The development of the child.

  • Oppenheim, Nathan, 1865-1916.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The development of the child. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    — far different from anything which society now pos- sesses— will act for the interests of the race in the broadest extent. The dictum that all men are born free and equal is plainly true only in an academic interpretation. It certainly is not true as far as the actual facts of their careers can show. As far as one can see, there is as little actual freedom in the world as one can possibly imagine. Almost every adult, on reaching maturity, has a certain range of limitations, working much more rigorously than statutes enacted by law, which determine in what ways he must advance, stand still, or go backward; at the same time his freedom of choice, even of desire, is similarly defined. And, after all, one is most apt to think of his freedom as permission to exercise himself within the demarca- tions set up by his environment; or one might compare it to the freedom which a prisoner, bound hand and foot, has to contract his muscles. In spite of such freedom, he still is bound. And actually, a member of a civilized community is bound physically, mentally, spiritually. He can no more be said to have a real liberty of choice than a bird in a cage. And so far as the question of what he is entitled to, what he has a right to, goes, there is very little more to be said. It is hard to find any natural right that really belongs to him, excepting, possibly, in some few cases, the right to die. Otherwise, every one of his so-called rights is the result of social and legal enact-