It is a wholesome task, at the beginning of a new year, to In beginning with our readers and friends a new year of our 3 It is a wholesome task, at the beginning of a new year, to commune with one's self, by inquiry into the effects of past conduct on bodily health and peace of mind-to contrast, in one's own bosom, good with evil; and to determine, after actual experience and feeling of the comfort of the former, and of the multiplied annoyances inflicted by the latter, so to shape our future course as to insure the continuance of the one and exemption from the other. History and biography are but retrospections of other men's conduct, for the guidance of those who peruse them. Moral suasion consists more in urging to purity of conduct, by the lessons of the past, than by promises for the future. Nearly all the benefits to be derived from these various sources, are obtained by communing with a friend, giving and receiving acknowledgments of error, and the expressions of self-conviction in favour of what was wise, just, and prudent. Know thyself,' as uttered by the ancient sage, is rather an exhortation than advice-rather uttered to rouse to inquiry into our past conduct, and analysis of our present feelings, than an indication of a specific line of conduct. In beginning with our readers and friends a new year of our editorial career, we have indulged in the course of retrospection here spoken of. We have communed with ourselves, and with each other, on the bearing of the opinions advanced, and facts stated in the volume now closed. We have, in default of manly and judicious criticism from others, taken the task on ourselves, and have arrived at conclusions which, though they do not VOL. III.-1 3 wound our self-love, are certainly not a mere echo of this feeling. Having thus prepared ourselves, may we not be allowed, in a frank and friendly spirit, to ask our readers to lend us their ear, while we invite their attention to a brief review of topics, which we have had occasion to present to them concerning their health, and as a necessary connexion, indeed, almost integral part, the evenness of their moral feelings and the vigour of their intellectual faculties. We would pray them to engage for a brief space in the task of retrospection, and while doing so, to separate into two classes, the acts and agents by which their health has been affected during the past year. The first will include all by which they are conscious they have been injured. The second all that have manifestly contributed to their bodily well being. Among the causes operating injuriously they will be able, by a careful retrospection, to separate those which have injured by their excess, from those which are positively and inherently detrimental. Under the first head they will probably class: 1. Eating too promiscuously of numerous articles of food, each single one of which, general experience shows may be made subservient to healthy nutrition. 2. Eating too much of one or two articles of food, which in moderate quantity are universally recognized as wholesome and nourishing. 3. Excess in eating, relatively to deficiency of exercise. 4. Excess in the same way, relatively to period, as heavy suppers just before going to bed. 4. Labour of body, or bodily exercise, in excess, relatively to existing strength or prior habit. 5. Labour of mind or mental exertion, too great in reference to its duration at any one time, or to the particular period, as after a full meal or at midnight. 6. Sleep and repose in bed, excessive in the entire interval, in regard to the limited exercise of mind or body during the day, and to the general usage and-experience of other persons similarly constituted and circumstanced; or sleep and repose misplaced in regard to the period in the twenty-four hours when they are indulged in-as from midnight to eight or ten in the morning, or in the day in place of the night. 7. Amusements and recreations taken at improper periods and places; as when gymnastic exercises, including dancing, are attempted after a full meal; or visits to the theatre or ball-room prolonged late into the night; or any amusement attempted to be enjoyed in a close atmosphere, as in a crowded room, theatre, &c. 8. Exposure to a cool air, or to wind, pure in itself and of refreshing temperature, but misapplied relatively to exhaustion from great bodily exercise, much perspiration, and cool skin. 9. The use of drink, of a wrong temperature in regard to the existing state of the body, as when very cold water is drunk by a person who has been exhausted by exposure to intense solar heat and great labour; or who is at the time suffering from cramps or flying pains in the stomach: the whole mischief here has been from the coldness, not the fluid itself, than which there is no other so salutary, safe and proper, if it be of a suitable temperature. The agents inherently detrimental to health will be found, by the persons who indulge in retrospection of their own feelings, to be those which are neither adapted to nourish the body, nor to give appropriate stimulus and exercise to any one sense; but the effect of which is uniformly, with more or less rapidity, to weaken, by first exciting-and to destroy the balance of the functions of the body, and render unequal the operation of the mental faculties. First in degree, of the directly injurious causes, are fluid stimuli with an alcoholic basis, such as distilled and vinous liquors, solid substances of a narcotic character, and chiefly tobacco in its various forms, and opium: next in the scale are other matters called medicinal, such as salts, acids, bitter mixtures and infusions, astringents and chalybeates-when habitually or oft taken. Next in importance to the communion with one's self about matters of direct personal interest and gratification, comes that which fixes our attention and feelings on whatever concerns those we love. Let us then invoke mothers, while reviewing the past year, to scrutinize with care the effects of the course they have pursued, on the health of their children. Have they followed out the advice and directions which, when first given, they received with readiness, and promised to act on? Has the puny and pallid infant become, during the year, a chubby faced child? or has the fulness and colour of health been exchanged in the little being for an emaciated and sickly frame? Has the occasional indulgence of its appetite for cakes, sugar plums, &c. been allowed to become a fixed indulgence? and have its colics been converted into habitual indigestion, with its accompaniments fretfulness, much crying, and irascibility? Is its sleep sound and refreshing, or broken by starts and screams? On the solution of these questions depends the course of conduct which the mother ought to pursue for the future, so as no longer to sacrifice the health of her child to her own indolence, waywardness, or forgetfulness. Let her inquire what in its clothing, its food, and its exercise in the open air is faulty, according to the opinion of those on whom she reposes confidence, and to general experience. Does a father now make the unwelcome discovery that his son, just entering his teens, smokes a segar occasionally, and can toss off a glass of grog?-he ought to ask himself, on retrospection, what there has been in his own practice, in these particulars, to set so bad, so cruel an example. We might greatly extend these interrogatories, in the same spirit of friendly communing with our readers: but if they allow their minds to dwell on the topics already offered to them, they cannot fail to see the bearing of others in close connexion with these. There is one great obstacle to their duly appreciating the |
