'Yes, and he should have as much pleasure as possible.' There, I think, you are wrong; for the influence of pleasure in the beginning of education is fatal.

A man should neither pursue pleasure nor wholly avoid pain.

He should embrace the mean, and cultivate that state of calm which mankind, taught by some inspiration, attribute to God; and he who would be like God should neither be too fond of pleasure himself, nor should he permit any other to be thus given; above all, not the infant, whose character is just in the making.

It may sound ridiculous, but I affirm that a woman in her pregnancy should be carefully tended, and kept from excessive pleasures and pains.
'I quite agree with you about the duty of avoiding extremes and following the mean.' Let us consider a further point.

The matters which are now in question are generally called customs rather than laws; and we have already made the reflection that, though they are not, properly speaking, laws, yet neither can they be neglected.