Produced by Jeannie Howse, Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net * * * * * +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | Some text in this document has been moved to avoid | | multi-page tables being inserted mid-paragraph. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this | | text. For a complete list, please see the end of this | | document. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ * * * * * [Illustration: 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 Athenaeum Press GINN AND COMPANY . PROPRIETORS . BOSTON . U.S.A. INTRODUCTION It is a common weakness of mankind to be caught by an idea and captivated by a phrase. To rest therewith content and to neglect the carrying of the idea into practice is a weakness still more common. It is this frequent failure of reformers to reduce their theories to practice, their tendency to dwell in the cloudland of the ideal rather than to test it in action, that has often made them distrusted and unpopular.