they would, doubtless, be quite right; but they are prevented from doing so by a thousand obstacles, which must be removed in order to attain that end, and to remove which a knowledge of the natural course is necessary.
Then, again, people are too fond of trusting to chance and grandmotherly precepts or customs, possibly founded on misapprehension, but obeyed implicitly from generation to generation, and too chary of using their own reasoning powers.
There is a common saying that there are two ways of doing anything—a right one and a wrong one. This is only partially true, for, though there may be only one way of doing a thing right, there is an endless variety of ways of doing it wrong; and, though there may be a thousand wrong methods of training children, there can be only one right one, and that must be based upon a true knowledge of physical and mental development, carried out with sympathy, and constantly modified in accordance with observation and experience, as conditions differ in different individuals.
