"Playing in the open air has but this one danger in it, that I know; and that is, that when he is hot with running up and down, he should sit or lie down on the cold or moist earth. This, I grant, and drinking cold drink, when they are hot with labor or exercise, brings more people to the grave, or to the brink of it, by fevers and other diseases, than anything I know. These mischiefs are easily enough prevented when he is little, being then seldom out of sight. And if, during his childhood, he be constantly and rigorously kept from sitting on the ground, or drinking any cold liquor, while he is hot, the custom of forbearing, grown into _habit_, will help much to preserve him, when he is no longer under his maid's or tutor's eye. "More fevers and surfeits are got by people's drinking when they are hot, than by any one thing I know. If he (the child) be very hot, he should by no means _drink_; at least a good piece of bread, first to be eaten, will gain time to warm his drink _blood hot_, which then he may drink safely. If he be very dry, it will go down so warmed, and quench his thirst better; and if he will not drink it so warmed, abstaining will not hurt him. Besides, this will teach him to forbear, which is a habit of the greatest use for health of mind and body too." The last remarks are full of wisdom. Mothers may depend upon it, that every indulgence to which they accustom their children paves the way for _habitual_ indulgence; and has a tendency to lead, indirectly, to indulgence in other matters; and, on the contrary, every self-denial which they can lead children to exercise, voluntarily--even in these every-day matters of food, drink, exercise, &c. is so much gained in the great work of self-denial and the resisting of temptation in matters of higher importance. But I must not moralize too long; having dwelt on this same point under the head Confectionary. I proceed, therefore, to make a few more extracts from Mr. Locke: "Not being permitted to _drink_ without eating, will prevent the custom of having the cup often at his nose; a dangerous beginning." "Men often bring habitual hunger and thirst on themselves by custom." "You may, if you please, bring any one to be thirsty every hour." "I once lived in a house, where, to appease a froward child, they gave him _drink_ as often as he cried, so that he was constantly bibbing. And though he could not speak, yet he drank more in twenty-four hours than I did." "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."