experience by thousands; and whenever intelligently and consistently
carried out, the result has been found in the highest degree satisfac-
tory. Thousands have testified to physical, mental, and moral benefits
received. Many of the principles taught have come to be so generally
adopted and practiced that they are no longer recognized as reforms,
and may, in fact, be regarded as prevalent customs among the more
intelligent classes. The principles which a quarter of a century ago
were either entirely ignored or made the butt of ridicule, have quietly
won their way into public confidence and esteem, until the world has
quite forgotten that they have not always been thus accepted. New
discoveries in science and new interpretations of old facts have con-
tinually added confirmatory evidence, until at the present time every
[iv]
one of the principles advocated more than a quarter of a century ago is
fortified in the strongest possible manner by scientific evidence.
Finally, the reformatory movement based upon the principles ad-
vocated so long ago has lived and prospered until the present time, and
the institutions developed by it have grown to be the most extensive
and the most prosperous establishments of the sort in the world; while
other efforts, looking somewhat in the same direction, but contam-
inated by error, have either abandoned the principles of truth, and
been given over to error, or have fallen into obscurity. It certainly
must be regarded as a thing remarkable, and evincing unmistakable
evidence of divine insight and direction, that in the midst of confused
and conflicting teachings, claiming the authority of science and expe-
rience, but warped by ultra notions and rendered impotent for good
by the great admixture of error,—it must be admitted to be something
extraordinary, that a person making no claims to scientific knowledge
or erudition should have been able to organize, from the confused and
error-tainted mass of ideas advanced by a few writers and thinkers
on health subjects, a body of hygienic principles so harmonious, so
consistent, and so genuine that the discussions, the researches, the dis-
coveries, and the experience of a quarter of a century have not resulted
in the overthrow of a single principle, but have only served to establish
the doctrines taught.
The guidance of infinite wisdom is as much needed in discerning
between truth and error as in the evolution of new truths. Novelty
is by no means a distinguishing characteristic of true principles, and
the principle holds good as regards the truths of hygienic reform,