But, ladies, there is an old and true proverb, that you may bring
a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. And in like
wise it is too true, that you may bring people to the fresh air,
but you cannot make them breath it. Their own folly, or the folly
of their parents and educators, prevents their lungs being duly
filled and duly emptied. Therefore the blood is not duly
oxygenated, and the whole system goes wrong. Paleness, weakness,
consumption, scrofula, and too many other ailments, are the
consequences of ill-filled lungs. For without well-filled lungs,
robust health is impossible.

And if anyone shall answer: "We do not want robust health so much
as intellectual attainment; the mortal body, being the lower
organ, must take its chance, and be even sacrificed, if need be to
the higher organ--the immortal mind"--To such I reply, You cannot
do it. The laws of nature, which are the express will of God,
laugh such attempts to scorn. Every organ of the body is formed
out of the blood; and if the blood be vitiated, every organ
suffers in proportion to its delicacy; and the brain, being the
most delicate and highly specialised of all organs, suffers most
of all, and soonest of all, as everyone knows who has tried to
work his brain when his digestion was the least out of order.
Nay, the very morals will suffer. From ill-filled lungs, which
signify ill-repaired blood, arise year by year an amount not
merely of disease, but of folly, temper, laziness, intemperance,
madness, and, let me tell you fairly, crime--the sum of which will
never be known till that great day when men shall be called to
account for all deeds done in the body, whether they be good or
evil.