THE COMING GENERATION 



be decided, granted average conditions of heredity, 

 by the training that the child is given during those 

 momentous formative years, when the entire organism 

 no less than the brain is "wax to receive and marble 

 to retain." 



No other aspect, then, of the problem of happiness is 

 more vitally significant than the question of the parental 

 influence over the offspring. "How shall I rear my 

 child?" is a question that for the wise parent takes 

 precedence over every other. 



Our comment on so broad a subject must of necessity 

 be very general, or else confined to two or three seeming 

 essentials. Whatever relates to the welfare of the child 

 at whatever stage of its growth, from proper cutting of 

 the teeth to the choosing of a profession, would be per- 

 tinent enough to our theme; since whatever makes 

 for the child's betterment as to body or mind makes for 

 its future happiness and the happiness of its parents. 

 But for obvious reasons I may not follow here these 

 various stages of development, even were I desirous 

 of usurping the functions of nurse, physician, and peda- 

 gogue. 



There is, however, one profound principle of action 

 in dealing with a child, which covers a multitude of de- 

 tails, and which is, as I believe, of the very utmost 

 importance, yet which most parents ignore or wilfully 

 controvert, and to which, therefore, I shall chiefly con- 

 fine attention. 



The fundamental rule of action that I have in mind 

 is this: To instill into the child's mind the inherent 

 bias for honesty, the instinctive sense of justice, by 



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