“Most children’s constitutions are either spoiled, or at least harmed, by cockering and tenderness.” They should not be too warmly clad or covered, winter or summer, and to prevent colds the boy’s feet are to be washed every day in cold water, and his shoes made “so thin that they might leak and let in water whenever he comes near it.” For safety and for health’s sake he must learn to swim. He is to be “much in the open air, and very little, as may be, by the fire, even in winter.” Clothing should never be made tight, especially about the breast, and the diet ought to be very plain and simple, with only small beer for drink, and that after eating. Serving his meals at irregular intervals will train him to endure hunger, if necessary. As regards fruit, “our first parents ventured paradise for it, and it is no wonder our children cannot stand the temptation, though it cost them their health.” Some kinds are wholesome and may be taken freely before or between meals, but others are forbidden. Allow no sweetmeats—“one of the most inconvenient ways of expense that vanity hath yet found out; and so I leave them to the ladies.” Nothing is more to be indulged children than sleep, but insist upon early rising, and let the bed be hard and rather quilts than feathers. All may be summed up in these rules: “Plenty of open air, exercise, and sleep; plain diet, no wine or strong drink, and very little or no physic; not too warm and strait clothing; especially the head and feet kept cold, and the feet often used to cold water and exposed to wet.”