e three following months.
LETTER VI. The remainder of the first year.
LETTER VII. The second year, &c: conclusion.

LETTERS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF INFANTS.

* * * * *

LETTER I.

I OUGHT to apologize for not having written to you on the subject you
mentioned; but, to tell you the truth, it grew upon me: and, instead of
an answer, I have begun a series of letters on the management of children
in their infancy. Replying then to your question, I have the public in
my thoughts, and shall endeavour to show what modes appear to me
necessary, to render the infancy of children more healthy and happy. I
have long thought, that the cause which renders children as hard to rear
as the most fragile plant, is our deviation from simplicity. I know that
some able physicians have recommended the method I have pursued, and I
mean to point out the good effects I have observed in practice. I am
aware that many matrons will exclaim against me, and dwell on the number
of children they have brought up, as their mothers did before them,
without troubling themselves with new-fangled notions; yet, though, in my
uncle Toby's words, they should attempt to silence me, by "wishing I had
seen their large" families, I must suppose, while a third part of the
human species, according to the most accurate calculation, die during
their infancy, just at the threshold of life, that there is some error in
the modes adopted by mothers and nurses, which counteracts their own
endeavours. I may be mistaken in some particulars; for general rules,
founded on the soundest reason, demand individual modification; but, if I
can persuade any of the rising generation to exercise their reason on
this head, I am content. My advice will probably be found most useful to
mothers in the middle class; and it is from them that the lower
imperceptibly gains improvement. Custom, produced by reason in one, may
safely be the effect of imitation in the other.-- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- --

LETTERS
TO
Mr. JOHNSON,
_BOOKSELLER_,
IN
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

LETTERS
TO
Mr. JOHNSON.

* * * * *

LETTER I.

Dublin, April 14, [1787.]

Dear sir,

I AM still an invalid--and begin to believe that I ought never to expect
to enjoy health. My mind preys on my body--and, when I endeavour to be
useful, I grow too much interested for my own peace. Confined almost
entirely to the society of