"_The Body Is More Than Raiment; and Life, More Than Meat_."

The normal child is born in a state of naturalness with respect to his
tastes and appetites and the endeavor should be to keep him in this natural
state. But too often his senses are stimulated to excess and an artificial
appetite is begun which usually leads to some form of intemperance. Much of
the excess in drinking is due, not to inheritance, but to vicious feeding.
A false appetite leads to physical unrest and uneasiness and this naturally
lends itself to the pleasure and excitement of drink.

"Why do you not eat the pickles, my son?" said one father; "they are very
nice." "No," said the boy, "I don't see any use in eating spiced pickles,
it doesn't help to make me strong; my teacher says so." Would that every
child were thus trained to prefer wholesome to unwholesome food. Our
schools are doing good work along these lines of personal hygiene; parents
should reinforce the efforts of the teacher by bringing the home hygiene up
to the right standards.

The clothing of children also deserves some attention. Probably in nothing
else is vanity and selfishness more easily displayed than in dress. How
rare a thing it is to find a beautiful child, simply or even plainly
dressed, who is neither vain of her good looks nor of her rich apparel. The
sweetest object in the world is a beautiful child, tastily dressed, free
from vanity, and perfectly natural and unspoiled. The mother who praises
her child's curls or rosy cheeks rather than the child's actions or inner
motives, is developing vanity of the worst kind--placing beauty of
appearance above beauty of conduct.