The principles of education which are thus laid down are the following, viz.: a constant observance of the order of human growth, the selection of studies that will carry out this order, habits and arrangements of college life that will enforce it, direct instruction in the necessary conditions of health, and careful training of the body. It is giving to education the grandest of all objects—use, which, if properly understood, includes the highest and most permanent culture of which the individual is capable. Were our beautiful sea-coasts studded with such colleges, with their wonderful playgrounds washed twice a day by the Atlantic waves, furnishing endless treasures for the eager gatherers, enthusiasm for health-giving studies would grow up in the youthful mind, and a stronger generation mould a nobler society.
The establishment of sanitary improvements by Government, and the remodelling of education, are not the only means by which we must seek to obey those Divine laws which are implanted in our nature. Every class of society, every institution—in short, our whole social life—needs to be re-born into the idea of health. The customs to which we all conform, whether rich or poor, the standards by which we measure success in life, and the means by which we seek to reach it, are all opposed to the idea of health. The hours we keep, our dress, our food, the excitements and strain of life, are injurious alike to mind and body. The deeper we look into the structure and state of society, the more serious are the effects of the general neglect of the laws of human growth. Practical life now is a cruel foe to pure enthusiastic youth; purity and enthusiasm are alike destroyed by the corrupt and faithless society into which they enter. We preach one standard of right; we practise another. We exact a superhuman effort from our children when, surrounded by temptations, we tell them not to fall into evil habits; we require an impossible thing when we expect them, as social beings, to do what is right when society does what is wrong. The diffusion, therefore, of sanitary knowledge through all classes of adult society is as necessary as the remodelling of education. It is through the gradual diffusion of this knowledge that combinations of individuals may be formed who will be strong enough to put down some of the senseless and injurious customs that now pervade society.
This principle of combination may wield a great and increasing power for good. Departure from any established custom by a single individual is an eccentricity, but the union of fifty for the same purpose will exercise a decided influence, and a hundred resolute men and women form a social power in the State. It is encouraging to recognise the power that might be exerted by such a band resolved to carry out the ‘Laws of Health’ in their daily lives!
There is only one form of combination, however, that I shall venture to suggest, and whose utility I think will be at once apparent.
I refer to the formation of a National Health Society.[23] Such a society seems to be much needed—needed to give combination, direction, and impulse to the efforts of individuals; to form a storehouse of information to which all could apply; to assist health legislation by looking at this great subject from a family point of view, and educating the community into an intelligent appreciation of wise legislative measures; to attack such a great and growing evil as that of unconsumed smoke; to suggest improvements in education, and draw every charitable institution into health missionary work. Every other subject of human interest is represented by some society, more or less active, which takes up the social side of each particular work and urges its claims. It seems characteristic of the general neglect with which Health is treated that no national society of men and women has yet been formed to promote this vital subject—Health.
Such a society should extend its branches into every town and village of the land, and form a body of corresponding members, not only throughout the kingdom, but abroad. It might, with great advantage, promote the wide application of that excellent system of instruction initiated by Mr. Twining, of Twickenham. This gentleman has devoted his life to the diffusion of sanitary knowledge. Having established a museum of domestic arts in his grounds, open to the public, he has written a series of lectures, which are read by the curator of his museum and illustrated by his librarian, the illustrations for each lecture being ingeniously packed in a small box; he generously sends this little establishment to any place which will make arrangements for the delivery of the lectures. Such a system, varying the lectures and illustrations, might be applied to every little village in England, for two young ladies or gentlemen might certainly be found in every place to read discourses so prepared. If a Health Society did no other work than keep in constant activity such a simple plan of instruction as this, it would do a work of immense utility. There is, however, no limit to the practical suggestions that might thus be brought before the public to the influence that might be exercised upon family life, or to the sanitary institutions that might be formed by an energetic Health Society.
I have thus endeavoured to show:
1. That there are laws governing human growth according to an unvarying plan.
2. That neglect to study and obey these laws produces individual suffering in all classes of society and national degeneration.
3. That obedience must be rendered through legislation, education, and social life.