Household Papers and StoriesStowe, Harriet Beecher
General
Household Papers and Stories
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Didactic fiction; Home economics -- Fiction; Short stories
outraged and downtrodden, has turned traitor to the soul, and played
the adversary with fearful power. Who can tell the countless temptations
to evil which flow in from a neglected, disordered, deranged
nervous system,--temptations to anger, to irritability, to selfishness,
to every kind of sin of appetite and passion? No wonder that the poor
soul longs for the hour of release from such a companion.
But that human body which God declares expressly was made to be the
temple of the Holy Spirit, which he considers worthy to be perpetuated
by a resurrection and an immortal existence, cannot be intended to be
a clog and a hindrance to spiritual advancement. A perfect body,
working in perfect tune and time, would open glimpses of happiness to
the soul approaching the joys we hope for in heaven. It is only
through the images of things which our bodily senses have taught us,
that we can form any conception of that future bliss; and the more
perfect these senses, the more perfect our conceptions must be.
The conclusion of the whole matter, and the practical application of
this sermon, is,--First, that all men set themselves to form the idea
of what perfect health is, and resolve to realize it for themselves
and their children. Second, that with a view to this they study the
religion of the body, in such simple and popular treatises as those of
George Combe, Dr. Dio Lewis, and others, and with simple and honest
hearts practice what they there learn. Third, that the training of the
bodily system should form a regular part of our common-school
education,--every common school being provided with a well-instructed
teacher of gymnastics; and the growth and development of each pupil's
body being as much noticed and marked as is now the growth of his
mind. The same course should be continued and enlarged in colleges and
female seminaries, which should have professors of hygiene appointed
to give thorough instruction concerning the laws of health.
And when this is all done, we may hope that crooked spines, pimpled
faces, sallow complexions, stooping shoulders, and all other signs
indicating an undeveloped physical vitality, will, in the course of a
few generations, disappear from the earth, and men will have bodies
which will glorify God, their great Architect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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