of this instinct. There may be those who find it necessary to live by rule and eat by measure; but the hale and healthy, almost universally, are strangers to all philosophy and theory, in regard to modes of life. They are children of nature, who know and follow only her teachings. She has guarded our welfare by giving us a relish for things salutary, satiety when we have partaken sufficiently, and disgust for what is unwholesome and detrimental. And she prompts to that activity which is needful to the growth and healthy action of the animal functions, and gives us timely warning against the deleterious influence of sudden changes of temperature, and how our clothing should be adjusted so as to be comfortable and promotive of health. In all these matters Nature is our teacher.

But it may be necessary to advert to the lessons which she gives us, in a brief and particular manner, to render her instructions the more forcible.

The preservation of health and the perfect development of the human constitution, depend mainly upon four conditions, which are to be individually considered, Food, Exercise, Air, and Clothing.

I. It is needful that one should have his diet well regulated. This involves the consideration of the quality, quantity, and manner of receiving food. It is well that public attention has been particularly turned to this subject. We live in an age of luxury and indulgence. The rapid accumulation of wealth among the yeomanry of the country, and the abundant supply of the means of gratification, have induced a great change in their modes of living; a change most detrimental to the health and constitutions of

their offspring. Our grandparents, the pioneers of the country, whose heavy blows levelled the forests upon our bleak hills, and whose hard hands subdued the rugged soil in their intervening valleys, lived coarsely and fared scantily. Hence their iron frames and robust constitutions. Some of them yet linger among us, the heroes of the Revolution, or the equally to be honored heroes of that struggle with poverty, privation and hardship, which turned the barren wilderness into fruitful fields, and the haunts of the wild beasts into the pleasant homes we occupy. They have outlived their generation, and seem to defy the laws of human decay. The secret of their endurance and longevity, may be found in their mode of life. Our parents, many of them, partake measurably of their peculiarities. They are sons of hardy sires, and have been schooled somewhat in the same severe habits. But the third generation is evidently quite degenerate in physical development. We are comparatively dwarfed in stature, delicate of constitution and enervated by occult disease, so as hardly to be recognized as the descendants of the Allens, and Warners, and Chittendens, and Starks of a former century. The causes which have worked this change and which are tending to extinguish the blood of these. noble sires, should be sought out and removed; and prominent among them will be found our luxurious habits.

The object of nutrition is to supply the waste which accrues from action, and in the immaturity of earlier years to furnish the materials of growth. There is always waste in action. The smoothestformed wheel, as it passes over the even and polished

railroad track, parts with some of its substance at every revolution,-and even the drop of water that falls upon the rock, wears something from its surface. Vital action, equally with mechanical, is subject to this law. Effort always is accompanied with the expending of some of the material of our bodies. We eat to supply this waste; and, if our growth is not completed, to furnish the elements which enter into our maturing organism. And the question arises, What food is best adapted to this purpose? Appetite is our best guide to indicate the kind of food which, at different times, should be taken. This, when not perverted, is but the indication of what elements are most wanting to supply the needs of the system at any particular period. Children, and the young of all mammiferous animals, crave milk; and it is supplied to them by their Creator with the drawing of their first breath, and it is interesting to notice, that our offspring do not cease to crave it when it is withheld by the natural mother. A second mother, as a substitute, is provided to every child, in some domestic animals, by the pressing of whose udders this universal spring of life's nourishment is opened.

Physiological science has demonstrated, that health cannot be maintained and the human constitution sustained, without the relative supply, in our aliment, of all the elements which enter into our corporeal system. By analysis, it has been ascertained that milk alone, of all articles of food, contains all these elements. It is for this reason that it has been constituted the exclusive focd of the young. adaptedness to their taste and growth.

Hence its Let it be

wanting in any material, and how soon does the child

manifest the fact in the consequences upon his health and constitution! See that pale, puny babe, who totters along upon the floor from his mother's lap, hardly able to sustain his wasting frame, upon curved limbs, to a crack in the plastered wall, where he seeks to gratify what is esteemed a morbid appetite, by helping himself to lime from the crumbling mortar. You see his elongated and deformed head, and enlarged joints; they are an index of his difficulty. He is endeavoring to supply a deficiency in his aliment by artificial means. The milk he receives is deficient in the supply of lime, which is the main ingredient of the bones. They suffer from the deficiency of earthy matter. What causes the striking disparity between children grown in our large cities and in the open country? Something may be attributed to impure air and want of proper exercise, but more still to the deficiencies and impurities which exist in the milk on which they are fed. Think of vast herds of cows huddled together in one confined stable, with only floor enough to each one upon which they may lie down, tasting, perhaps, not once a year a morsel of green food, made to subsist on the refuse of some foul distillery-their bones wasting and softening by a constant drain, their teeth dropping out, the hoofs coming off, and general disease engendered, (such are the adopted nurses of thousands of little innocents in populous cities,) and can you wonder that they become infirm, diseased and tainted? And how much more enviable is the condition of those who rely on a manufactured article, which is extensively sold for milk? The only pure manufactory of this essential article of children's diet is found beyond the reach

of human ingenuity. It is only secreted in the bosom. of the fostering mother, and has its combinations in nature's perfect laboratory. There is a domestic quadruped, which has an essential place in the yard of every family. On her account we prize the country; where we may turn our own cow into the verdant pasture upon the hillside, and, at the coming on of evening, see her return with distended udders, and into the pail between our feet pour out the pure, rich treasures her industry has gathered. And now the children gather around, singing the becoming pastoral

"I love to see the cows come home."

The nectareal cup is in the urchin's hand, and how eagerly he presents it to be filled and quaffed! How his eye glistens and his ruby cheeks glow as he sucks down the pure element of his young life, all warm and frothing as it came from its spring! The milking is past, and the old cow lies down for the night to rest. Industriously does she chew her cud, that the pail in the morning may not be left empty. We will enter the dwelling. The brown loaf and tin dishes. are on the table. The milk-pan, well filled, occupies its centre, and upon a long bench behind are seated, according to age, more than a dozen boys and girls, each with a spoon in hand, waiting anxiously the moment when the delicious, harmless and healthensuring evening's meal shall begin. How proudly presides that happy mother at this homely repast ; and when the supper is ended, how happily repair those rosy-cheeked children to their repose. It may be in a garret, under a low and humble roof, on