Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/571

Rh Institute, where Froebel's spirit prevailed, the gymnasium at Koltbus, and the University of Göttingen, and after a serious illness began to prepare himself for his life work. He relinquished the study of the law, which he had begun, and was attracted to Egyptology. He had no guide, but found an adviser in Jacob Grimm. Grimm told him he was beginning at the wrong end. His decipherment of hieroglyphics could only make him a dragoman, while he must become a scholar in the higher sense, a real and thorough one. "The first step is to lay the linguistic foundation." He obeyed this counsel, studied, with Lepsius and Brugsch to oversee and advise him; and after he had studied, wrote his sketches and novels. In teaching this example of thorough preparation the book, besides the pleasure it gives, furnishes a valuable lesson.

rough self-regulation by which society protects itself against evil influences is seen in its treatment of books of this class. Written so often by charlatans from purely mercenary motives, and hence appealing to a widely prevalent craving for loose literature, it has happened that all books upon this theme done in a popular style are considered disreputable if not positively pernicious. This feeling keeps down their circulation and prevents a great deal of mischief that would arise from the perusal. But in creating a feeling that prevents the proper study of these subjects in the family other grave evils are begotten for which the only remedy is a more discriminating public opinion. Certainly there is no other form of knowledge that so vitally interests the individual or the nation as this relating to the obligations of marriage and parentage.

It concerns the one function to which all others are subservient, which governs our actions in a greater degree than any other, which has the greatest power for happiness or misery over our lives, and which, above all, owing to the more or less unnatural position in which modern civilization places us, is not satisfactorily governed by our instincts and desires. It seems very irrational that this central function about which all others are grouped should be a tabooed subject, not to be read about or even thought about till the individual has suffered oftentimes irreparably through his ignorance.

This work. Build Well, has evidently been written with an earnest and devout desire to help the public in this greatly needed direction. And nobody can understand more truly the perishing need there is of such help than its author, who for more than thirty years has been in charge of a successful sanitarium for the treatment of the diseases of women. If profound learning, wide experience, marvelous powers of intuition, and the tenderest sympathy with suffering are a proper warrant for treating this subject. Dr. Greene can certainly claim her right to a hearing. It is a work that ought to be read and pondered over by every father and mother, and it will be the greatest help to any young person of either sex about to join fortunes with another for life. It is a book that will do much toward correcting many false impressions regarding not only purely physiological questions, but also some social fallacies, more especially having to do with the marriage relation. In the first chapter, entitled Introductory Thoughts and Inquiries, the author asks the question, "Are all the unfortunate results of heredity a necessity?" and answers it strongly in the negative. Chapter II, headed Man, deals with the outward results on face and form of certain ways of living and habits of thought. Chapter III is given over to an embryological excursion, and sums up with the conclusion that "dual force is indispensable in our world to the full conservation of all living things." Chapter IV gives in detail the more important physiological facts relating to and governing the phenomenon of reproduction. In Chapter V the author treats of the same subjects, but more in their dual and emotional aspects. Chapter VI deals with the proper care of the mother during intrauterine life. Chapter VII is devoted to a discussion of the Proper Conduct of the Marital Relations. The remainder of the book with the exception of two chapters. The Love of Manhood and The Love of Womanhood—consists of a consideration of some of the various diseases, both mental and