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 short it may have been. For he has seen the true light. He has not been one of the common herd; but has lived a full life, and has come to maturity.” And again: “As a perfect man can exist in a small body, so can a perfect life be found in a short term of years. The duration of life is a purely accidental circumstance. Do you ask which is the path of life that reaches farthest? It is the path that leads to wisdom. He who attains wisdom, has reached not only the farthest, but also the highest goal.”

7. Against this shortness of life, which is complained of, there are two remedies for us and for our children (and therefore for schools also). We must take all possible precautions that—

(i) Our bodies may be protected from disease and from death.

(ii) Our minds may be placed in such an environment that they can attain all knowledge.

8. The body must be protected from disease and from accidents, firstly, because it is the dwelling-place of the soul, which must leave this world as soon as ever the body is destroyed. If it fall into bad repair, and suffer damage in any of its parts, the soul, its guest, will have an inhospitable abode. Therefore, if we wish to dwell as long as possible in the palace of this world, into which we have been brought by God’s grace, we must take wise forethought for the fabric of our bodies.

Secondly, this same body is not only intended to be the dwelling-place of the reasoning soul, but also to be its instrument, without which it could hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing, conduct no business, and could not even think. And since nothing exists in the mind that has not previously existed in the senses, the intellect takes the material of all its thoughts from the senses, and performs the operations of thought in a manner that may be termed “inner sensation,” that is to say, by acting on the images of things that are brought before it. It follows, therefore, that, if the brain receive an injury, the imagination will be impaired, and that if an impression be made