Yourself & Your House sample pages

Yourself and Your House Wonderful

Yourself and

Your House Wonderful by

Hélène Adeline Guerber

B 2012 St. Augustine Academy Press Lisle, Illinois

This book is an exact photographic reprint of the 1913 edition

by Uplift Publishing Company.

A new foreword, “A Note to Today’s Parents,” has been added by Lisa Bergman.

All other material contained herein is unchanged.

This book was originally published in 1902 by Dodd, Mead & Co. This edition ©2011 by St. Augustine Academy Press.

ISBN: 978-1-936639-24-3

All illustrations in this book, including the cover, are the original illustrations as found in the original 1913 edition.

Dedicated to

All Children with many hopes that this book will help to make them strong and happy.

From the Editor:

A Note to Today’s Parents Concerning the Contents of this Book

I

n the world we live in today, with its rapid medical advances and changing viewpoints, one might wonder why anyone would be interested in a book about health written over a century ago. Not only has our understanding of how our bodies work become far more sophisticated, but many of the infectious diseases that plagued our turn-of-the-century ancestors are now virtually unheard-of. Viewed from this standpoint, the information in this book, along with the language and method in which it is presented, must seem hopelessly quaint and outdated.

No doubt this is true to some extent. Even young children nowadays are perhaps a bit sophisticated for Guerber’s stomach and liver dwarves, and it is certainly arguable that some of the advice contained herein is no longer valid; however, the virtue of this work is not in what it does or does not contain, but rather in how it treats the matter at hand. And when we begin to uncover this aspect of Yourself and Your House Wonderful, we begin to see its quaintness in a completely different light.

To begin with, everything is viewed through the lens of a Christian respect for God’s creation. Though the author personifies the various processes of the body as dwarves and servants and “blood boats”, this whimsy actually serves to help us see our own body not as a welloiled machine but as a group of individuals which must be carefully managed and treated with great respect. After all, not only are we

made of a material far more temperamental than steel, our bodies are temples of our Lord, and ought to be treated as such.

Moreover, there is a beauty in the sheer common sense found in this book which is truly heartwarming. Some might laugh at the idea that children should not eat mustard, but the warnings about eating too much sugar have a well-founded basis in science. Likewise, few will begin airing their bedding daily because of this book, but we would do well to listen to its advice regarding fresh air and exercise.

But most of all, the topics of growing up, of making wise choices, of the proper relationship between boys and girls, and of reproduction are treated with a great deal of gentleness, perspicacity and sound advice. A very strong emphasis on purity of body, heart and mind are paramount. And it is this aspect which sets this book apart from any others. A parent can always supplement what their child has learned in this book with any number of excellent children’s science books, but none of those science books will instill an awe and respect for the dignity of the human body in quite the same way. In addition, there is nothing that a child might learn from this text that should be worrisome to a concerned parent. The only regrettable thing I’ve found in its contents is that it reveals Santa Claus to be a myth. For Christian parents, this is actually not very troublesome, as we know that the secular fable of Santa Claus is merely a replacement for (and the namesake of ) Saint Nicholas. Nevertheless, as many readers will have differences of opinion, I do strongly recommend that parents read this book before giving (or reading) it to their child. In this way, you may be certain that if your child finds any of its contents questionable, you will be ready to answer their questions as you deem fit.

Yours in Christ, Lisa Bergman St. Augustine Academy Press November 15, 2012