273.  We here come to the subject of education in the true sense of that word, which is rearing up, seeing that the word comes from the Latin educo, which means to breed up, or to rear up.  I shall, afterwards, have to speak of education in the now common acceptation of the word, which makes it mean, book-learning.  At present, I am to speak of education in its true sense, as the French (who, as well as we, take the word from the Latin) always use it.  They, in their agricultural works, talk of the ’education du Cochon, de l’Alouette, &c.,’ that is of the hog, the lark, and so of other animals; that is to say, of the manner of breeding them, or rearing them up, from their being little things till they be of full size.

274.  The first thing, in the rearing of children, who have passed from the baby-state, is, as to the body, plenty of good food; and, as to the mind, constant good example in the parents.  Of the latter I shall speak more by-and-by.  With regard to the former, it is of the greatest importance, that children be well fed; and there never was a greater error than to believe that they do not need good food.  Every one knows, that to have fine horses, the colts must be kept well, and that it is the same with regard to all animals of every sort and kind.  The fine horses and cattle and sheep all come from the rich pastures.  To have them fine, it is not sufficient that they have plenty of food when young, but that they have rich food.  Were there no land, no pasture, in England, but such as is found in Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey, we should see none of those coach-horses and dray-horses, whose height and size make us stare.  It is the keep when young that makes the fine animal.

275.  There is no other reason for the people in the American States being generally so much taller and stronger than the people in England are.  Their forefathers went, for the greater part, from England.  In the four Northern States they went wholly from England, and then, on their landing, they founded a new London, a new Falmouth, a new Plymouth, a new Portsmouth, a new Dover, a new Yarmouth, a new Lynn, a new Boston, and a new Hull, and the country itself they called, and their descendants still call, NEW ENGLAND.  This country of the best and boldest seamen, and of the most moral and happy people in the world, is also the country of the tallest and ablest-bodied men in the world.  And why?  Because, from their very birth, they have an abundance of good food; not only of food, but of rich food.  Even when the child is at the breast, a strip of beef-stake, or something of that description, as big and as long as one’s finger, is put into its hand.  When a baby gets a thing in its hand, the first thing it does is to poke some part of it into its mouth.  It cannot bite the meat, but its gums squeeze out the juice.  When it has done with the breast, it eats meat constantly twice, if not thrice, a day.  And this abundance of good food is the cause, to be sure, of the superior size and strength of the people of that country.