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True Education
demands that which is more and more highly seasoned, pungent,
and stimulating. As the nerves become disordered and the system
weakened, the will seems powerless to resist the unnatural craving.
The delicate coating of the stomach becomes irritated and inflamed
until the most stimulating food fails to give relief. A thirst is created
that nothing but strong drink will quench.
It is the beginnings of evil that should be guarded against. In
instructing the young, the effect of apparently small deviations from
right should be made plain. Teach students the value of a simple,
healthful diet in preventing the desire for unnatural stimulants. Es-
tablish the habit of self-control early in life. Impress the young with
the thought that they are to be masters, not slaves. God has made
them rulers of the kingdom within them, and they are to exercise
their Heaven-appointed kingship. When such instruction is faithfully
given, the results will extend far beyond the students themselves.
Influences will reach out that will save thousands of men and women
who are on the very brink of ruin.
Diet and Mental Development
The relation of diet to intellectual development should be given
far more attention than it has received. Mental confusion and dull-
ness are often the result of errors in diet.
It is frequently urged that appetite is a safe guide in the selection
of food. If the laws of health had always been obeyed, that would
be true. But through wrong habits, continued from generation to
generation, appetite has become so perverted that it is constantly
craving some hurtful gratification. As a guide it cannot now be
trusted.
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In the study of hygiene, students should be taught the nutrient
value of different foods. The effect of a concentrated and stimulating
diet, also of foods deficient in the elements of nutrition, should be
made plain. Tea and coffee, fine-flour bread, pickles, coarse veg-
etables, candies, condiments, and pastries fail of supplying proper
nutriment. Many a student has broken down as the result of using
such foods. Many a puny child, incapable of vigorous effort of mind
or body, is the victim of an impoverished diet. Grains, fruits, nuts,
and vegetables, in proper combination, contain all the elements of