human physiology. It should not consist so much of the conceits of a
single brain--perhaps half turned--as of the logical deductions of
severe science, and facts gleaned from the world's history.

Here is a nation, or tribe of men, bringing up children to certain
habits, from generation to generation--and such and such is their
character. Here, again, is another large portion of our race, who, under
similar circumstances of climate, &c. &c., have, for several hundred
years, educated their children very differently, and with different
results. A comparison of things on a large scale, together with a close
attention to the constitution and relations of the human system, affords
ground for drawing conclusions which are or may be useful. If this book
shall not afford light derived from such sources, it were far better
that it had never been written. If it only sets people to watching over
the effects of things taken or used only for a single day, instead of
leading them from early infancy to form in their children such habits as
will preclude, in a great measure, the necessity of watching ourselves
daily, then let the day perish from the memory of the writer, in which
the plan of bringing it forth to the world was conceived. But he is
confident of better things. He does not believe that a work which, to
such an extent, GIVES THE REASON WHY, will be productive of more evil
than good. On the contrary, it must, if read, have the opposite effect.

I do not deny that even after the formation of the best habits, there
will be a necessity of paying some attention to what we eat and what we
drink, from day to day, and from hour to hour; but only that the
tendency of this work is not to increase this necessity, but on the
contrary, to diminish it. In my own view; these occasions of inquiry in
regard to what is right, _physically_ as well as _morally_, are one part
of our trials in this world--one means of forming our characters. We are