Childhood

n the result if the conditions had been favorable? and, second, what becomes of those who are handicapped from birth with tendencies toward various weaknesses? The consensus of opinion in the present age is that the best basis for spiritual, moral and intellectual growth is a sound and healthy body, and toward its attainment our best efforts should be directed. The three chief sources of nourishment are thought, air and food. I place thought first since the other two agencies cannot properly perform their work if the mind is in a perturbed state.Up to a certain point the highest medical authorities admit the power of mind over the body. Happiness and a cheerful environment are most beneficent in their influence, while reliable instances are recorded of the fatal effects of fear, anxiety or grief. If these three distressing states of mentality can in their extreme manifestation produce results so disastrous, it is reasonable to suppose that their presence in daily life, though in a lesser degree, tends to rob the body of much of its vitality and power of resistance to disease. Ninety-nine out of every hundred adults one meets can tell of some childish terror which held them in its clutches for weeks, months, even years, and many a child of imaginative temperament lies awake at night after the light is out, peopling the darkness with shadowy shapes, and cuddling under the bed-clothes until sleep brings troubled dreams. When real danger, grief or anxiety con...