Construction of the Skin—The secreting Organs—Care of the Skin [235]

CHAPTER XI.

CLOTHING.

Construction of the Bones—Influence of Dress—Description of two Modes of Breathing, and the Effects of Weight and Tightness of Clothing—Proper Mode of sustaining the Clothing [243]

CHAPTER XII.

EARLY RISING.

A Virtue peculiarly American and democratic—In aristocratic Countries, Labor considered degrading—The Hours of Sunlight generally devoted to Labor by the working Classes, and to Sleep by the indolent and wealthy—Sunlight necessary to Health and Growth, whether of Vegetables or Animals—Particularly needful for the Sick—Substitution of artificial Light and Heat by Night a great Waste of Money—Eight hours’ Sleep enough—Excessive Sleep debilitating—Early Rising necessary to a well-regulated Family, to the Amount of Work to be done to the Community, to Schools, and to all Classes in American Society [254]

CHAPTER XIII.

DOMESTIC MANNERS.

Good Manners the Expression of Benevolence in personal Intercourse—Serious Defects in Manners of the Americans—Causes of peculiar Manners to be found in American Life—Want of clear Discrimination—Necessity for Distinctions of Superiority and Subordination—Importance that young Mothers should seriously endeavor to remedy this Defect while educating their Children—Democratic Principle of Equal Rights to be applied, not to our own Interests, but to those of others—The same Courtesy to be extended to all Classes—Necessary Distinctions arising from mutual Relations to be observed—The Strong to defer to the Weak—Precedence yielded by Men to Women in America—Good Manners must be cultivated in early Life—Mutual Relations of Husband and Wife—Parents and Children—The Rearing of Children to Courtesy—De Tocqueville on American Manners [260]