You will not become stooped by bending over a desk one day, nor will you become straight by holding yourself erect some one time when you are walking down the street. Eating your dinner hurriedly one day and rushing back to school will not cause dyspepsia, nor will taking time to eat a few meals slowly cure it. The teeth decay, not because we leave them uncleaned for one day, but because we make a habit of leaving them uncleaned. The nervous system is injured, not by staying up late one evening, but by the habit of staying up late. The race for health is a long one, and it is not the short excited dash, but the patient plodding onward in the right course, that wins it. Habits and not acts are the important things in keeping the body in health.

Seven hygienic habits that you ought to form. 1. Keep your teeth clean.

2. Eat moderately and chew your food thoroughly. 3. Breathe pure air whenever it is possible to do so. 4. Go to bed regularly at a reasonable hour. 5. Take proper exercise and hold yourself erect. 6. Learn to rest and to keep yourself calm.

7. Guard yourself, so far as you can, from disease germs.

Form these seven habits and they will do more than all the medicines in the land to keep you in health.

Making hygienic habits a part of our lives. Our habits become a part of our way of living and

doing things, and we do not think of them as something that it requires extra work to carry out. If you will form the habits that we have mentioned above, you will soon clean your teeth as a matter of course and wonder how any one can feel comfortable without doing so. You will find yourself surprised that any one should want to make himself sick by eating too much or by swallowing his food without chewing it. You will think it strange that any one should live in a thick, stuffy atmosphere when there is pure air only the thickness of a window-pane away. You will feel your own hard muscles and almost pity the flabby-muscled people whom you meet. You will get out of patience with the person who potters around when he ought to go to bed; and you will be amused when you see some one get excited over nothing and run around like an ant that has lost its way. You will guard yourself from disease germs without feeling that you are taking extra trouble; and you will feel sorry for the poor persons all about you who needlessly suffer from germ diseases. Put into practice these health habits, and see if after a little while it is any special work for you to carry them out.

Mental habits. As we form habits of the body, so we form habits of the mind. And as it is the habits and not the single acts that are important to the body, so it is the habits that are important to the mind. A boy does not fail in his class because

he misses school one day, and he cannot pass his examinations with a high mark by studying his lessons for one day. It is the steady work day by day that gives the training of the mind, the store of knowledge, and the habits of work that enable a pupil to pass up from grade to grade in a satisfactory manner. Form the habit of studying and you will find that it is as easy to learn your lessons as it is to fail to learn them.

FIG. 74.

Youth the time when lasting habits are formed. Two or three days are enough to form or break a habit in a baby, but the older we become the harder it is for us to break old habits and to form new five years ago a Thirtyones. Just as the bones harden young man tied this as we become older, with whatever hickory tree in a shapes they had in youth, so the nervous system becomes set in its ways of doing things as we advance in years. You should form habits not untie in later that will carry you on in the years. (From a road to health, and to respected, photograph by truthful, successful manhood and Major Ben Cun

womanhood.

knot. Now all the

men in the world could not untie it.

The habits that we

form in youth are knots that we can

The habit of cheerfulness.

Cheerfulness im

proves the digestion, quickens the blood, and gives tone and vigor to the whole body. Care and discontent have exactly the opposite effects. It is most important, therefore, that we form the habit of meeting the world with a brave heart; that we learn to appreciate the sunshine of life, and to dismiss vexatious trifles and useless worry from our minds. The poet Browning gave us both a beautiful song and a splendid philosophy when he wrote: "The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dewpearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn:

God's in His heaven

All's right with the world."

Questions: I. What do we mean by a habit?

are habits formed?

2. How

3. Is it as easy to form a good habit as a bad habit? 4. Name some habits that help to preserve the health. 5. How can one make these a part of his life? 6. How are mental habits formed? 7. Why should we form good habits in youth? 8. What is meant by the old saying, "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined"? 9. By the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks "? 10. Do proverbs of this kind usually express some truth?

Suggestions and topics for development: Have the pupils observe habits that they have formed and experiment in forming small desirable habits.

THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL ON THE BODY

As we have studied the great systems of organs that do the work of the body, we have learned that some of these organs are injured by the use of alcohol. This would be sufficient reason for avoiding alcoholic drinks, even though there were no other reasons. But aside from the damage done by it to separate organs, alcohol has far-reaching effects upon the body as a whole. These effects are more serious than the damage done to any single organ, and we cannot fully understand the evils which result from the use of alcohol until we know what these effects are.

Alcohol not a brain stimulant. It is well known that alcohol in large quantities is a cause of delirium tremens, paralysis, and insanity. The effect of small amounts of alcohol on the nervous system is not so well understood, and many persons still believe that a glass of beer or wine stimulates the brain and increases the working power of the mind and body. This idea is a mistake. Some typesetters were given an ounce (two tablespoonfuls) of alcohol on certain days, and a record was kept of their work. They did nearly one tenth less work and made one fourth more mistakes on the days when they used alcohol than they did on days when they had no alcohol, and the effects of the alcohol lasted through the second day. A man who took three ounces of alcohol each day for twelve