Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/255

Rh superstition that insane people vere possessed of evil spirits. Professor Monroe ("History of Education," p. 248) says, "the virtue of the monk was often measured by his ingenuity in devising new and fantastic methods of mortifying the flesh—all these forms of discipline were for the sake of spiritual growth, the moral betterment of the penitent: all these, as the very significance of the word asceticism indicates, reveal the dominant conception of education which prevailed throughout this long period,—the idea of discipline of the physical nature for the sake of growth in moral and spiritual power." So long as the body was considered gross and evil and a mean tenement of clay from which the spirit should strive as soon as possible to escape, it was but natural that bodily care, and much less culture, should be considered unworthy objects of education.

Sleep as a factor in student life does not receive adequate consideration from many students. The student who does not take regular and sufficient sleep is pilfering his own bank account. There is absolutely no substitute for it, and when once lost, restitution can not be made even by a nap in the class-room. Nervous tissues exhausted by a day's activities can only be restored by sleep. Dr. Hall says that no child should be allowed to go to school without having had nine hours of sleep and a good breakfast. This would not be a had rule to guide student life. Parties, athletic jaunts, examination crams, and even working for one's living, which cause students to remain awake beyond the midnight hour, transgress all laws of mental and physical hygiene. There is doubtless no cause so frequently producing nervous breakdown as loss of sleep. Several former students who were pale and anemic while here have returned after a hard year's teaching experience with ruddy complexion, increased weight and all the appearances of vigorous health. I have inquired concerning the change and have been answered, "I guess it is because I get enough sleep now."

The student who goes to college to become a hermit, not touching elbows with his college mates and developing no interests through hearing music, attending lectures on varied subjects, seeing nothing of the great busy world about him, misses a vital factor of college life. His procedure is uneconomical and therefore unethical, for when he emerges from the college halls into the busy, bustling world, he will find himself behind the procession. Because he has not seen the larger world while acquiring his book knowledge, he perceives no relation and often feels that the world is somehow out of joint because it does not conform to his bookish ways. To become efficient he must begin again and study the world about him. He must gain its view-point, adjust himself to it; he must now try to gain friendships which should have been established in college. All this is a wasteful, selfish process.

On the other hand, some students need to be cautioned when they make the opposite and equally grave error of saying that "My