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prominent place; that, more than all the medicines in the world, will assure the child good
health. An hour’s moving about in the sun does more to cure weakness or even anaemia
than a whole arsenal of tonics. My advice is that medicines should not be used unless it
is absolutely impossible to avoid them; and this “absolutely impossible” should be very
strict. In this programme of physical culture, although there are well-known general lines
to be followed for the best development of the human body, still, if the method is to be
fully effective in each case, it should be considered individually, if possible with the help
of a competent person, or if not, by consulting the numerous manuals that have already
been and are still being published on the subject.

But in any case a child, whatever his activities, should have a sufficient number of hours of
sleep. The number will vary according to his age. In the cradle, the baby should sleep longer
than he remains awake. The number of hours of sleep will diminish as the child grows. But
until maturity it should not be less than eight hours, in a quiet, well-ventilated place. The
child should never be made to stay up late for no reason. The hours before midnight are
the best for resting the nerves. Even during the waking hours, relaxation is indispensable
for all who want to maintain their nervous balance. To know how to relax the muscles and
the nerves is an art which should be taught to children when they are very young. There
are many parents who, on the contrary, push their child to constant activity. When the
child remains quiet, they imagine that he is ill. There are even parents who have the bad
habit of making their child do household work at the expense of his rest and relaxation.
Nothing is worse for a developing nervous system, which cannot stand the strain of too
continuous an effort or of an activity that is imposed upon it and not freely chosen. At the
risk of going against many current ideas and ruffling many prejudices, I hold that it is not
fair to demand service from a child, as if it were his duty to serve his parents. The contrary
would be more true, and certainly it is natural that parents should serve their child or at
least take great care of him. It is only if a child chooses freely to work for his family and
does this work as play that the thing is admissible. And even then, one must be careful that
it in no way diminishes the hours of rest that are absolutely indispensable for his body to
function properly.

I have said that from a young age children should be taught to respect good health,
physical strength and balance. The great importance of beauty must also be emphasised.
A young child should aspire for beauty, not for the sake of pleasing others or winning
their admiration, but for the love of beauty itself; for beauty is the ideal which all physical
life must realise. Every human being has the possibility of establishing harmony among
the different parts of his body and in the various movements of the body in action. Every
human body that undergoes a rational method of culture from the very beginning of its
existence can realise its own harmony and thus become fit to manifest beauty. When we
speak of the other aspects of an integral education, we shall see what inner conditions are
to be fulfilled so that this beauty can one day be manifested.

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