Nature never did betray

The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy; for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee; and, in after years,
When these wild extasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place

For all sweet sounds and harmonies; Oh! then
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,

Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,

And these my exhortations!

WORDSWORTH.-"Tintern Abbey.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

RELATING TO THE

"MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO."

Come to the woods, my boy!

Come to the streams and bowery dingles forth,
My happy child! The spirit of bright hours
Woos us in every wind; fresh wild-leaf scents,
From thickets where the lonely stock-dove broods,
Enter our lattice; fitful songs of joy

Float in with each soft current of the air,

And we will hear their summons! we will give

One day to flowers and sunshine and glad thoughts.

MRS. HEMANS.

Among the many problems solved or partly solved by the dry science of statistics, the great Sanitary Problem stands pre-eminent.

It is now proved, and chiefly by statistical evidence, that the number of our days, and the cheerfulness of them, depend in a vastly greater degree than was ever before imagined, upon the quality of the air we breathe.

B

Until recently, chemists were unable to detect any appreciable difference between the air of large towns and that of the surrounding country, but a long-continued series of observations in various places, recorded and compared, has shown that the mean temperature of towns is slightly higher than that of villages or open country; so that the common expression that town education is a "hot-house growth," is to some extent literally true. A curious and delicate instrument, of modern invention, has still further exposed the unwholesome quality of the air of towns, and shown that its actual impurity is in direct proportion to the density of the population, and the imperfect provision for ventilation and drainage; that in the heart of great towns the air is loaded with unwholesome vapours, and destitute of ozone, and becomes gradually purer in all directions towards the suburbs. This, it must be remembered, is no longer a supposition, but a proved fact. The inhabitants of towns are becoming every year more alive to the importance of this fact. In most towns the merchants and manufacturers have already removed their families to the outskirts, or to the neighbouring villages, and the tradesmen are now following their wise example.