ion greatly to magnify its importance when we come to direct our
attention to his intellectual culture, and still more when we view it in
connection with his moral training. Then, and not till then, shall we be
enabled, in some degree, properly to appreciate the importance of
physical education.

It has been objected, says Dr. Combe,[1] that to teach any one how to
take care of his own health, is sure to do harm, by making him
constantly think of this and the other precaution, to the utter
sacrifice of every noble and generous feeling, and to the certain
production of peevishness and discontent. The result, however, he adds,
is exactly the reverse; and it would be a singular anomaly in the
constitution of the moral world were it otherwise. He who is instructed
in, and is familiar with grammar and orthography, writes and spells so
easily and accurately as scarcely to be conscious of attending to the
rules by which he is guided; while he, on the contrary, who is not
instructed in either, and knows not how to arrange his sentences, toils
at the task, and sighs at every line. The same principle holds in regard
to health. He who is acquainted with the general constitution of the
human body, and with the laws which regulate its action, sees at once
his true position when exposed to the causes of disease, decides what
ought to be done, and thereafter feels himself at liberty to devote his
undivided attention to the calls of higher duties. But it is far
otherwise with the person who is destitute of this information.
Uncertain of the nature and extent of the danger, he knows not to which
hand to turn, and either lives in the fear of mortal disease, or, in his
ignorance, resorts to irrational and hurtful precautions, to the certain
neglect of those which he ought to use. It is ignorance, therefore, and
not knowledge, which renders an individual full of fancies and
apprehensions, and robs him of his usefulness. It would be a stigma on
the Creator's wisdom if true knowledge weakened the understanding, and
led to injurious results. Those who have had the most extensive
opportunities of forming an opinion on this subject from extensive
experience, bear unequivocal testimony to the advantages which knowledge
confers in saving health and life, time and anxiety.

[1] Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health.

If, indeed, ignorance were itself a preventive of the danger, or could
provide a remedy when it app