propensities that annoy parents and teachers. So greatly it corrupts the taste and imagination of our youth, as to almost destroy a love for what is pure and healthful in literature or life. Nothing is so horrible in its effects on body and mind, and so hard to uproot, as a diseased and unhealthy imagination. The doctrine that education is the only safety for a people has been dinned into our ears from childhood; but it may be added, that even education is not a very safe kind of safety, unless it is the right kind of education. On this subject Mr. Herbert Spencer remarked, during his recent visit to Our country: "Not lack of information, but lack of moral sentiment, is the root of the evil.”

But enough has been said to show that as a people we are growing strong intellectually, at a great sacrifice of moral and physical growth, and to arouse an earnest inquiry among all thinkers and humanitarians as to the speediest and most effective remedy possible.

From a close and careful study of the subject I am convinced that the true and speediest remedy for both ills lies in the establishment of a thorough system of physical training in our homes and schools, for both boys and girls, young men and women; but in particular for the girls and women, that they may become strong, healthful, and beautiful physically; and in pleading for the girls and women I am pleading for the nation, and for a higher code of morality;-for good health and good morals are most closely allied, and you cannot get healthy morals and healthy brains to grow in unhealthy bodies. Dr. Johnson says: "Every man is a rascal when he is sick!" "Man know thyself; thou art fearfully and wonderfully made," is to me a most sacred command, for a knowledge of ourselves implies a knowledge of the laws controlling the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms of the universe, of the All-Perfect Mind, to apprehend which

is the end and aim of all mental growth. how beautifully has Tennyson written:

How truly and

“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control—
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
Yet not for power (power of herself
Would come uncalled for), but to live by law,
Acting the law we live by without fear;

And because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.”

The gospel we need to-day is "How to live physically; how to round the five cycles of life into perfection-infancy, childhood, youth, manhood and womanhood, and old age." Women are the natural disciples of this "Gospel of Health." It is preeminently their sphere, first as mothers or nurses, then as teachers, for an immense majority of the teachers of our country are women.

We desire, therefore, that our girls may not only be so trained physically that they may grow into healthy, enduring, glorious womanhood, but that they may be given a thorough knowledge of physiology, a thorough exposition of the mysteries of their own physical being, with a clear statement of the hygienic laws they must obey if they would keep so, and fulfil their duties as mothers and teachers of the race.

Mr. Kingsley says in his book on "Health and Education : "Let duly-educated and legally-qualified women teach to women whatever women ought to know." We will add that a few noble women as athletic trainers and teachers of women would be the greatest godsend to our nation. At the time the Romans were giving so much attention to physical development in order that they might have magnificent warriors, every attention was given to the training of the young men, but still they did not meet that perfect ability desired. This caused them to infer that the imperfectly developed physique

of the mothers must be the barrier to the desired end, and SO a course of athletic training was established for women and girls, and no nation has produced such perfectly and symmetrically formed men and women as was the result of this training. The Roman matron and Roman warrior are synonymous terms.

The first right of every human being is a healthy birthright to be born with a perfectly healthy body; therefore the duties of the mother begin long before her child is born (and the duties of the father also). She should know all that science can teach of the prenatal laws of being and of the laws of heredity. Men have learned that it is possible to direct the operations of nature so as to have finer breeds of horses, cattle, and fowls-to improve our fruits, flowers, and grains. Science searches for the prenatal laws of being, and applies them to the improvement of the lower creation. When shall an enlightened public sentiment demand that those who people the earth shall make themselves worthy of so doing by healthful and noble living, and by practical acquaintance with prenatal laws of being?

You will say this is plain talk. We confess it is, and that it requires some courage to say it; but it is God's truth, and that is always plain talk. Our courage comes from having been identified with different societies in New York which have for their object the relief of suffering humanity—such as homes for the crippled and deformed, asylums for idiots, the inebriate and insane, homes for fallen women, and houses of correction— and the moans of the poor little suffering children (of whom it is said, "Suffer such to come unto me and forbid them not "), the prayers and cries of agony of the drunkard and criminal, the demoniacal curses of the insane, all urge me beyond my power of resistance to plead their cause, and the cause of millions yet unborn; and another cry, that pierces my

heart, mingles with them. It comes from the homes and hearts made desolate by this sin and suffering, from the mothers, wives, and sisters of those poor sick, suffering, and sin-accursed

ones.

We look out into God's beautiful world, and see the lovely flowers in their luxuriance and perfection, the perfect trees and fruits and grains. We enjoy the perfect sunshine, breathe the perfect air, look upward and behold the starry firmament palpitating with millions of worlds, all moving in true accord with the laws of the universe, in perfect harmony. We see perfection everywhere, as the aim and end of all creation, and this love of beauty, of harmony, of perfection in the soul, urges us to plead, in all self-abnegation, that man, the great centre of all, for whom the whole universe exists, may rise to the heights of a glorious perfection; the possibilities of which lie within him. We see glimpses of that possible perfection in good men and women, and it rejoices the heart like sunshine; but we want this subject thought of, talked of, more and more. It is because we know what an immense power woman is for good and for evil that we want her to be educated in, and her sympathies enlisted for, this subject.

It is the mother who takes the infant, a little, helpless, almost unconscious piece of throbbing humanity, and by her knowledge of the laws of life, of its being, makes its life a blessing, or, by her ignorance of these laws, makes its life a curse in after years. It is this knowledge that will make her feel, and teach to others the awful responsibility of cursing or blessing a human being with an existence.

History is replete with the testimony of men who have stood as beacon lights through the progress of civilization, of the influence exerted on their lives and characters by their mothers. Who can estimate the influence of the good old Puritan mothers in the struggle for life and liberty as a nation?

Who can estimate the national worth of Washington's mother, or of that other grand woman, from whom descended that remarkable family of Adams's, who have so largely influenced the sentiments of our country?

Robert Collyer, in one of his lectures, made direct reference to himself and his good health, attributing it all to the fact that his father and mother were good specimens of humanity, and well-mated. His mother was one of the most healthy women he ever knew, and his father one of the most healthy men; but, he adds, "mother was beyond all question the better half in those finer powers from which the children have to draw for their success in life."

Read in Anthony Trollope's Autobiography that remarkable chapter of "My Mother," who did not begin her literary 'career until she was fifty, and then wrote 115 volumes, ceasing to write at 72.

And where, in the world's history of great men, was there ever a more touching tribute to a mother's influence than in the reverential kiss bestowed by President Garfield upon the dear old mother who sat in tearful joy near his side during his inaugural ceremony? Was it not a most beautiful acknowledgement to the world of that mother's power and influence over his life, character, and success?

If our readers were called to testify to the cause of health, and success in life, we have no doubt many could trace it to the mother's influence.

But there is another side to the picture. Go with us to the jails, prisons, penitentiaries, hospitals, and asylums for the physically and morally deformed. Alas! we fear that the testimony of many of the inmates would not be grateful to woman's ear; and what of that great army of drunkards, dying at the rate of 100,000 a year! And, ah! the recruits are from our little ones, the boys and girls from happy homes; and the