the general system for strength have been,
for twelve or fifteen years, greater than the system could supply. It is
not the last straw that breaks the camel's back, but it is all the
straws. The mother who has educated her daughter into a healthy appetite
for food, as to quality and quantity; who has educated her into a
healthy appetite for sleep; who has, through constant watchfulness over
her clothing, assured herself that no undue demands were made upon the
strength of sustaining muscles, and the constructive and repairing power
of the general vital force, has no need of hours of anxiety as to the
girl's health, and will find no critical periods in her life, for the
hours of anxiety have already been represented by minutes of wise and
rational supervision in all the previous years, and need not be spent
over again.

EXERCISE.

Bodily exercise is in one sense a means of repair, inasmuch as it
quickens the circulation and respiration, and makes the whole organism
more active. The old maxim that Exercise strengthens every power must
not be overlooked, as the arm of the rower or the wrist of the confirmed
croquet-player will testify. But it must also be remembered, and this is
a matter of prime importance, that it is only _judicious_ exercise which
gives strength; and by judicious exercise is meant that in which the
parts exercised are not too steadily on the strain, and that which is
regular. For instance, continual standing in one spot is not judicious
exercise for either man or woman, because the muscles whose contraction
is required to maintain the body in an upright position, are kept for
too long a time in a state of action; the continual tension prevents the
free passage of the blood, and the uniformity of the circulation is
destroyed. Continual standing, in the teaching profession at least, has
broken down many a man as well as many a woman. With women, and
especially with growing women, the danger is greater, resulting, of
course, from the greater breadth of the pelvis and the less physical
strength; and any woman who persists in it, simply exhibits an amount of
recklessness which can be cured only by her own experience, and never by
the advice of others.[6] If she had been better educated, she would know
better and act more wisely. Secondly, exercise which is irregular or is
used spasmodically, is not judicious. If, for instance, our girls had
from their earliest childhood and during many months of the year,