iest dawn of Christianity, that the body and soul are
distinct, and that whatever is done to mortify the flesh increases the
spiritual, life, has a grain of truth in it. There were men in our army
who, half-starved, marched through the Southern swamps in a state of
exaltation. They imagined they were walking through floral gardens, with
birds flitting about and singing overhead. But it was an unnatural,
morbid state. So priests deprived themselves of food, and reduced
themselves to the lowest extent physically, and then saw visions; and
were in an exalted mental state. But it was morbid. If a man sit up till
twelve o'clock to write on a certain theme, he may not have a single
idea until that hour; but then his mind begins to work, and perhaps he
can work better than under any other circumstances. But his condition is
abnormal. It does not represent the man's true state of health. He is
gaining that momentary advancement of power at terrible cost.

This disregard of physical conditions is giving rise to national
disturbance. It has thoroughly worked itself into our educational
system. Though our schools profess to be purely secular, they still
adhere to this old theological idea. You can not get teachers to enter
with zest into exercises for physical development, because they think
that a man who trains the body must be inferior to the man who trains
the mind. They do not see that the two are closely allied. They will
tell you that the time is all apportioned, so many hours for each study,
and that if you take half an hour out for exercise the boy must lose so
much Latin or Greek, or something else. The idea of the high-school is
to get the boy into college. They care nothing about the condition of
the individual. The individual must be sacrificed to the reputation of
the school, or of the master; the standard must be kept up. If the
master can not get just such a percentage of scholars into college, his
own reputation and the reputation of the school are injured. If he can
get this percentage into college, he does not care what becomes of the
individual. Our schools treat a boy as professional trainers treat a man
on the field; the only idea is to make the boy win a certain prize. They
do not care any thing about his health; that is nothing to them. Their
reputation is made upon the success of the boy in his entrance to
college. Here I have to step in and say to the father: "This boy must
not go any farther. His future p