_habit_, will help much to preserve him, when he is no longer
under his maid's or tutor's eye.

"More fevers and surfeits are got by people's drinking when they are
hot, than by any one thing I know. If he (the child) be very hot, he
should by no means _drink_; at least a good piece of bread, first to be
eaten, will gain time to warm his drink _blood hot_, which then he may
drink safely. If he be very dry, it will go down so warmed, and quench
his thirst better; and if he will not drink it so warmed, abstaining
will not hurt him. Besides, this will teach him to forbear, which is a
habit of the greatest use for health of mind and body too."

The last remarks are full of wisdom. Mothers may depend upon it, that
every indulgence to which they accustom their children paves the way for
_habitual_ indulgence; and has a tendency to lead, indirectly, to
indulgence in other matters; and, on the contrary, every self-denial
which they can lead children to exercise, voluntarily--even in these
every-day matters of food, drink, exercise, &c. is so much gained in the
great work of self-denial and the resisting of temptation in matters of
higher importance. But I must not moralize too long; having dwelt on
this same point under the head Confectionary. I proceed, therefore, to
make a few more extracts from Mr. Locke:

"Not being permitted to _drink_ without eating, will prevent the custom
of having the cup often at his nose; a dangerous beginning."

"Men often bring habitual hunger and thirst on themselves by custom."

"You may, if you please, bring any one to be thirsty every hour."

"I once lived in a house, where, to appease a froward child, they gave
him _drink_ as often as he cried, so that he was constantly bibbing.
And though he could not speak, yet he drank more in twenty-four hours
than I did."

"It is convenient, for health and sobriety, to drink no more than
natural thirst requires; and he that eats not salt meats, nor drinks
strong drink, will seldom thirst between meals."

Great mischief is often done to their health by children at school; and
one instance of this is, in getting violently heated with exercise, and
then pouring down large quantities of cold water to cool themselves. I
once made it a habitual rule for pupils, that they must drink water, if
they drank it at all, on leaving their seats to go to their plays, but
not afterwards: and I was so situated that I could prevent the law from
being broken, as the