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Counsels on Health
youth who would graduate at such institutions would come forth with
stability of character. They would have perseverance, fortitude, and
courage to surmount obstacles, and such principles that they would
not be swayed by a wrong influence, however popular....
Young girls should have been instructed to manufacture wearing
apparel, to cut, make, and mend garments, and thus become educated
for the practical duties of life. For young men, there should be es-
tablishments where they could learn different trades, which would
bring into exercise their muscles as well as their mental powers. If
the youth can have but a one-sided education, which is of the greater
consequence—a knowledge of the sciences, with all the disadvantages
to health and life, or a knowledge of labor for practical life? We un-
hesitatingly answer, The latter. If one must be neglected, let it be the
study of books.
There are very many girls who have married and have families,
who have but little practical knowledge of the duties devolving upon
a wife and mother. They can read and play upon an instrument of
music, but they cannot cook. They cannot make good bread, which
is very essential to the health of the family. They cannot cut and
make garments, for they never learned how. They considered these
things unessential, and in their married life they are as dependent upon
someone to do these things for them as are their own little children. It
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is this inexcusable ignorance in regard to the most needful duties of
life which makes very many unhappy families.
The impression that work is degrading to fashionable life has laid
thousands in the grave who might have lived. Those who perform only
manual labor, frequently work to excess without giving themselves
periods of rest; while the intellectual class overwork the brain and
suffer for want of the healthful vigor that physical labor gives. If the
intellectual would to some extent share the burden of the laboring class
and thus strengthen the muscles, the laboring class might do less and
devote a portion of their time to mental and moral culture. Those of
sedentary and literary habits should take physical exercise, even if they
have no need to labor so far as means are concerned. Health should
be a sufficient inducement to lead them to unite physical with mental
labor.
Moral, intellectual, and physical culture should be combined in
order to have well-developed, well-balanced men and women. Some