Drink.

Strong
Drink

Night, when they first take them home. Believe it, Custom prevails as much by Day as by Night; and you may, if you please, bring any One to be Thirsty every Hour.

I once lived in an House, where, to appease a froward Child, they gave him Drink as often as he cried, so that he was constantly bibbing: And tho' he could not speak, yet he drunk more in Twenty four Hours than I did. Try it when you please, you may with Small, as well as with Strong Beer, drink your self into a Drought. The great Thing to be minded in Education is, what Habits you settle; and therefore in this, as all other Things, do not begin to make any Thing customary, the Practice whereof you would not have continue, and increase. It is convenient for Health and Sobriety, to drink no more than Natural Thirst requires: And he that eats not Salt Meats, nor drinks Strong Drink, will seldom thirst between Meals, unless he has been accustomed to such unseasonable Drinking.

§. 19. Above all, Take great Care that he seldom, if ever, taste

any Wine,

OF

Drink

or Strong Drink. There is nothing so Strong ordinarily given Children in England, and nothing so destructive to them. They ought never to drink any Strong Liquor, but when they need it as a Cordial, and the Doctor prescribes it. And in this Case it is, that Servants are most narrowly to be watched, and most severely to be reprehended when they transgress. Those mean Sort of People, placing a great Part of their Happiness in Strong Drinks are always forward to make Court to my young Master, by offering him that, which they love best themselves; and finding themselves made merry by it, they foolishly think 'twill do the Child no Harm. This you are Carefully to have your Eye upon, and restrain with all the Skill and Industry you can, there being nothing that lays a surer Foundation of Mischief, both to Body and Mind, than Childrens being used to Strong Drink; especially, to drink in private, with the Servants.

§. 20. Fruit makes one of the most Fruit difficult Chapters in the Government of Health, especially that of Children. Our first Parents ventur'd Paradise for C 2

it,

Fruit.

it;

it, and 'tis no Wonder our Children cannot stand the Temptation, though it cost them their Health. The Regulation of this cannot come under any one General Rule. For I am by no Means of their Mind, who would keep Children almost wholly from Fruit, as a Thing totally unwholsome for them: By which strict Way they make them but the more ravenous after and to eat Good and Bad, Ripe or Unripe, all that they can get, whenever they come at it. Melons, Peaches, most sorts of Plumbs, and all forts of Grapes in England. I think Children should be wholly kept from, as having a very tempting Taste, in a very unwhol fome Juice; so that, if it were possible, they should never so much as see them, or know there were any such Thing. But Straw-berries, Cherries, Goose-berries, or Currans, when through ripe, I think may be very safely allowed them, and that with a pretty liberal Hand, if they be eaten with these Cautions 1. Not after Meals, as we usually do, when the Stomach is already full of other food: But I think they should be eaten rather before, or between

Meals,

Meals, and Children should have them Fruit. for their Breakfasts. 2. Bread eaten with thern. 3. Perfectly ripe. If they are thus eaten, I imagine them rather conducing, than hurtful to our Health: Summer-Fruits being suited to the hot Season of the Year, they come in and refresh our Stomachs, languishing and fainting under it: And therefore I should not be altogether so strict in this Point, as some are to their Children; who being kept so very short, instead of a moderate Quantity of well-chosen Fruit, which being allowed them, would content them, when-ever they can get loose, or bribe a Servant to supply them, satis fie their Longing with any Trash they can get, and eat to a Surfeit.

Apples and Pears too, which are through ripe, and have been gathered some Time, I think may be safely eaten at any Time, and in pretty large Quantities; especially Apples, which never did any Body hurt, that I have heard, after October.

Fruits also dried without Sugar, I think very whole fome: But Sweetmeats of all Kinds to be avoided; which,

C 3

Fruit

Sleep.

which, whether they do more Harm to the Maker, or Eater, is not easie to tell. This I am sure, It is one of the most inconvenient Ways of Expence that Vanity hath yet found out; and so I leave them to the Ladies.

§. 21. Of all that looks soft and effeminate, nothing is more to be indulged Children than Sleep: In this alone they are to be permitted to have their full Satisfaction, nothing contributing more to the Growth and Health of Children than Sleep. All that is to be regulated in it is, in what Part of the Twenty four Hours they should take it: Which will easily be resolved, by only saying, That it is of great Use to accustom them to rise early in the Morning. It is best so to do, for Health: And he that, from his Childhood, has by a setled Custom, made Rising betimes easie and familiar to him, will not, when he is a Man, waste the best and most useful Part of his Life in Drowziness, and Lying a-bed. If Children therefore are to be called up early in the Morning, it will follow of Course, that they must go to Bed betimes; whereby they will be accusto

med