The Family Health. M. Solis-Cohen, M.D. Chapter I, "The Preservation of Health." Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia. The Durable Satisfactions of Life. Dr. Charles W. Eliot. Crowell. Points out ably the higher way. The Study of Children. Francis Warner, M.D. Chapter IV, "Observing the Child. What to Look at and For." The Macmillan Company. What makes a Liberal Education. Editorial. _The Independent_, July 1, 1909. Relation of the Physical Nature of the Child to His Mental and Moral Development. George W. Reed. _Annual Report National Educational Association_, 1909, p. 305. CHAPTER II _THE TIME TO BUILD_ We shall continue to assume that the reader, if a parent, is thinking of his child as being in the position of one whose character requires constant attention in order that it may be built up through the right sort of training and the right sort of practices. Just as certainly as there is a best time in the season to plow corn and also a time not to plow, as there is a time to plow deep and another time to plow shallow, so there is unquestionably a best time to give the child any particular form of training or to withhold it. In general, it may be said that the most effective training in respect to the human young is that which centers most closely around the childish interests and instincts. WHAT OF THE HUMAN INSTINCTS By observing critically for a few days the conduct of an infant child, one may notice two or three pronounced instincts at work producing helpful results in the little life. 1. There is the instinct to nurse, which is so fundamental in securing the food with which to sustain and build up the body. 2. There is the accessory instinct of crying, also often necessary as nature's signal for another intake of the food supply. Associated with these two instincts are a number of reflexes which take care of the important organic processes, such as digestion, assimilation, and excretion. Now, we have practically all there is to the "character" of the human infant. He has, as yet, no instinct for fighting, for sexual love, or for business. And any effort to arouse and make use of the last-named dormant qualities would be futile as well as ridiculous. In respect to a vast majority of the things to be learned, the child is a mere bundle of potentialities, all of which must bide their time for an awakening. In short, wise parents soon learn that the center of life in the infant child is in the stomach, and that if he be fed rightly, kept much in the open air, clothed comfortably, and bathed frequently, the body-building processes will usually go on in a satisfactory manner.