ecome
valuable only to the extent that they find application in our daily lives.
The lessons will be vitalized only as the teacher pours life into them.

To supplement and enrich the course, references are given with most of the
lessons, and a list of books is offered at the close of the book. Many of
these volumes have already been purchased and distributed through the
parents' class library. Each class should endeavor to procure at least one
copy of each of these books as it is called for in the various lessons. In
this way a good library can be gradually built up.

Our desire is to make these studies bring lasting returns for good. May God
add his blessings to make our work divinely successful,

Your brethren in the gospel,
Parents' Class Committee of Deseret Sunday
School Union Board,
HENRY H. ROLAPP, HOWARD R. DRIGGS.
NATHAN T. PORTER, EPHRAIM G. GOWANS.

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

This treatise on child study and training has been prepared primarily for
the Parents' classes in Sunday School under the direction of the General
Board. It is well adapted also for study by Parent-Teachers' Associations
and for reading in the home.

Its purpose is to acquaint parents with the most vital problems of child
life and character and to suggest some methods of solving these problems.
The work is not offered as a complete course in this great subject; it is
intended rather to open up the field of child study for parents.

The welfare of the race depends upon the proper birth and the correct
rearing of children. That this little volume may add its mite towards
the solution of the problem--at once the hope and the despair of
civilization,--is the wish of its author.

To the Parents' Class Committee and the General Superintendency of the
General Board, I desire to express my appreciation for the suggestions and
help they have extended to me in the preparation of this work.

To my wife, who achieves in practice what I imperfectly state in theory,
these studies are affectionately dedicated.

MOSIAH HALL.

THE BIRTHRIGHT OF CHILDHOOD

_It Is the Sacred Right of the Child To Be Well-Born_

If the child has any divine right in this world, it is the right to be
well-born, to be brought into the world sound of body and whole in mind. To
be given anything short of such a good beginning is to be handicapped
throughout life. Education and training cannot make up for the defects
imposed on the child by the sins