a and bread-and-butter at night, or
some dietary equally insipid, is rigidly adhered to; and any
ministration to the palate is thought needless, or rather, wrong. What
is the consequence? When, on fete-days, there is unlimited access to
good things--when a gift of pocket-money brings the contents of the
confectioner's window within reach, or when by some accident the free
run of a fruit-garden is obtained; then the long-denied, and therefore
intense, desires lead to great excesses. There is an impromptu carnival,
due partly to release from past restraints, and partly to the
consciousness that a long Lent will begin on the morrow. And then, when
the evils of repletion display themselves, it is argued that children
must not be left to the guidance of their appetites! These disastrous
results of artificial restrictions, are themselves cited as proving the
need for further restrictions! We contend, therefore, that the reasoning
used to justify this system of interference is vicious. We contend that,
were children allowed daily to partake of these more sapid edibles, for
which there is a physiological requirement, they would rarely exceed, as
they now mostly do when they have the opportunity: were fruit, as Dr.
Combe recommends, "to constitute a part of the regular food" (given, as
he advises, not between meals, but along with them), there would be none
of that craving which prompts the devouring of crabs and sloes. And
similarly in other cases.

Not only is it that the _a priori_ reasons for trusting the appetites of
children are strong; and that the reasons assigned for distrusting them
are invalid; but it is that no other guidance is worthy of confidence.
What is the value of this parental judgment, set up as an alternative
regulator? When to "Oliver asking for more," the mamma or governess says
"No," on what data does she proceed? She _thinks_ he has had enough. But
where are her grounds for so thinking? Has she some secret understanding
with the boy's stomach--some _clairvoyant_ power enabling her to discern
the needs of his body? If not, how can she safely decide? Does she not
know that the demand of the system for food is determined by numerous
and involved causes--varies with the temperature, with the hygrometric
state of the air, with the electric state of the air--varies also
according to the exercise taken, according to the kind and quantity of
food eaten at the last meal, and according to the rapidity with which