Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/171

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PERSONAL INFLUENCE.
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that the production of life is the holiest law of nature, it will be impossible for him to have lax notions of morality in later life.

A very slow method of reforming the world, it is acknowledged, but no slower in regard to this evil than when education is spoken of as the ultimate cure of pauperism. This introduction of special moral teaching into every family has, however, a closer connection with pauperism than at first appears. If children are taught to understand reverentially the laws of birth, they will soon perceive that the conditions of birth are to be harmonized with its environment, and that it is robbery of the resources of the State to produce children who shall be paupers or invalids.

Such education should be given alike by the intelligent rich and poor, and is demanded by every feeling of chivalry and philanthropy; here, again, the removal of evil becoming a personal conflict.

Next to education, as the general deterrent