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CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
A DISTINGUISHED physician and specialist in nervous diseases, a man untainted by pessimism, but a keen observer and student of men, recently declared that he could think only with dread of the time when upon the children of to-day must fall the responsibility of directing our nation.
We who love the race and our fatherland can-not lightly dismiss, as mere melancholy harping, such opinions of such men. Patriotism urges us to see to it that strong hands with sound minds to direct them be made ready for the burdens of the next generation. Do the many pale, precocious, overtaxed, but undisciplined children of to-day promise well for this? Is it enough that our hearts grow warm with enthusiastic love for Pinel, and Dorothea Dix, and others who have humanized us to a point of tenderness in caring for the unfortunate insane? Theirs was a noble work ; but a still nobler awaits him who shall teach us to prevent insanity, and thus give to our country an insurance of safety in sound, steady, well-balanced and disciplined minds.
I do not despair of accomplishing much for the children of to-day, although it may be too late to do the best for them. We have brilliancy enough among them, and a sad amount of shrewdness and possibly incurable cleverness ; but there is a menacing lack of power to cling to a purpose through all discouragements,- to grapple with unfavorable conditions and over-come them. There is little of the " staying power" which characterizes truly sane minds,-those sturdy, unflinching minds that accept no defeat, that never whine over lack of opportunity, but force opportunities to attend them. In quietness and in confidence is their strength, and only such minds shall bring us to our desired haven.
Introduction - Part 2...
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