Dear Reader: Did you ever notice the almost constant anxiety under which a fond mother brings up her offspring? How two-year-old Johnny must not stand near the window, for fear the little fellow might get cold in his head. How Susy, his sister, must not remain in the open doorway after "playing tag," lest she cool off too quickly, and get the croup. How Tom, who got caught in a shower, must take his wet garments off at once, under the certain belief that if he does not that a rheumatic fever or a quick consumption must follow. How Jane Maria must not eat buckwheat cakes for breakfast, or the certain penalty will follow of blotches on her countenance. While the oldest of the family, bluff Ben, will, if he persists in eating pork pie for lunch, follow his uncle Tom to an untimely grave! How well subjugated are they all by these poor trifles, and how contemptible appears mind at the feet of matter! How the Divine injunction "Take no thought of the body" is set at naught, as though destitute of wisdom. Contrast this picture with the opposite freedom and health of the family instructed in the science of man's being.
The two-year-old boy stands by the window and flattens his nose upon the pane by the half hour, yet is none the worse for it—nose or body. His little sister, heated by exercise, heeds not the cooling process, and yet no sudden disease follows. The growing boy, unavoidably meeting a rain-storm, although drenched to the skin, meets it without fear, for he is taught that on doing one's duty no evil result can follow, and he changes his clothing only from a desire to be more comfortable. The young lady of the family partakes of her morning meal, well knowing that no disfiguring marks appear on her face from eating any article of food, even if her neighbors solemnly believe to the contrary, while the sturdy youth takes his lunch and gives no heed to hygiene, for he has been taught that food injures only as he admits its power to injure.
And so we might draw the parallel between the two families in a hundred particulars to illustrate the great fact that in the former there is almost abject slavery to material things, while in the latter there is enlarged liberty of thought, freedom of action, and a higher spiritual and physical development.
