“We endeavor to establish a healthy, trustworthy appetite in our children by always keeping an abundance of all kinds of our eatable food before them, by giving them complete freedom in the choice of their food and in the time of eating, always letting them eat the most desirable food first. Under these conditions variety, abundance and freedom admirably adjust the appetite in harmony with life and health. There is another point which we should consider well. Excessive labor, to which the vast majority of your people here on earth are doomed for life, implies an excessive digestion and assimilation; for the excessive waste of the body, caused by the excessive physical labor, must be repaired by an excessive quantity of food. By this the function of all the internal organs becomes excessive on account of the excessive physical labor. This is one reason why so many of your people are afflicted with burdensome ailments; why so many have brokendown constitutions, and why so many die premature deaths. Nearly all of your people seem to be old when they are yet young.” “You say you allow your children complete freedom in the choice of their food, always permitting them to eat the most desirable food first,” said Rev. Dudley. “Do you think a child would ever eat potatoes, if it could get all the pie and cake it wants?” “Yes, I am sure it would eat something besides pie and cake,” replied Mr. Midith. “You are here laboring under one fundamental mistake, Rev. Dudley. Judging from your words, you are no doubt under the impression that a person naturally prefers one kind of food to some other kind; but that is an error. It is true that some people like one kind of food and some another. You will find some people who think that a horse naturally likes oats better than hay; but this is not true. Let us illustrate: “A horse, say in a pasture, that is at liberty to go to a load of oats and to a load of hay at any time, beginning as a colt, eats hay with as much relish as oats, and never eats too much of either. It will never eat all the oats and leave all the hay; but a horse that has had hay only for a long time, or that has been kept away from feed too long, will, as a rule, seem to prefer oats, and will also very likely eat to excess when left free. Perhaps the effects of overeating may at first not be apparent; but nevertheless they may be there, and if repeated frequently, will soon become apparent. “Just so with a person. One who dines at a table that contains all he desires in variety, in quantity and in quality, has no particular preference for any one kind of food, and he will seldom, if ever, eat to excess. His appetite has not been perverted by want nor by arbitrary constraint. Hence our dietetical lessons are the simplest possible. Provide plenty of everything and allow the eater complete freedom and choice, beginning with infancy.