OBLIGA TION IN PARENTHOOD. \ 59 



justices are survivals of past ages from which eman- 

 cipation must take place, and that all we have to 

 encounter is that right and necessary conservatism 

 which adapts itself slowly and cautiously to chang- 

 ing conditions of things, clinging to that which is 

 because the present is the best to which we have yet 

 achieved, yet willing to change this for what we have 

 reason to believe will be really better. With this 

 modern development of the sense of obligation, we 

 may anticipate that all those who are really depen- 

 dent upon their own actions will be seriously con- 

 sidered, and have their welfare fully assured. 



Rights of Children and our Obligation to them. 



Political agitation has in the past been one of the 

 most potent forces by the movement of which men 

 and women have obtained redress from their dis- 

 abilities, and have put forward their own views and 

 enlisted sympathy in their own troubles. But infants 

 and children, although provided with most effectual 

 means of calling attention to certain of their personal 

 wants, are unable even to formulate grievances of 

 which they are not conscious, and posterity has 

 naturally no voice in determining the course of our 

 present actions although its very existence depends 

 upon these. 



This is already partly realised, and there are not 



