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thousands of women must live a celibate life. Society is there- 

 fore deeply interested in every successful effort to render the 

 single state really and truly a state of " single blessedness." All 

 the offices of the empire, and all honourable professions and 

 occupations ought to be equally accessible to all citizens on the 

 sole ground of character and competency, and with no more 

 regard to sex than to the coloiu' of the eyes. If equality of skill 

 secures equality of reward in a life of mechanical labour as it 

 does in towns like ours, the same principle should be acted upon 

 through the whole gamut of professions from the loom to the 

 throne. What is the ideal state of Society? It is that state 

 when every member of it shall have scope for the best use and 

 the highest development of all his powers — physical, intellectual 

 and moral. That is the only state which deserves to be described 

 as happy, and it is the mark at which all the energies of the 

 commonwealth— legislation, education, science, art and charity 

 should aim. Two things are needful in order to gain it ; first to 

 beget within the mind of the individual citizen healthy tastes 

 and worthy aspirations; secondly, to surround him with con- 

 ditions which shall allow the reasonable gratification of his 

 desires and the healthy exercise of all his faculties. As a rule, 

 each citizen needs the helping hand of the whole community. 

 The community can do for us all that the rich man can do for 

 himself. It can, for instance, enforce the known conditions of 

 health, and even create them. It can enact that dwelhng-houses 

 shall be built with due regard to the laws of hygiene and decency. 

 It can provide means for xwomoting public cleanliness and re- 

 creation. It can furnish the opportunity and the apparatus of 

 education to every individual. The library, the museum, the 

 gallery of art, the laboratory, the sanatorium, the gymnasium, 

 batlis and wash-houses, parks and playgrounds— all which the 

 community can procure for us all, and when it does so, everyone 

 of us may call himself rich ; and society approaches the ideal of 

 happiness. Society is engaged in a tug of war. All evil elements 



unfair laws, corrupt conventions, false philosophies and a 



legion of selfish passions and interests are on one side ;— truth, 

 virtue, duty, nature, science and the soul of religion are on the 

 other. Sometimes the one force has prevailed, sometimes the 

 other. Our social history is made up of the oscillations of victory 

 between them. Without exposing one's self to the charge of an 

 imbecile optimism, one may venture to interpret the omens of 

 the time as in harmony with our best hopes for the country. 

 We may all share in the patriotic cry of the poet : — 



Oh make Thou us, thro' centuries long, 



In peace secure, in justice strong. 



Around our gift of freedom draw 



The safeguards of Thy righteous law ; 



And— cast in some Diviner mould, 



Let the new cycle shame the old ! 



