To my wife, who achieves in practice what I imperfectly state in theory,
these studies are affectionately dedicated.

MOSIAH HALL.




THE BIRTHRIGHT OF CHILDHOOD


_It Is the Sacred Right of the Child To Be Well-Born_

If the child has any divine right in this world, it is the right to be
well-born, to be brought into the world sound of body and whole in mind. To
be given anything short of such a good beginning is to be handicapped
throughout life. Education and training cannot make up for the defects
imposed on the child by the sins of the fathers, which, the Good Book tells
us, are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

It is a fact to challenge attention that the child is the product of the
entire past. His essential nature is comparatively fixed at birth and is
beyond the power or caprice of parent or environment to change in any
fundamental particular during the short period of a lifetime. This
assertion must not be wrongly interpreted; the possibilities of training
and education are great, but they can do little to overcome all of the
defects placed upon the child by heredity.

Science tells us that normal children are born with the same number and
kind of instincts. By instinct is meant the tendency to do certain things