By Margaret Lowenfeld

In earlier groupings of society, the guidance of a child was a fairly straightforward undertaking. Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son, Smiles’ ‘Self-Help’, and many other books of maxim show that the elder, looking back upon his own life and out upon the life about to; be lived by his children. found the laying down of rules for their conduct a task, delicate it is true, as it is all careful relating at moral principle to action, but not pretending my insuperable difficulties. The reason for the comparative simplicity of the task was, first, the rigid and definite code of morals and behaviour. widely accepted by people of the same social standing; and, second, a clearly defined social structure to the heath of which these rules were to be adjusted.