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LOUIS AGASSIZ
"A natural law is as sacred as a moral principle"
CIVICS AND HEALTH
BY
WILLIAM H. ALLEN
Secretary, Bureau of Municipal Research
Former Secretary of the New York Committee on Physical Welfare of
School Children, Author of "Efficient Democracy" and "Rural
Sanitary Administration in Pennsylvania," Joint Author
of "School Reports and School Efficiency"
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
WILLIAM T. SEDGWICK
Professor of Biology in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
GINN AND COMPANY
BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON
Entered at Stationers' Hall
Copyright, 1909
By WILLIAM H. ALLEN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
910.4
The Athenæum Press
GINN AND COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
It is a common weakness of mankind to be caught by an idea andcaptivated by a phrase. To rest therewith content and to neglect thecarrying of the idea into practice is a weakness still more common. Itis this frequent failure of reformers to reduce their theories topractice, their tendency to dwell in the cloudland of the ideal ratherthan to test it in action, that has often made them distrusted andunpopular.
With our forefathers the phrase mens sana in corpore sano was a highfavorite. It was constantly quoted with approval by writers on hygieneand sanitation, and used as the text or the finale of hundreds ofpopular lectures. And yet we shall seek in vain for any evidence ofits practical usefulness. Its words are good and true, but passive andactionless, not of that dynamic type where words are "words indeed,but words that draw armed men behind them."
Our age is of another temper. It yearns for reality. It no longerrests satisfied with mere ideas, or words, or phrases. The modernUlysses would drink life to the dregs. The present age is dissatisfiedwith the vague assurance that the Lord will provide, and, rightly orwrongly, is beginning to expect the state to provide. And while thisdesire for reality has its drawbacks, it has also its advantages. Ourage doubts absolutely the virtues of blind submission