.

Besides, whatever kind of diet you give children, provided they are
used only to simple and common articles of food, let them eat, run, and
play as much as they please, and you may rest assured they will never
eat too much, or be troubled with indigestion. But if you starve them
half the time, and they can find a way to escape your vigilance, they
will injure themselves with all their might, and eat until they are
entirely surfeited.

Unless we dictate to our appetite other rules than those of nature, it
will never be inordinate. Always regulating, prescribing, adding,
retrenching, we do everything with scales in hand. But the scales
measure our own whims, and not our digestive organs.

To return to my illustrations; among country folk the larder and the
orchard are always open, and nobody, young or old, knows what
indigestion means.

Result. The Pupil at the Age of Ten or Twelve.

Supposing that my method is indeed that of nature itself, and that I
have made no mistakes in applying it, I have now conducted my pupil
through the region of sensations to the boundaries of childish reason.
The first step beyond should be that of a man. But before beginning
this new career, let us for a moment cast our eyes over what we have
just traversed. Every age and station in life has a perfection, a
maturity, all its own. We often hear of a full-grown man; in
contemplating a full-grown child we shall find more novelty, and
perhaps no less pleasure.

The existence of finite beings is so barren and so limited that when we
see only what is, it never stirs us to emotion. Real objects are
adorned by the creations of fancy, and without this charm yield us but
a barren satisfaction, tending no farther than to the organ that
perceives them, and the heart is left cold. The earth, clad in the
glories of autumn, displays a wealth which the wondering eye enjoys,
but which arouses no feeling within us; it springs less from sentiment
than from reflection. In spring the landscape is still almost bare;
the forests yield no shade; the verdure is only beginning to bud; and
yet the heart is deeply moved at the sight. We feel within us a new
life, when we see nature thus revive; delightful images surround us;
the companions of pleasure, gentle tears, ever ready to spring at the
touch of tender feelings, brim our eyes. But upon the panorama of the
vintage season, animated and pleasant though it be, we have no tears to
bestow. Why