of the lungs is necessary. If pure air is denied, dis- ease is generated in the blood, the circulation becomes slower, and life becomes extinct. Bad ah- and death are relative. There never can be health or beauty preserved or improved in improperly ven- tilated parlors, sitting or sleeping rooms, workshops, stores, counting- rooms, schools, churches, or theatres. The value of pure air in connection with the preservation of health is universally acknowledged among intelligent agriculturists. Mr. Youatt, in an essay on the " Breeding of Cattle," remarks : There is one striking fact, showing the injurious effect of heated and poisoned air on the pulmonary system. There are cow-houses in which the heat is intense, and the inmates are often in a state of profuse per- spiration. The doors and windows must be sometime opened, and the wind blows in cold enough upon those that are close to them, and one would naturally think could not fail to be injurious. No such thing. Those are the animals that escape; but the others at the further end, and on whom no wind blows, and where no perspiration is checked, are the first to have inflammation and consumption. Provision should be made for a continual change of air in bed- rooms during the night, by the escape of the heated and foul air, and the introduction of cool and fresh air. The first may be effected by some aperture at the top of the room, such as by keeping the sash open about an inch, and letting the fresh air in by small aper- tures at, or about the floor—such for instance as boring a few holes into the wall under the window sill. We never burn fires without flues, or pipes, yet we burn lamps, and breathe whole hours without a thought of oarrying off the burnt air or refuse breaths ! Yet we wonder why we are not healthy ? 20 154 The Lungs, Tight-Lacing, etc. THE LUNGS, TIGHT LACING, AND OFFENSIVE BREATH. It now remains to trace What good, what evil from ourselves proceeds: And how the subtle principle within, Inspires with health, or mines with strange decay The passive body. Ye poetic shades That know the secrets of the world unseen, Assist my song ! For, in a doubtful theme Engaged, I wander thro' mysterious ways. The previous sections prove that the lungs are the very citadel of -t of that which she does procure. By a certain degree of skill a,id attention, very humble food may be dressed in such a manner as to rival the most savory dishes, and surpass them in digestiveness. Indeed, the whole ends of cookery are three ;—to render the food digestible in the stomach—palatable in the mouth—and elegant and tempting in its aspect. THE PRINCIPLES OF DIET. Th' unbounded taste I mean not to confine To hermit's diet, needlessly severe. But would you long the sweets of health enjoy, Or husband pleasure ; at one impious meal Exhaust not half the bounties of the year, Of every realm. The principles of diet must be understood by those who respect their digestive powers. Thus, we should not mix the sweet and the salt food—the fish and the fruit; but every meal should consist of food of one general character. It may be laid down as a rule, that whatever the mouth relishes the stomach digests ; therefore, what will not bear mixing in the mouth, ought not to be mixed in the stomach. Breakfast might be of bread, butter, meat, eggs, rice, potatoes. Dinner offish or meat, with appropriate vegetables. Supper of light farinaceous food or fruits. Meals three times is sufficient labor for the stomach, prevents gluttony, and keeps the body sweet. Food to be perfectly whole- some must be perfectly sweet and untainted. Avoid "high"meats The Art of Growing Healthy Children. 168 musty vegetables, live cheese, and diseased milk, as sources of dis- ease. A dry diet is better for a healthy person than excessive slops of tea, coffee, broth, &c. ; as they sodden, weaken, and debilitate the stomach, and induce scurvies, fluxes, and dropsies. The digestibility of food depends considerably on its tissue ; thus nuts, which are nearly all nourishment, give little to the body on ac- count of their hardness and insolubility. Hard dumplings, cold pud- ding, meat made fibrous and tough by boiling, peas and beans raw, are all more or less indigestible. The food of children should never be of a high temperature, as it is productive of indigestion. Their drink should be cold water with- out ice. It is to the alternations of hot and cold food that the pre- mature decay of teeth in American children is to be attributed. THE ART OF GROWING HEALTHY CHILDREN. A child is born. Now take the germ and make it A bud of human beauty. Let the dews Of knowledge, and the light of virtue, wake it In richest fragrance and in purest hues; Give play unto its lungs, and limbs, and life, Unto its full development ne'er refuse. The difference between two trees, both alike in the start, but the one stinted by poor soil and want of care, while the other is well cared for, and tended, is too striking to have escaped the eyes of agri- culturists. So with flowers and fruits. Growers of stock know ex- perimentally, that a law governs the growth and fattening of animals. Thus, to omit feeding swine for a day or two, stunts them for several weeks. Causing a horse to be immured in foul air for a week, ren- ders it " out of sorts" for three months—to prevent cattle from due exercise for a time, and confine them in a close place, consumption and death soon follow. In short, if the law *of the growth of plants and animals is omitted, the paralizing influence instantly supplies the neglect. The same law applies with greater force to man. See daily its sorrowful applications to children. Some children pine and droop month after month, then die. Hundreds die weekly. Many 164 The Art of Growing struggle through life to a sickly maturity. Why should there be any such lamentable results ? No doubt much of the evil is attributable to parentage—to hereditary disease—much of it to the parents not understanding the laws of human growth and development, for every child is but as potter's clay, and may be moulded as you wish. The most puny child can come to have a good strong constitution, and superior health, if the parents so far fulfill the health laws already laid down. If they find themselves or children gradually " running down," let the parents be assured that some wrong health-habits are sapping the life powers. Search out the cause, and when found, correct it, and depend upon it, neither yourselves or children need be unhealthful. -Keep growing every day in a knowledge and prac- tice of pure air, good food, exercise and cleanliness, and be sure of strong bodies and strong minds. In proof of the influence which even temporary physical education exerts upon the human frame and its stamina, and as an illustration of the art of growing strong and healthy, the " London Medical Times," tells the following STORY OF THE INFLUENCE OF AIR AND EXERCISE UPON HEALTH. " In the summer of 1839, we had an opportunity of witnessing one of the trial races of Oscroft, at that time one of the swiftest runners in Eng- land. On the occasion we speak of, he ran 120 yards in eleven seconds; his pulse, just before starting, beat 61 strokes per minute, and at the termination of his extraordinary feat, it beat only 94 ! When it is further taken into account, that, whilst in the act of running, he never made a complete inspiration or expiration, the performance can be considered little short of wonderful. We were informed by the man himself, that though he was naturally remarkable for nimble-footedness, he was any- thing but " good-winded." Two months previously, he had been taken from a stocking-frame, and by a process of merely careful training, was brought into the state of bodily condition alluded to Had it been pos- sible for him, before commencing to train, to have run the distance in the time stated, the effort, if it had not killed, would have nearly asphyxiated him. He would have been breathing for his life, and his pulse could not have been counted. As it was, at the completion of his task, he breathed without difficulty, and his pulse was increased only 33 beats per minute ! After such evidence as this—and it is only one of a multitude of exam- ples with which the world is familiar—no man, not actually diseased, need despair of becoming active and vigorous, if he will only attend to the simple rules which are to guide his physical discipline. The man of whom we have spoken, had not a good chest, for which reason he could not, under any ciroumstances, have run a long race; and his configura- tion of thorax was even opposed to an effort of speed for a short dis- Healthy Children. 165 tance; but the natural obstacle was overcome for the time being by tem- porary training! We are, perhaps, not justified in saying ex uno disce omnes; but at least we can say, that if two short months of rigid living and exercise in pure air, can do so much for a man's constitution and strength, how much more permanent service maybe done by a continued observance, though in a milder degree, of the principles of proper train- ing ! How many listless and enfeebled frames would be roused, refreshed, and made fit for the wear and tear of a protracted life! How many minds, sinking into imbecility from actual lassitude, or oppressed by the melancholy of fancied cares, would be siirred by the busy and cheerful objects of worldly enterprise! We would fain teach the man too ardently devoted to learning, to science, or to worldly business, that with all his toil, and care, and penury of time, he is not a gainer; he may appropriate to his idol object an hour that should be sacred to his own service, and in so doing he is a looser of twain; let him husband his moments as nig- gardly as he will, there is a certain reckoning which he must daily have with himself, a certain time, for his own rest and refreshment; and if that time be not granted, it becomes no matter of idle debtorship—day after day registers a fresh account against him, and, at the end of a few years, the unsuspected fact of premature old age is announced by decre- pitude, decay, and death." THE APPLICATION OF THISE RULES TO HORSES. In 1848, we published an article in the " Herald of Health " in- stituting a comparison between men's care of their horses and that of their wives, children, and themselves, and attempted to show how the treatment to the one might be serviceably employed to the im- provement of the other, thus : " If a horse is doing very little work, we bestow less attention to him ; if a horse is not worked at all, we know that mischief will result if he is not well exercised. If a horse is hard worked, we know it to be impolitic to load its stomach while suffering from fatigue. When a horse comes in from a journey, the ostler knows that its health depends on its skin being freed from the dust and perspiration, and that the animal cannot be com- fortable unless it is cleaned at least once a day. If its food does not agree with it, the ostler varies it in quantity and quality. An ostler never lets his horse drink while in a perspiration, nor do more than rinse its mouth, but will let it drink its fill about an hour before its meals, not allowing it to load its stomach with liquid either at meals or when hard work is ex- pected. Now, all this is sound physiological treatment, drawn from a watchful observation of the effects of a regulated diet and regimen on the health and capabilities of the animal. How little care and attention in similar circumstances is bestowed by man on himself! When he is streaming with perspiration and giving orders for careful attention to his horse, he will walk into a refreshment house, and gulph down immoderate quanti- ties of iced water or ice cream ! His diet is regulated by his tastes and cravings; the quantity varies not with his exertion or labor, but with its palatabiHty; the meal consists of dishes proportionate to the length of 166 Labor a Necessity of Health. his purse; the times for eating depend on business, fashion, in fact,_ on anything but his physical wants. Man's drink also is taken according to his inclinations, or according to the society he mixes with, and quality and quantity vary only with its palatability and his means. Men seldom take less food when they take less exercise, and yet an ignorant stable boy knows that a horse must have less food when in little work, or it cannot be healthy. Men rush into dinner and supper rooms when tired and hungry, and their food does little benefit, as the digestive organs are temporarily powerless, whereas by resting a little, as horses are compelled to do, even less food would put more flesh on their bones! The skin of a horse must be kept clean,^ or disease ensues; but the horse's master will be heedless of this essential, and when visited by disease, will wonder how it happened! If a horse manifests symptoms of illness, the owner will instantly adopt means for its removal; but should himself be indisposed, he will procrastinate and put off, until that which at first was but trifling, takes him off to the grave. Surely Man is the most incon- sistent animal on earth!" LABOR A NECESSITY OF HEALTH. From labor health, from health contentment springs; Contentment opes the source of every joy. The first duty imposed on man in relation to society, is labor—a duty, the origin and sanction of which are easily discoverable. Man is sent into the world naked, unprotected, and unprovided for. He does not, like the brutes, find his skin clothed with a sufficient covering, but must provide garments for himself; he cannot perch on a bough or burrow in a hole, but must rear a dwelling to protect himself from the weather; he does not, like the ox, find his nour- ishment under his feet, but must cultivate the ground. To capaci- tate him for these necessary duties, he has received a body fitted for labor, and a mind calculated to direct his exertions, while the ex- ternal world is beautifully adapted to his constitution—having the material for every necessary comfort and elegance which he can desire, or create by labor. No man has a right to live, that does not earn his living. The Scripture says, " if ye work not, neither should you eat," likewise, "that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.'' No class is exempted, and for this is his body alone suited ; no person, simply because he is rich, can defy the doom without a heavy pun- ishment. If necessity compels him not to earn his bread himself, Labor a Privilege, etc. 167 he must substitute laborious pleasures; he must work harder than a hod-carrier under the names of boating, hunting, deer-stalking, bil- liards, ten-pins, running, walking, etc.; if he does none of these things, or similar ones, he grows fat, indigestive, feeble, delicate, and consults doctors with the vain hope of being enabled to baffle nature with impunity for some time longer; and after a few years of perpetual uneasy feelings, it is found that his heart is diseased, his tissues flabby, his lungs tuberculous, his body dropsical, is wheeled about in his chair, imbecile in mind as well as limbs; or he becomes melancholy and suspicious of his best friends, or by some such winding up, he arrives at his last scene, and having left a hereditary legacy of disease to his children, he ends his common- place, eventless history. LABOR A PRIVILEGE, A BLESSING, AND A HAPPINESS. Behold the laborer of the globe with toils In dust, in rain, in cold and sultry skies; Save but the grain from mildews and the flood, Nought anxious he what sickly stars ascend, He knows no laws by Esculapius given; He studies none. No product of the vineyard, the field, or the sea, however aided by inventive art, will furnish a welcome repast to one who sits in listless idleness, on a downy cushion, from meal to meal. It is by labor that man comprehends the beauty and utility of the earth— how to bring its productive power into action—to apply the material substances of the globe to reasonable use, convenience, and orna- ment—to expand and cultivate the human mind—to endeavor to cultivate and better develop the human body. Every person in society should produce, physically or mentally, as much for society as he requires to receive from society for its full enjoyment. No father should transmit to his children the right of being useless to their fellow-creatures. They who earn not an existence, but eat the bread of idleness, are not only useless, but a curse, as they entail a degenerate offspring. Abernethy, the cele- brated doctor, used to say, " Rich or poor, strong or weak, all idle members of society, are either knaves or fools.'' 168 Labor Develops the Whole Human Being. Much as genteel people despise labor, they may be told that there is nothing injurious to the body in it, as the country people, and our active population out west and south-west, are the finest specimens of physical development in the United States; nor is there anything degrading or injurious to the mind, for it may be seen in any bio- graphical dictionary, that nine out of every ten celebrated men, spring from the working mass. Neither is gentility and idleness favorable to national beauty, dignity, or virtue, for the Italians and Spaniards are the idlest, genteelest, and most wretched people on the European continent. SAM SLICK ON LABOR. I ask again, what is happiness ? It aint bein' idle, that's a fact—no idle man or woman was ever happy since the world began. Eve was idle, and that's the way she got tempted, poor crittur; employment gives both appetite and digestion. Duty makes pleasure doubly sweet by contrast. When the harness is off, if the work aint too hard, a critter likes to kick up his heels. When pleasure is the business of life, it ceases to be pleas- ure ; and when it's all labor and no play, work, like an unstuffed saddle, cuts into the very bone. Neither labor nor idleness has a road that leads to happiness; one has no room for the heart, the other corrupts it. Hard work is the best of the two, for that it has, at all events, sound sleep; the other has restless pillows and unrefreshin' sleep: one is a misfortune, the other is a curse ; and money aint happiness, that's as clear as mud. LABOR DEVELOPS THE WHOLE HUMAN BEING. Such the reward of rude and sober life ; Of labor such. By health the peasant's toil Is well repaid ; if exercise were pain Indeed, and temperance pain. By arts like these Laconia nurs'd of old her hardy sons ; And Rome's unconquer'd legions urg'd their way, Unhurt, through every toil in every clime. Dr. Channing said, " We have no desire to dismiss the laborer from his farm, his workshop, and make his life a holiday. I have faith in labor, and I see the goodness of (rod in placing us in a world where labor alone can keep us alive. I would not if I could, change our subjection to physical laws, our exposure to hunger and cold, and the necessity of constant conflicts with the material world. I would not temper the elements to infuse into us only grateful sensa- Too Much Labor Hurtful. 169 tions, that they should make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate every want, and the minerals so ductile as to offer no resistance to our strength and skill. Such a world would make a contemptible race.'''' And it would do so. Every person owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, which we call effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make robust minds, nor robust and healthy bodies. Manual labor is a school in which all should be placed to get energy of purpose, character and person, vastly more important endowments than a legacy of dollars and disease. Physical wants, labors and sufferings, are indeed somewhat hard masters ; but these stern teachers do a work which no compassionate indulgent friend could do for us ; and every wise and true parent will bless instead of thwarting Providence, for their ministry in de- veloping the bodies and minds of his offspring. TOO MUCH LABOR HURTFUL. Fly, if you can, these violent extremes Of labor : the welcome is nor little or too much, But as the power of choosing is denied To half mankind, a farther task ensues, How best to mitigate these fell extremes. As no person should.be exempted from labor, neither should any person be loaded with it. If labor could be distributed according to capacity, it might become a source of universal satisfaction, and a bond of union, realizing the old adage that " many hands make light work.'' The great inequality of labor which exists is of as mis- chievous a tendency as that of idleness. The worker who has too much work, and the gentleman who has too little, are both supplied with limbs for labor and brains for thinking. Nature, for the in- fringement of her laws, punishes the inactive and idle classes with sensuality, debility, bodily and mental lassitude, imperfect digestion, disturbed sleep, bad health, and at length death. The penalty for over exerting the system among the workers is exhaustion, men- tal incapacity, the desire for strong and artificial stimulants, general 22 170 Amusement a Necessity, etc. insensibility, and grossness of feeling. Ruptures, hypertrophy, rheu- matism and aneurism are the peculiar diseases. Enlargement of the veins of the surface, abruptly marked muscular system, a gait ren- dered awkward by confinement to particular employments, are also peculiar to the over-labored. Statistical reports show that the dura- tion of life among the laborious overmuch, is not so long by one fifth, as among persons whose labors are in accordance with the natural laws as laid down in this book. Great labor, either in body or mind, continued for several days to- gether is in most men naturally followed by a great desire for relaxa- tion ; which if not restrained by force, or some strong necessity, is almost irresistible. Relaxation does not always imply idleness ; but as Locke expresses it, " easing the wearied part by change of em- ployment." If not complied with, the consequences are often dan- gerous and sometimes fatal, and such as almost always bring on the infirmity peculiar to the employment. AMUSEMENT A NECESSITY OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. " Tis the great art of life to manage well The restless mind. For ever on pursuit Of knowledge bent, it starves the grosser powers ; Quite unemploy'd, against its own repose It turns its fatal edge, and sharper pangs Than what the body knows embitter life. Chiefly where solitude, sad nurse of care, To sickly musing gives the pensive mind. Sound health, a good body, and sane mind, require that all should daily enjoy themselves in hearty, rompish, and robust games. There is nothing so efficacious in creating good humor, spirited brav- ery, and a handsome address. The staid rules of etiquette con- demn such conduct as indecorous, but etiquette itself emanates from a diseased system. For want of hearty, social games, we see peo- ple with the gravity of 70 on the faces of 20. When once they get enthralled in business and matrimony, and obliged to set their faces towards mammon and humbug, every social feeling must be curbed, and a sour, calculating, plotting countenance is necessary for their self-protection. Variety is not only Charming, etc m Every species of recreation that can call the respective faculties of body and mind into harmonious exercise should be indulged in youth, in advanced and middle life, as it is of the greatest import- ance to health and happiness to relieve the tasked brain, and change the current of our thoughts, feelings and actions. Our amusements therefore, should bring into exercise those parts of our muscular frame and intellect which professional duty has left unoccupied. The poet says : Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue, But moody and dull melancholy, (Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair ;) At her heels, a huge infectious troop Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life. VARIETY IS NOT ONLY CHARMING, BUT BENEFICIAL TO HEALTH. Would'st thou always have it sirring, Would'st have summer ever stay- Though she cometh flower laden 1 Droughty summer—bright and burning f Though sweet throated birds do sing ! Dost thou not, oft in the day, Thou would'st weary of it, maiden. Long for still, cool, night's returning 'I Change of habitation, change of dormitory, change of air, change of society, change of diet, change of one occupation to another, change from excitement to quiet,—from a life of dulness to that of cheerful- ness—from that of a single loneliness to that of a double blessedness, is desirable. Neither the eye nor heart can perpetually feast on the same object. Youth and beauty must progress to maturity, and wrinkles in companionship with the object that adores them. The ear tires with noise, and the stomach flags with dainties. The town seeks novelty, and change is the leading economy of the universe. Nothing in nature is still. Apply the thought to an invalid or mis- anthrope, the influence is magical, and its permanence remunera- tive to those who make the venture. Simplify all this, and reduce it to daily expediency. The art of life is to make every moment a happy one ; to gratify in turn every sense. Let every person vary his diet; still observing for himself. Let recreation now and then be exchanged for mere plodding, and vice versa. Breathe now and then the country air, instead of the loaded and oppressive street atmosphere. Let the lungs respire, by way of as frequent change 172 The Art of Sleep. as possible, the bright, light, and sweet air, instead of coals-moke and gassy exhalations. Let out and about, all who have the courage to leave the shop. A night spent in dancing, or a few days in ramb- ling the country, are severally good in their way, for a change. THE ART OF SLEEP. Man's rich restorative ; his balmy bath, That supplies, lubricates, and keeps in play The various movements of this nice machine, Which asks such frequent periods of repair. Sleep, " nature's sweet nurse," is the great restorative of vitality, when tired by labor, or worn by disease. The machinery of the hu- man frame undergoes a thorough repair of the injuries in the wear and tear of daily employment; thus persons who sleep long and sound have undoubtedly the best health, and are commonly the longest livers. During the period of sleep, nature holds her most powerful dominion over the body ; it is then that the assimilation of food proceeds most rapidly, and the body grows fastest. Medicines lose their action, and diseases heal without them. The sleep of health is full of tranquillity ; in such a state we remain in unbroken repose, nature banqueting on its sweets, renewing its lost energies, and laying in a store for the succeeding day ; this accomplished, slumber vanishes, languor is succeeded by strength, and a feeling of comparative youthfulness. Among persons who work moderately, and live regularly, eight hours are generally spent in sleep ; children will sleep an hour longer with benefit; while there is an observable difference between males and females in their requisite term of sleep. In cold weather we are naturally more torpid than in hot; but this has little influence on man in a civilized state, having always the means of keeping the body of a comfortable temperature. To sleep as much at night and make as much use of the daylight as possible is beneficial to health. Franklin, in a humorous essay, estimates the saving that might be made in the city of Paris alone, by using sunshine instead of candles, at $20,000,000 annually. But The Effects of the Passions, etc. 173 he might have calculated how much human beauty, human health and human happiness, would have been spared by the adoption of sunshine. Males' beds should be hard, and not of a nature to generate heat. Hair mattresses for instance. The expanded support, and the heat of the feather bed, relaxes the muscular system, and enervates the frame. The female couch should be softer to suit her body. Cur- tains are mischievous things, as they prevent a proper ventilation round the sleeper. Each child should sleep on a mattress by itself, so as to prevent it acquiring practices which both sexes are but too liable to acquire. Dr. Copeland, of large experience, is of the conclusion that " SELF-ABUSE is generally taught and practised in bed." He says :— " Heads of families, therefore, cannot be too careful to whom they en- trust the care and education of their female children, and they should never be permitted, if possible to avoid it, to-sleep two in a bed, or with women servants. In some girls the feeling of voluptuousness and sexual inclination are very early shown, and such individuals require especial care in their bringing up." Dr. Lewis' rules are that sleep is not tranquil but where there are no causes of irritation, to avoid which, as much as possible, her ecom- mends, 1st. Not to sleep in a hot air, and neither to be too much nor too little covered. 2nd. Not to have the feet cold at laying down, an accident common to weak persons, and which is for many reasons, hurtful to them. 3d. Never go to sleep upon a full stom- ach, as it disturbs the sleep, depresses the spirits, and deprives of gayety next day. THE EFFECTS OF THE PASSIONS UPON HEALTH AND GOOD LOOKS. The goodness that would make us grave, Is but an empty thing ; What more than mirth would mortals have 1 A cheerful man's a king. The most eminent men have ever entertained the opinion that longevity depends much upon the form of the body, as does also good temper, cheerfulness of disposition, and lively spirits. Nature 174 The Effects of the Passions has given the body a great advantage over the mind. The practices which draw out all the resources of bodily beauty, tend likewise to the maintenance of health. It is not so with mind. To develop the body and attain to a long life, the mind should never, like the body, be taxed to its full powers of efficient exercise. Length of days are not attainable with unrelaxed efforts of mind. Wisdom lies midway, and prefers wholesome bodily recreations. A well balanced body and brain will always overcome mental distress and anxiety, because its possessor knows that everything in heaven and earth is subservient to fixed, eternal, unalterable laws, by which only can be effected any particular event. He knows that not a movement can take place except in obedience to some inflexible law. The uncertain showers of April, the ever changing form of the fleeting clouds, the average number of houses destroyed by fire, the per centage of ships lost at sea, the varieties of death by diseases, epidemics, wars, famines, and the like, are all matter of tabular computation, thus establishing the fact beyond contradiction, that all evils are a necessary violation of certain laws, which neither tears, anxieties, or prayers can prevent, or delay. A well balanced indi- vidual, both in body and mind, can never, therefore, become a prey to violent anger or violent grief. See the effects of the mind on the body, however, when the pas- sions are master. Dr. Smith says, " Every one must have observed the altered appearance of persons who have sustained calamity. A misfortune, that struck to the heart, happened to a person say a year ago ; observe him some time afterwards—he is wasted, worn, the miserable shadow of himself; inquire about him at the distance of a few months—he is no more." There is no doubt that the nearest cause of suicides is an ill-balanced brain, and an imperfect physical condition. Dr. Abernethy, describing grief, says :— " It is one of the most depressing passions ; it stops perspiration, ren- ders every muscular action languid, and thus checks the intestine and biliary secretions, renders the skin sallow, and, by lowering the activity of the nervous power, renders the blood more accessible to the influence of infection or epidemics; and it has in a few instances occasioned death. A case of this kind is recorded by Dr. Whytt. Grief indulged in produces all the changes which distinguish hypochondriasis. The mind soon re- covers its elasticity, but the bodily effects remain often during life, fre- quently terminating in melancholy and mania.'' Upon Health and Good Looks. 175 We can never sufficiently remember that all peevishness, morose- ness, anger, hatred, envy, grief, revenge, and unamiability grow out of physical developments, and must follow the form and culture of the human body and mind rigidly ; it being only through the body phy- sical, that these passions are manifested. All moral acts are there- fore types of bodily condition. Insanity implies disease of mind— crime, aberration of intellect—both the result of hereditary malform- ation, or otherwise contracted deformity of bodily organs. Hence the words— " Think gently of the erring ! " Heir of the self-same heritage ! Oh, do not thou forget, Child of the self-same God ! However darkly stained by sin, He hath but stumbled in the path, He is thy brother yet. Thou hast in weakness trod." Neither should it be forgot that bad feelings stamp themselves on the countenance, by forming certain lines, and gradual changes in the form of the features, which become more and more permanent. Sneering, ill-natured, avaricious persons, have expressions represent- ing these feelings growing in their faces. By a knowledge of this fact artists are enabled to represent with accuracy the character of individuals mentioned in history. In fact, any internal ugliness or wickedness is gradually worked out upon the countenance. Our advice is, observe religiously the laws laid down in regard to air, food, light, temperature, exercise, clothing, and sexual com- merce, and never let the passions become masters—let them serve instead of ruling us. Preserve a cheerful, equable temper of mind, even if it cost great self-denial, temporary sacrifices, and pa- tient discipline. Learn to adapt your habits and exercises to the invariable laws of the body, so that self-control may become easy. When one particular passion grows mutinous and raves, it is a sad commentary either upon our parents or upon our own knowledge of the laws of health. As Pope says :— " First follow nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is still the same. Unerring nature—still divinely bright _ One clear, unchanged, and universal light; Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart— At once the source, and end, and test of art." 176 The Body and Soul, etc. THE BODY AND SOUL-RELIGION AND HEALTH GO TOGETHER. Oft from the body by long ails mistuned, These evils sprung, the important health, That of the mind, destroy ; and when the mind They first invade, the conscious body soon If the history of bodily infirmities and diseases, in respect to their influence upon the motives of men and the course of events, were faithfully written, it would be found that many crimes have been ascribed to the devil, or to original sin, that ought to be charged to the account of a dyspeptic stomach or a dizzy brain. The bad tem- pers and fitful moods that disturb so many hearts and homes may be ascribed directly to an unsoundly transmitted constitution, or indi- rectly to a violation of the laws of health. Many a boy who is cross enough to bite his mother, may owe that temper to his mother's own transmission—or to her neglect of his training afterwards. Nor can a whole library exhaust the topic that morals and religion are de- pendent upon form of body and mind. As Horace Mann says, "health is dependent upon religion, and religion upon health." The " Christian Enquirer " lately observed that " the cunning old priest- hoods understood this very well, and laid regular siege to the rebel- lious will by cutting off the alimentary supplies, and actually starving out the resident forces who garrison that proud citadel, the body." " The system of fasting," said that paper, " is a powerful ally to priestcraft, for it weakens the will, quickens the sensibilities, and produces just the state of mind most favorable to passive obedience and blind devotion." The morality and religion of man is always subject to the necessi- ties of his body and mind. His temperament is independent of him, and it influences his passions and thoughts ; his blood, more or less pure, abundant, or warm, affects his vision and his perception of things—his nerves more or less relaxed—his food more or less indi- gestible, influences both his religion, morals, and appearance. To dissipate the clouds which obscure men's way to morality, religion, and happiness, and establish these desideratums upon the only real basis, is to procreate healthy children, and afterwards develop their every faculty into a harmonious action. The Temperature and Health of Body. 177 THE TEMPERATURE AND HEALTH OF BODY. The body, moulded by the clime, endures Th' equator heats or hyperborean frost; Except by habits foreign to its turn, Unwise, you counteract its forming pow'r. Rude at the first, the winter shocks you less By long acquaintance : study then your sky, Form to its manners your obsequious frame. The degree of heat indicated by 60 degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- mometer, a moderate summer day, is what the human body finds it agreeable to be exposed to when in a state of activity. In air much colder, the body experiences an unpleasant sensation, unless warm clothing be worn, or a pretty active exercise be indulged in. When either by artificial or by natural means, the body is kept in a suit- able state of warmth, the functions of the circulation and perspira- tion in the skin go on healthily; it is red in consequence of the blood being urged into the capillaries or minute vessels near the surface. It is also soft and moist, from the action of the glands in secreting the waste fluid and its free egress through the pores. This is a condition of great comfort, and the appearance of those who en- joy it, conveys to others the certainty that they are in good health. When, on the contrary, there is a much lower temperature, the functions of the skin vessels are apt to be considerably deranged. The vessels, in these circumstances, contract; the blood is driven inwards, where it sometimes occasions dangerous diseases. The perspiration, also, being prevented from passing out by its usual channels, coughs, cold, and consumption ensue. A very foolish notion prevails that exposure to cold tends to in- duce hardness of constitution, and to promote health. There is no question that harm results from an opposite extreme, of excessive clothing, and heated rooms ; but safety lies in a medium between these two extremes. There is a degree of warmth which is both agreeable and healthy, and which we should aim to possess. It is very desirable at all periods of life, to avoid exposure to very low temperatures, such as in cold school-rooms, workshops, etc., for any considerable time. Clothing should be in proportion to the temper- 23 178 The Bath as a Promoter of Beauty and Health. ature of the climate and the season of the year; and where there are abrupt transitions from heat to cold, it is not safe ever to go very thinly clad, lest we be exposed to a sudden chill before we can effect a change of dress. Very fatal effects often result to ladies from incautiously stepping out of heated rooms into the chill air without putting on a sufficiency of shawls to preserve the uniformity of temperature. Exercise, however, must be fully acknowledged as the grand basis for keeping up a high tone of health in chilly weather. Those who remain constantly in warm rooms, loaded with clothing, are very susceptible of damage from a change of temperature from the atmosphere, on account of their very relaxed state of body. THE BATH AS A PROMOTER OF BEAUTY AND HEALTH. " 'Tis Elysium, In ye bathe, filled with ye sparkling crystal springe (Bowered with roses, honeysuekle and jasmine), Chin-high immersed, in blissful ease to Heat lengtho." From birth to death—in health and sickness—water is ever a re- quisite. Baths were dedicated by the ancients to the divinities of medicine, strength, and wisdom, JEsculapius, Hercules, and Mi- nerva ; baths, by the ancient Israelites, the Egyptians, and the in- habitants of India, were considered typical of moral purity. Yet, strangely enough, the civilized nations of Europe have not equalled in the use of the bath, the less cultivated Hindoos, Persians, Turks, Finlanders, Norwegians, and Russians. The majority of the Eng- lish and Americans do not use the bath. Personal cleanliness is at once so conducive to health, to growth, so essential to social comfort, and so naturally allied to beauty of per- son and purity of mind, that it deserves to be esteemed one of the first physical virtues. We bathe the face and hands daily, and oftener, and know how comfortable the skin upon these parts feels after the operation. But if this duty is neglected, the skin is irri- table and irritated; it seems stiff and loaded, and we feel disposed to scratch and rub it to remove the disagreeable burden. But the Utility of Clothing to Health. 179 other parts, which are not so frequently washed, are not so easily offended. They bear the burden of accumulated excretions and dust with less complaint. But if they were cleansed as faithfully as the hands and the face, they would be equally sensitive, and feel as keenly the comfort of the bath and the discomfort of neglect. This sensibility of the skin of the hands and face is mere cultiva- tion, and might as well be cultivated all over the body. But the body with many parties is seldom bathed ; the consequence is that the skin becomes loaded with excretions, it loses its sensibility, the cutaneous circulation is unsustained, and the whole body becomes comparatively dull, inactive, and unhealthy. In those who bathe, the whole skin becomes active ; the cutaneous waste is carried away; they bear heat or cold better than those who only wash the face and hands; and they feel a general lightness and buoyancy through their frames. The frequent use of tepid baths is not more grateful to the sense than salutary to health and to beauty. Not only is cutaneous filth and corporeal impurities removed, but the surface becomes beauti- fully bright, and colds in the young, rheumatic and paralytic affec- tions in the old, are dispersed by this delightful antidote. The wo- men of Eastern nations have skins softer than velvet through the use of the bath, and their healths by it are preserved, which the seden- tary confinement of their lives, otherwise, must destroy. So indis- pensable to health and beauty is the bath in America, which is sub- ject to variations of heat, cold, rains, fogs, and general changeability of temperature, that it is strongly recommended to every lady to make a bath daily as indispensable an article in her house as a looking-glass. UTILITY OF CLOTHING TO HEALTH. What's this 1 a sleeve ! 'tis like a de mi-cannon ; What! up and down, carved like an apple-tart 1 Hero's snip, and nip, and cut, and slish, and slash. The utility of clothing is to protect us against cold, and w damp. Wet jand damp are only different modes of applying 180 Utility of Clothing to Health. but their agency is more deleterious generally than a dry, freezing cold, because they relax the frame, and render it more susceptible of lowering impressions. The effects of cold on the human frame are very capricious. We shrink from casual exposure to rain, drafts of air, or wet feet ; and instances are constantly occurring wherein the neglect of these precautions, in seemingly healthy persons, has produced depressions of nervous power, of circulation ; and some- times the very reaction brings them to destruction. In other in- stances, it seems as if the human frame were iron, and impassive to cold, neither lowered by it nor reacting. Look at the number of consumptives on the one hand—and at the explorers of the Arctic Ocean on the other. Clothing itself does not give heat, but its utility consists in its preventing the escape of heat from the body; and the materials used in the manufacture of apparel should be bad conductors of heat in the winter, that is, they should have little tendency to conduct or remove heat from the body. On the contrary, they should retain what they receive. This property depends on the power which the garment possesses of detaining in its meshes atmospheric air. Furs, for instance, have this property in its fullest extent. Woolen cloths rank second in this qualification. Cotton is third—silk is fourth. For summer wear, linen is a good conductor of heat, but cotton being smoother in texture, and not so readily absorbing the transpired fluids of the system, or the moisture of the atmosphere is not so ob- jectionable as linen. Materials for clothing should be as destitute as possible of the property of absorbing and retaining moisture, for the following reasons given by Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh: 1st. Moisture renders apparel a good conductor of heat. Hence, damp clothing should never be worn, as it retains less heat than dry. 2d. If the perspired fluid and the saline material it holds in solution, are readily absorbed by the clothing, they become sources of irritation to the skin with which the apparel comes in contact. Horace Mann, among other beautiful thoughts on dress, has the following : " The forms and materials of dress should always be made rigidly subservient to the laws of health. No garment should ever Modesty of Dress in Females. 181 be allowed to interfere with entire freedom of locomotion, or with the natural action of any bodily organ, or with the perfectly free circulation of blood. MODESTY OF DRESS IN FEMALES. Give me a form, give me a face, That lend simplicity a grace, Robes loosely flowing, hair as free,— Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art That take mine eye but not my heart. The first use of clothing being to keep the body at a healthy tem- perature, the second, is for the purposes of modesty. It is a point of much contention, which is ever varying with the fashion, how much of her form a female may display without the charge of im- modesty. Thirty years ago it was common for ladies to wear short sleeves, leaving their arms bare, but in the present day, they would as soon show a bare leg as a bare arm. Sleeves have been used in every shape from the balloon, shoulder-of-mutton, down to the tight or stocking-sleeve. Formerly the neck and bosom were much exposed—that fashion, after several mutations, is returning. Amongst the city dames the skirts of the dress have been much used to sweeping the floors and pavements, but the " bloomers" are much given to show their legs and feet in " pants." Among our old grandmothers, to be seen with the head uncovered, was positive indecency—to-day to have it covered is regularly vulgar. A man fifty years ago was ashamed to wear gloves except in cold weather—the polished dandy of.to-day thinks it both indecent and vulgar to be seen without gloves in sweltering weather. Which of these respectable creatures is the most enlightened we do not take upon us to say—for ourselves, we prefer the grandmothers. The poet's remarks of certain women of the last century are applicable now. Speaking of their dress, he says it was— " Without taste or use, As silly pride and idleness produce, Curled, scented, furbelowed and flounced around, With feet too delicate to touch the ground, They stretch'd the neck, and roll'd the wanton eye, And sigh'd for every fool that fluttered by. 182 Beauty in Dress of Both Sexes. Immodest behavior being disgusting in woman, we may therefore, suppose that immodest exposure is disgusting also. The fashion of exposing the arms in a suitable temperature was not disgusting, es- pecially where those arms were well shaped and feminine. Admit- ting the analogy of the lower limbs to the upper, the exposure of the feet and ancles is neither immodest nor ungraceful, as it tends to cleanness in walking. The bosom should certainly be hidden, being too sexual in appearance. But it must be disgusting to every . eye acquainted with the true figure of the human being, to see the rest of the body hooped and bustled, until woman looks like a wasp ; her upper and lower extremities joined together, as Willis expressed it, " by a hyphen !" BEAUTY IN DRESS OF BOTH SEXES. Now awful beauty puts on all its arms ; The fair each moment rises in her charms, Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace, And calls forth all the wonders of her face. It has been said, that without dress a handsome person is a gem— but a gem that is not set. There is some truth in the saying. Beauty in dress consists in its distinctly showing the distinctive beauties of sex. Thus woman's delicate skin is set off with material of delicate texture ; her less feet and hands should not be disfigured with shoes or gloves like those of a robust man—yet should ever be in accordance with the temperature and her employments. The form of her taper neck and drooping shoulder should never be ob- scured by folds of dress. On the contrary, man, who has a bull- like neck, and broad square shoulders, looks well in collar and epau- lettes, which well develop this sexual difference. Her small, round ankles and wrists are set of by shoes and a bracelet; whilst the body, ankles and wrists of man look best covered. Hence, one sex may with true propriety, for physical reasons, reject every form of dress which looks becoming in the other. Fine taste decrees that the beautiful outline of a well-proportioned figure should be discovered in the contour of a nicely adapted dress—that the habiliments should A Town or Country Life, etc. m impart the softening shade of modesty to the defined outline of the form—that the shape of either sex ought never to be obscured by dress, but rather developed by it; (except when the persons are really ill-formed) and that the motion of the body should never be obstructed by exuberant or useless appendages. The Greeks knew nothing of our multiplicity of ligatures, shackles and bandges ; they wore loose and easy dresses, that showed those fine proportions of body so observable to-day in their statues. A TOWN OR COUNTRY LIFE ON HEALTH AND LONGEVITY. " Ye who amid thi3 feverish world would wear A body free from pain, of cares a mind ; Fly the rank city, shun its turbid air." Very good indeed, Dr. Armstrong, is that advice to those who are able to follow it. But for those who cannot, what then ? Why simply, they must understand the organic laws on which human health depends, and then set about such sanitory reforms in our streets, buildings, food, exercise, and cleanliness, as will reduce the mortality to the minimum, and elevate health to the maximum. The subjects glanced at in this work point in this direction. The influence of external circumstances, upon the birth, constitution, and vitality of the human being, has been considered under various forms throughout this work, but it is a text upon which we may treat forever, and still forever find the subject unexhausted. There is a certain class of society to whom the motto of Dr. Armstrong espe- cially applies. We mean the sons and daughters of toil and of mis- fortune, who are condemned to a life of incessant drudgery or con- finement in places where pure air and exercise are for the most part denied them. And this class is numerous enough to comprise all other portions of society. There is no insult in the statement that the rich as well as the poor, are obliged to live under certain artifi- cial circumstances which enervate and injure them. The drudge who works in mines by torchlight, and sees the sun and sky but as a leisure and a luxury—the busy mechanic, who passes the greater part of his existence in an atmosphere noisome and ill-ventilated— 184 A Town or Country Life, etc. the shopman, the clerk, the shoemaker, the tailor, the poor seam- stress, and the poorer, and more piteous still, street-walker, whose only air and exercise are in the cold and damp of evening—the stu- dent, the editor, and the statesman, who seek no respite from their studies, their books, papers, and scrolls, and the pestilence of their closets—all, not one excepted, suffer or sink from want of " That kindly sky, whose fostering power regales, Man, beast, and all the vegetable train." Could the laws of health be made clear and evident to the edu- cated portions of such a city as New York, would they for one mo- ment tolerate the domicils of the poor which are to be found in crowded alleys and courts, and streets ? What must be the condi- tion of humanity in such spots ? What is the condition ? Plague, pestilence, and famine always retreat there. They are the nursing spots of disease and death. Fit trophies of the tomb ! Scrofula, emaciation, stunted growths, shrivelled and deformed limbs, idiocy and imbecility, and hereditary transmission, are the products of such places. If an epidemic seizes upon such spots, it makes its home there, and thousands are its prey. Diseases, which are mild in healthier regions, become malignant there. A mere cold runs into influenza or putrid fever, and either hurries its victims rapidly to the grave, or leaves them to be dragged thither wearily, in a consumptive train. Prescribe for any disease in such places, and you cannot cure it. The furred tongue, the fevered brow, the deranged appetite, the lassitude, hopelessness and melancholy, will linger with the pa- tient until he is moved to a better locality. And these things are not the issue of poverty and starvation. See the half-fed children of the wilderness and prairie of many countries. It has been proved in a London sanatory report, that the poorest people of London eat more, and what is called better food than the peasantry of the coun- try. Yet mark the contrast. The country child will make his meal of raw turnip, blackberries, or apples, and laugh, and work, and digest, and have plenty of good blood. No food is lost to him—it is all ap- propriated, well too—to the purposes of his constitution. His lungs, playing in a pure air, maintain the health and energy of his circula- tion, balance all his functions, strengthen every limb, and build him A Town or Country Life, etc. 185 up a hale, hearty, vigorous man, against whom " the winds of heaven cannot blow too roughly." Ruddy and rollicking, and free as the breezes that feed him—a stranger alike to a passion or a pang, he journeys through existence to tfctt good old age which is pronounced the termination of man's natural life. He suffers but sparingly " the ills that flesh is heir to," and if diseases do attack him through the fault of his transmitters, or his own neglect of the or- ganic laws, his mighty stamina soon enables him to ease the burden. The children born of such a parent, and nurtured under like circum- stances, inherit some strength and soundness, and form a portion of that bold peasantry, which Goldsmith truly said " is its country's pride." It is to this class of people Dr. Armstrong refers in these lines :—' Nothing so foreign but the athletic hind Can labor into blood. The hungry meal Alone he fears, or aliments too thin ; By violent powers too easily subdu'd, Too soon expell'd. His daily labor thaws, To friendly chyle, the most rebellious mass That salt can harden, or the smoke of years; Nor does his gorge the rancid bacon rue, Nor that which Cestria sends, tenacious paste Of solid milk. But ye of softer clay, Infirm and delicate ! and ye who waste, With pale and bloated sloth, the tedious day ! Avoid the stubborn aliment, avoid The full repast; and let sagacious age Grow wiser, lesson'd by the dropping teeth. This is no fancy sketch or comparison of the different states and conditions of man, for it applies with equal truth to the INFERIOR ANIMALS OF TOWN AND COUNTRY. That animals are affected perfectly accordant with man, is an established fact of physiology. There is no reason, beyond that which refers the circumstance to free air and exercise, why the wild duck should be on the wing, firmer and redder in the flesh, and more vigorous and enduring, than its tame species. The wild rab- bit is fleet, its muscles are ruddy and firm, and its bones dense and compact, because it respires a pure air, and is unfettered and free; 24 186 A Town or Country Life, etc. the tame rabbit, on the contrary, is weak, emaciated, and scrofu- lous, through being confined in an impure atmosphere, and having no opportunity of exercise. Keep wild rabbits, as tame ones are usually kept, and they will speedily degenerate. We may trace the watery eye and the tumid belly, the listless gamble and the en- feebled limb, day by day, so long as these little creatures suffer from confinement and artificial living. And thus it is with our own species; take the country child, blushing with rude health, and subject him to the atmosphere of a manufactory of some kind in a oity, and his cheek will soon lose its native hue and its laughing dimple ; his eye will grow wan, and his energies exhaustive. Keep him long enough in toil and confinement, and if he does not perish prematurely, he will degenerate, become scrofulous, and, perhaps, beget a progeny of cripples and consumptives. The sta- sistics of all large towns, tell us fearful truths concerning the influ- ence of occupation in cities upon health. We learn from them that people working in ill-ventilated rooms are not only weakly, dyspep- tic, and early decrepit, but that they are peculiarly liable to fever, and to casual diseases, which, amongst such subjects, are un- usually fatal. Dr. Griscom, in his " Uses and Abuses of Air,'' states that al- though none of the Cimmerian fogs of London or Paris float over the heads of the New Yorkers, yet that London with a population four times the amount of New York, its mortality is not greater than that of the latter city ! He accounts for the mortality of New York through a deficient sewerage, the formation of blind lanes and alleys, the careful manner in which air is excluded from all apart- ments and bed-rooms, the deleterious atmospheric nuisances and ex- halations from carbonic acid, and animal and vegetable matter in a state of putridity. Indeed, Dr. Griscom agrees with Dr. Duncan, that but for hurricanes and thunder storms, New York could not be fitted long for a human residence. As addenda to the above remarks, proving how much oircum- stanoes alter cases, as regards health and life, we find in the recent report of the Registrar General of England, that in the Ulverston Duration of Life in America. 187 district of that country, one person in four attains the age . of seventy! while in the Lancaster district or country, one in six ; but in the town of Preston, one in fifteen—in the larger town of Man- chester, one in seventeen ; while in Liverpool, the largest of the three cities, only one in twenty reaches the age of seventy ! Do not such facts as these make us sympathize with the poet who sings: Come, let's trip to yonder mountain ; Clear's the sky and bright the sun, Sweetly floweth yonder fountain, Streams in swift succession run. DURATION OF LIFE IN AMERICA. Life's little stage is a small eminence, Inch high above the grave : that home of man, Where dwells the multitude ; we gaze around, We read their monuments ; we sigh ; and while We sigh, we sink ; and are what we deplored ; Lamenting or lamented, all our lot. The truth that man's physical degeneration has been the cause and accompaniment of moral decay, begins at last to dawn upon the minds of the best men in every country. That this physical degeneracy actually exists, and is progressive, is easily demon- strable. Every reader of the history of the world and reflector upon what he reads, cannot but see the contrast between the men- tal, moral, and physical condition of society in days long past, and the terrible dilapidation of the individual and social fabric of to-day. As Dr. McCune Smith observes, " We find that civilization has diminished the physical capacity of man." He also remarked, " We have no more improved since the time of the Greeks in lan- guage than in architecture. In the style of writing, we had made no improvement upon the ancients, so in music and statuary. There had been no improvement in the intellectual power of man." It is impossible for the present age to flatter itself into a contrary opinion from that expressed by Dr. McCune Smith. Our mammoth book stores and literary institutions are no proofs to the contrary— our concentrated facilities and magnificent triumphs of bodily labor are no proofs that we are physically improving. In fact, on looking 188 Duration of Life in America. back upon the severe and unbending morality, refinement in taste —in mental and physical vigor and longevity, among the Egypt- ians, Athenians, and Romans ; and consider our advantages from their experience, how little ought we to boast of our superiority. But if the world is physically degenerating, and, of course, morally and mentally, how stands America relatively to the rest of the nations 1 An English author in the face of our eternal boasting of progress, has given a reply. He says, " It is impossible while reading the in- scriptions on the tombs in most of the burial places, not to be painfully affected by the proofs they afford of the shortness of life in America. After reading the dates of births and deaths on these marble monu- ments, we found that out of some hundreds of those who lay under the soft yielding turf, very few had seen more than forty summers, and that by far the greatest proportion had been summoned to their last account before their fifth lustre had been passed. We had long before this noticed and remarked how rare a sight was an aged man or woman in America. There are no drooping forms or decrepit fig- ures, no gray hairs or wrinkled faces ; in short, it would appear that age does not, and cannot exist in the busy growth of the new coun- try. All here is early active existence, and the young have enough to do, without being obliged to fulfill what would appear to them the un- profitable task of ' rocking the cradle of declining years.' There is a link wanting in the chain of human sympathies which connects the ris- ing generation with the ' long ago ' past, when the time-worn octo- genarian is never seen ' with solemn steps and slow ' among the robust and young—the prosperous and unthinking of the world. The Americans, however, have no past. The present is theirs, with its daily cares and pleasures; but they have so little to look back upon, that they naturally glance ahead to what is to come. The future is before them with its compound of vague hopes and fears, and they '• guess' and 'calculate' and ' presume,' that it will be a glorious one when the brilliant past of the Old World shall be the only treasure to which it can lay claim." The truth of the above none can gainsay. Under such circum- Social Life in America. 189 stances it is clearly the duty of every member of society to exert any influence he may possess, to avert the physical degeneration; and if he have a mite of information on the removeability of the causes, let. him give it free publicity. Dr. Howe, in his report upon the " Causes of Idiocy," mentions that in Massachusetts out of 420 idiots, he traced their idiocy in 218 cases to gluttony, and 102 to onanism or self-abuse ! and the remainder to debilitated, diseased or deformed parents. Reflect on the following quotation from his " Report," li It is said by physiologists, that among certain classes of miserably paid and poorly fed workmen, the physical system degenerates so rapidly that the children are feeble and puny, and but few live to maturity; that the grand-children are still more puny: until, in the third or fourth generation, the individuals are no longer able to perpetuate their species, and the ranks must be filled up by fresh subjects from other walks of life, to run, perhaps, the same round of deterioration. It would seem, that startled nature, having given warning, by the degenerated condition of three or four generations, at last refuses to continue a race so monstrous upon the earth. We see here another of those checks and balances which the exhausless wisdom of God preestablished in the very nature of man, to prevent his utter degeneration. As the comet, rushing headlong to- ward the sun, is, by the very velocity which it gains, and which seems hurling it into the burning mass, carried safely beyond,—so a race of men, abusing the power of procreation, may rush on to the path of dete- rioration, until, arrived at a certain point, a new principle develops itself, the procreating power is exhausted, and that part of the human family must perish, or regain its power by admixture with a less degenerate race. " It will be seen by the tables that by far the greater part of idiots are children of parents, one or both of whom were of scrofulous temperament, and poor, flabby organization. It is difficult to describe exactly the marks which characterize this low organization, but the eye of a physiologist detects it at once. " Regarding it as a matter relating to the mere animal man, if a farmer had swine, cattle, or horses, as inferior to others of their kind, as many of these people are inferior to other men and women, he would pronounce them unfit to breed from; such persons are indeed unfit to continue the species, for while they multiply its number, they lessen its aggregate power." SOCIAL LIFE IN AMERICA. Where not a sunbeam breaks the gloom, And not a floweret smiles beneath. We make the land into a tomb— And dwell with sickness and with death. Brooks, of the " New York Express," in his European Corres- 190 Every Man, Woman, and Child pondence, for 1854, writing from Germany, talks of the Germans eating their breakfasts in the open air in their gardens—of their pas- sion for forests, woodlands, music, and exercise. He says, life is not all labor there, but business is so regulated as to make life agreeable. He thus concludes one letter : " Now, how is life in America ! What a struggle—what a desperate struggle for existence even ! It seems to me, looking at home from this distance, on the bank of the Elbe, that there are assembled in the United States, as there are here in Europe just now, some five millions of men ready for hostilities. Here they have given them guns, ball, bayonet, and bomb to kill each other with; but there, work, competition, ambition, passion, rage for wealth and position, which destroy more men than will be lost this year, in all these armies gathered from the Baltic sea to the mouth of the Danube—Their hospitals are crowded with the sick and the wounded;—but are not our homes more or less crowded with the dys- peptic, the liver-gone victims of excessive mental excitement, the broken down in early life, the old men of forty, such as are known in no other land but ours 1 Our Wall street anxious faces tell frightful stories of life that never is to ripen. Our speculators everywhere are withered in the bud of their existence. We push on, one after another, and one over another, just as the forlorn hope columns of an army that storm a fort- ress, and as one perishes, we walk over his corpse to mount the battle- ment of fortune we are assaulting. As for myself, even here, I cannot get over my American mechanism. I outrun or outrace everybody in the streets, for nobody walks fast enough for me. I look upon the great pic- ture gallery of this Dresden, not with so much profound admiration of its wonderful masterpieces, but as being wo)th so much—to teach the people here how to make porcelain ware, and how to paint it—how to carve bone and ivory—how to make Dresden a rich manufactory ! The man at the door asked me fifty cents for a catalogue worth ten. The American in me was not thoroughly satisfied until I reflected it was a good specu- lation to pay even that, considering that I saw the whole vast gallery for nothing! The German stands up and sucks in, through his eyes, the Raphaels, and Carlo Dolcas, and the Teniers, &c. I am all the while 1 calculating.' Oh ! you will say, what a ' barbarian!'—but am I not a thinking-out-loud American 1" EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD SHOULD EE HEALTHY, HAPPY AND BEAUTIFUL. Attend my precepts, thoughtless youths, Ere long you'll think them weighty truths ; Prudent it were to think so now, Ere age has silvered o'er your brow ; For he, who at his early years Has sown in vice, shall reap in tears. If folly has possessed his prime, Disease shall gather strength in time. How numberless have been the definitions of health, and what Should be Healthy, Happy, and Beautiful. 191 pains writers and poets have taken to tell us what it is and to bepraise it; but how few persons ever trouble their heads about it, until they lose it. We seem only to understand light by the darkness which fol- lows. Health like light, is a natural law, and the loss of either, when both should prevail, are the accidents which man's individual foolish- ness or stupid local government brings about. Health was given to human nature as a part and parcel of itself, as much as light was or- dained to cheerfulize the world a certain number of hours out of the twenty-four, and just as simple is it to have the full benefit of the one as the other. How grievously deplorable is it, then, to interpose a shadow betwixt ourselves and human beauty, which is the real beauty of creation, or to exclude a ray of the divinity of the universe, which is light; how sorrowful to reflect that while human health and beauty and light might be everybody's portion, so many are totally devoid of either ! A retrospective glance at the past and a reflection upon the pres- ent, are very useful to give us lessons of what our race has been, is, and promises in the future to be. Few of us but witness the threads of infant life daily snapping in the zenith of its enjoyment; few but are acquainted with the incidents of young women cut down in their bloom ; of young men dropping into their graves before they are out of their teens—of fathers and mothers cut off before the summer of their days is passed—few of us but hear our pastors weekly pronouncing the uncertainty of life, but how few summon the resolution to study the laws of the human frame, and try to arrest death's rapid march ! Though deformity, disease and death, are what mankind are most afraid of, yet with a horrid fatality they think they cannot avert them ! Could they, instead of believing in such a libel on the beneficence of deity, be deeply convinced that the eternal laws of nature have connected pain and decrepitude with one mode of life, and health and vigor with another, they would avoid the former and adhere to the latter. If knowledge of this kind were generally diffused, people would cease to imagine that the human constitution was so badly contrived, that a state of general 192 Every Man, Woman, and Child, etc. health could be overset by every little trifle, for instance, by a little cold ; or that the recovery of it lay concealed in a few drops, or a pill; people would cease to interfere with nature's operations by breathing foul air, taking little exercise, eating too much, drinking, or drugging when not required—nor would they neglect themselves so far as to transmit to their innocent offspring diseases that render them for ever unhappy. MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO, is a standing proverb and cannot be denied. It means a clear head in a good frame, but it is a needless pluralism ; for if the body be perfect in all its parts, and perfection implies a properly formed or- ganization throughout, the mind must have a clear field for its man- ifestations. As the vision is imperfect if there be a mote in the eye, so must the mind be distorted if the body be not healthy and pro- portionate. This has no reference to doctrinal opinions, but merely to the medium through which the mind is seen, nor does it require much thinking for the simplest to believe that fact; for whoever suffers from a dull moment, whoever draws a deep sigh, whose heart ever aches, but he is conscious there is somethiug amiss in the local- ity where his grief abides. How much more serious is it when the whole economy of life is disturbed, when, to use a figurative expression, the brain reels in its temple, when fever consumes the whole fabric, when each breath threatens its last doom, when to stand is perilous, and to fall is de- struction, how clear then is it mischief is afloat, which if not averted is fatal; and yet not one of the feelings described, from the passing suspense to the apprehension of immediate dissolution occurs without some positive alteration, and that, each step a less healthy one, in some portion of our structure, albeit it shall be difficult to discover where it is going on. Still, it must be remembered, that beauty of body and mind, is as much a law as gravitation or any other inflexi- ble ordinance of nature. The arrangement was, that man should live and dwell in health in the land in which he was born for, at least, How to Attain the Art of Longevity. 193 THREE-SCORE AND TEN AND FOUR-SCORE YEARS," and that his career should be uninterrupted, except by the casualties which his good sense should teach him to avoid.* Moreover, it is evident these were anticipated, for even fractured limbs, fearful lacerations, and other accidents of the most appaling kind no sooner do they occur than nature, by its own inherent propensity, sets about their immediate reparation. A good lesson this for the maimed,the sick, the ailing, and a hope that the physical man may be regen- erated, when mankind will listen to reason. HOW TO ATTAIN THE ART OF LONGEVITY. " The human frame, as a machine, is perfect—it contains within itself no marks by which we can possibly predict its decay ; it is apparently intended to go on for ever."—Dr. Monroe's Anatomical lectures. The ordinary age of man, we are told, is some " three-score and ten," but we have abundant proof that it is easy to attain a much greater number of years, and the next question comes, why should human existence be so precariously tenable ? Every day of our life we see thousands carried off at all ages, from the suckling to the toothless old man. How is this ? Is it climate, occupation, feeding, fasting, falling houses, thunderbolts, or fires ? Does it not strike every reader that the main cause is we are mostly ill-born—that we mostly spring from a POOR AND FEEBLE STOCK ! and that we are not developed afterwards in accordance with the organic laws of our being ! * Witness for instance the old men of the Revolution and the veterans of the War of 1812; some of the former still alive—many of them have reached upwards of 100 years'. Most of the veterans who now annually parade our streets on anniversary days, have their heads silvered over by the lapse of more than eighty years, and al- though time has left his infallible impress on their brows, many of them are not only full of vivacity, but give promise of divers years of sojourn among us. And to what do they owe this exemption from the now common fate 1 To being much in the open air, to plain diet, composure of mind and exercise. All those among them, who in youth' partook of the growing follies and fashions now so common, have either passed away or are bed-ridden. A long and happy life therefore is in our own hands. 25 194 The Duty of Our Government as regards Life, although so freely given to us, like in a plant, a flower, a tree, a fish, a fowl, or an animal, is only held on certain conditions. We are provided with instincts, with appetites, wants, inclinations, and judgment to control every one of them, and yet the diurnal obituary spares no period, reserves neither sex, nor rich, nor poor. Under all these circumstances, how grateful humanity ought to be to think that all the contingencies of bad health may be evaded, and that the wiser and better portion of mankind may so live as to expire, almost at their pleasure ! Time, or the number of years, has but little to do with old age or death. A man or woman, becomes old or decrepit, when their or- ganization is bad, or their ignorance of themselves causes them to violate the laws of life, either as regards air, exercise, food, clothing, &c, whether they be ten or fifty years old. It is the chemical and mechanical changes that occur in the body, that produce disease, decrepitude and death; and these we must carefully consider. Wild hogs, swans, parrots, eagles, and other creatures live for hund- reds of years ; our ancient Saxon forefathers only began to grow old at one hundred and twenty and thirty years of age, and why should not we live as long and healthily as our ancestors ? Dr. Mon- roe says " there is nothing about the human frame to indicate de- cay," but that it might go on forever ! and surely it is only sheer ignorance of our organization—sheer neglect to practise the laws of God and nature, which prevents us all from maintaining a state of health, activity and prolonged longevity. THE DUTY OF OUR GOVERNMENT AS REGARDS THE BEAUTY AND LONGEVITY OF OUR RACE. COLUMBIA ! Columbia ! to glory arise, The queen of the world, and the child of the skies ; Thy genius commands thee ; with rapture behold, While ages—on ages thy splendors unfold. Thy reign is the last—and the noblest of time ; Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime; Let the crimes of the east—ne'er encrimson thy name; Be freedom, and science, and virtue^-thy fame. The United States are distinguished for the number of associations The Beauty and Longevity of Our Race. 195 for benevolent, intellectual, political, historical, and agricultural im- provement, many of which have succeeded in enlisting the influence and patronage of the State, or general government, in their behalf. They have their festivals, their fairs, their anniversaries, at which the most enlightened minds attend to instruct vast multitudes as to the advantages, advancements, and improvements, made by each during the year. Wealthy individuals in great cities also subscribe for crystal palaces, academies, and theatres, for the convenience of ex- hibiting the products of the workshop, manufactory, farm, garden, and the arts of music, painting, and the drama—others possessed of the wealth of accumulated labor, start Astor Libraries, Girard Colleges, and Cooper Institutes. All these are great, good, and glorious man- ifestations of power, skill, and philanthropy, but unfortunately, they are not the primary necessity—in fact, not the necessity at all of the age. While we are achieving such results in improving the pro- ducts of the earth—in making the elements assume new forms, and developing the artistic and literary tastes and pleasures of hundreds, we are careless, thoughtless, and neglectful of the very foundation of the utility of such progress ; namely, in the structure, beauty, health, and longevity of man ! The old story of putting the cart before the horse is an apt illustration of our present progress. Every nation which has ever made real advances, history tells, commenced by instituting a model of perfection for the development of the hu- man being. The majority of our associations are based on the re- verse principle—they are for training the tastes and minds of the young of our cities—but no adequate means are ever dreamed of for diffusing a thorough and practical knowledge of the physical constitu- tion of humanity ; of the origin and laws of life—of the means of preserving the health, and improving the powers and capacities of the physical structure. What are the consequences of such folly ? Why, the frequenters of these institutions are themselves the victims of the error ; paying the penalty of ignorance of the laws of God, in diseased, stunted, or deformed frames, and short lives. Far from enjoying health and life from 70 to 120 years, Dr. Combe, gives the following averages: 196 The Duty of Our Government as regards 11 The mean general duration of human life is between 38 and 42 years ; the natural limit from 80 to 90. Of all new-born infants one in four dies the first year, two-fifths scarcely attain the sixth year, and before the 22d year, it is reckoned that one-half the gen- eration are consigned to the grave. The number of males in a given number of births exceeds that of the females in the ratio of 16 to 15, but the mortality among male children is at the ratio of 27 to 26." Were this great mortality natural, it would be an impeachment on the Creator. But is clearly unnatural, a penalty of putting the cart before the horse. But who is responsible for all this premature death ? The responsibility rests on every one capable of reflection ; on every one who knows anything, because he must know by expe- rience, how intimate a connexion exists between certain laws and life ; between body and mind—how invariably confined labors, sed- entary lives, unregulated diets, bad air, and want of exercise destroy life—must see how when the diet is proper, the air good and plen- tiful, exercise sufficient, the body is strong, healthy, active, and vi- tative. Parents especially are responsible for the beauty and health of their children, for while they have visited and encouraged the improvement of the lower animals, have scarcely ever applied the principle to themselves or offspring. Some responsibility rests also with our benevolent wealthy, who, knowing that a healthy and vigor- ous population is the great desideratum of the nation, choose, out of deference to antiquated customs, to misapply their means in other directions. The ancient Greeks and Romans understood better; their institutions were directed to the development of the body as well as the mind, and the corporeal portion of their education was termed gymnastics. As a nation—as a people, professing republican simplicity and vir- tue, we require a complete restoration to the primitive tastes and habits which characterized our ancestry. ; At present, it is not man, but money, that is our reverence. The shrines to mammon adorn every street—palatial edifices stand on every avenue and palatial boats on every river—every eye is on the stretch for new Californias, Haytis, Cubas, Sandwich Islands, and Japans ; but to establish in- The Beauty and Longevity of Our Race. 197 stitutions for the full development of the corporeal powers, and to render our race healthy and long-lived, how little enthusiasm is felt, and how little encouragement offered ! National and state governments very properly foster the improve- ment of cattle, sheep, swine, plants and flowers; but no bounty is offered—no honor conferred, or applause bestowed, for the means of invigorating the diseased or weakly—for rejuvenating the debili- tated, or for perfecting, or striving for the perfection of the noblest work of God—Man ! How differently acted the Doric people and government. The Dorians, a people of Greece, who invented the Doric order of architecture, encouraged ever)'institution and method likely to tend to perfecting the human frame ; it was their belief that a well-formed human organization was the most effectual method of attaining moral and intellectual supremacy. Their idea of what a human being should be was embodied in the marble of the Apollo Belvidere. Of its power to give human inspiration we insert the following impressions of Grace Greenwood while viewing it, very lately: " In all his triumphant beauty, excellent vitality, and rejoicing strength, the Apollo stands forth as a pure type of immortality—every inch a god. There is an Olympian spring in the foot, which seems to spurn the earth—a secure disdain of death in the very curve of his nos- trils—a sun-born light on his brow—while the absolute perfection of grace, supernal majesty of the figure, now, as in the old time, seem to lift it above the human and the perishing, into the region of the divine and the eternal." It is not expected that the state governments of the country should become the entire managers of children, but it is not just that those who are so unfortunate as to possess an imperfect physical or mental development should be left to neglect, to transmit disease and death broad-cast. The spirit of the age demands of government that the blind, the mute, the insane, and the idiotic,shall have both care and encouragement. The spirit of the age should consider it equally imperative for the physically unfortunate to he equally provided with adequate means of correcting the evils they labor under. A class of athletic institutes for public gymnastic exercises, for the 198 The Duty of Our Government as regards separate uses of both sexes* would repay, in a thousand ways, the public outlay. They would afford an agreeable resort for the aged, and a pastime for the young and mature ; if they were established in all of our towns and cities, for the free use of the people, they would contribute more towards raising us up a healthy, brave, manly, and handsome race of men and women, than all the other institutions this side of the moon. Money expended in raising up such a race of men would be better invested for the defence of our liberties, than in raising thousands of miles of fortifications, and building whole squadrons of steam-frigates to rival England's boasted wooden walls. The masculine exercises of the Greeks gave their artists living originals from which to copy those perfections of sculptured art that are the boast of their age ; and they are indebted to that fact, and not to their superior genius, for what are called their beautiful '' creations." An author has said, " I would give more for a thou- sand gymnasiums, in our land, well supported, for the purpose of bringing us back one day, to the high perfection of ancient sculpture, than for the same number of schools of art, filled with the most gifted of our sons, with eyes in a ' fine frenzy rolling,' but with no living models worthy of their chisels." By this hitherto neglect of the human body, the mind and spirit have been warped and weakened far beyond all powers of estima- tion ; and just in proportion as the physical system has been neg- lected, so the conscience and the morals of the people have suffered. A correct system of republican and Christian education should em- brace a proper exercise of the body and the intellect, in conjunction with moral and social sentiments ; and nothing but the most partial comprehension of God's laws could have led people of warm hearts and good sense to believe that sound morals and high intellect could be evolved, without the full growth, strength, and perfect and har- monious development of the human body ! * Of course, that these gymnastics are not intended for thoso whose employments during the day exercise all their muscles in tilling the soil, making and working ma- chinery, using tools, building, working a press, moving boxes, and performing any of the infinitely diversified labors requiring locomotion, will be understood by the intel- ligent reader ; but even these classes would find attendance at gymnastic institutions an agreeable pastime. The Beauty and Longevity of Our Race. 199 Whether properly or improperly formed, the soul has possession of the organs of the body, and can, until divorced from the flesh, work by means of no other; hence its manifestations must in a great measure accord with its physical condition. Gymnastic institutions to develop the human structure to its highest perfection is the most urgent want of this generation. Such institutions could be maintained at a very slight expense, consider- ing the advantages to be derived from them. EKBATA PAGE " Cretons of Switzerland" should read Cretans,.......................... ' 42 pendant should read pendent,.......................................... " 43 diminishinging for diminishing in,...................................... ' 47 " fo the organization of a true woman," should read to the, &c,..... ..... " 49 In third line after the word sound, should follow the adverb also,.......... ' 54 " small noses are associated by little minds" should read with,............. ' 67 "form of beauty "should read forms of beauty,.......................... ' 64 " pendant" should read pendent,........................................ ' °9 " taller than woman" should read taller than the female,.................. " 70 Omission of the word to in last line of first paragraph of................... ' 93 " Yet such desires are precarious" should read precocious, in.............. " 98 " How Intermarriage Affect Offspring," should read Intermarriages,...... " 100 " dependant" for dependent,...............................-^j ■ • ■ < •<.• • • " 1-' "babitually"for habitually,.........................V"""^-"•.' D--'-iv-'-.">\" ^ " the heart every pour" should read every hour,....S. X\-.0.:.........• -v* V 153 " depends" in second line should read depend,... ./.£,■>................•;• • /' Lt4 " becomes the feelings" should read become the f«eti»igs,.............../■'~\ " dillutes" should read dilute,.............y J. ^ ^..............^/\^-^ " coals-moke" should read coal-smoke,....... A. ^/l >s^ " her ecommends" should read he recommends, X^... . J.-,- \ -HT£S3^- tf-y^f If 1 7/ -m m m ?w ,VH:w»f! Be? w Jm6 1