Children are generally too much wrapped up, particularly in infancy.  They should be accustomed to cold rather than heat; great cold never does them any harm, if they are exposed to it soon enough; but their skin is still too soft and tender and leaves too free a course for perspiration, so that they are inevitably exhausted by excessive heat.  It has been observed that infant mortality is greatest in August.  Moreover, it seems certain from a comparison of northern and southern races that we become stronger by bearing extreme cold rather than excessive heat.  But as the child’s body grows bigger and his muscles get stronger, train him gradually to bear the rays of the sun.  Little by little you will harden him till he can face the burning heat of the tropics without danger.

Locke, in the midst of the manly and sensible advice he gives us, falls into inconsistencies one would hardly expect in such a careful thinker.  The same man who would have children take an ice-cold bath summer and winter, will not let them drink cold water when they are hot, or lie on damp grass.  But he would never have their shoes water-tight; and why should they let in more water when the child is hot than when he is cold, and may we not draw the same inference with regard to the feet and body that he draws with regard to the hands and feet and the body and face?  If he would have a man all face, why blame me if I would have him all feet?

To prevent children drinking when they are hot, he says they should be trained to eat a piece of bread first.  It is a strange thing to make a child eat because he is thirsty; I would as soon give him a drink when he is hungry.  You will never convince me that our first instincts are so ill-regulated that we cannot satisfy them without endangering our lives.  Were that so, the man would have perished over and over again before he had learned how to keep himself alive.

Whenever Emile is thirsty let him have a drink, and let him drink fresh water just as it is, not even taking the chill off it in the depths of winter and when he is bathed in perspiration.  The only precaution I advise is to take care what sort of water you give him.  If the water comes from a river, give it him just as it is; if it is spring-water let it stand a little exposed to the air before he drinks it.  In warm weather rivers are warm; it is not so with springs, whose water has not been in contact with the air.  You must wait till the temperature of the water is the same as that of the air.  In winter, on the other hand, spring water is safer than river water.  It is, however, unusual and unnatural to perspire greatly in winter, especially in the open air, for the cold air constantly strikes the skin and drives the perspiration inwards, and prevents the pores opening enough to give it passage.  Now I do not intend Emile to take his exercise by the fireside in winter, but in the open air and among the ice.  If he only gets warm with making and