THE SOCIAL REFORMER 9 



change, and finds room for it in the greater good which 

 he would bring into the world. 



Insight into the^eedsj^ men^a high opinion of human 



nature, strongjrust in the good which is alreadyjworking 



in the world and which has brc^ghtjtjhus^r on its way 



theselire cardinal constituents of _ 



faith. But along with these must go another, and possibly 

 in these days, a quality more rare. Looking round at 

 the social life of this country, there seems to me to be one 

 need more imperious than any other : it is the need of 

 clear light upon the_broad_^rmciples pLsociaLwdl-being. 



"The great defect of Mr. Mill's later writings," says 

 Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, "seems to me to be that he has 

 formed too favourable an estimate of human nature." 

 Should I be committing the same most pardonable error 

 as Mr. Mill if I were to say of the British people of 

 to-day that what they lack in this matter of social reform 

 is not so much the will as the way? Many and urgent 

 are the problems that confront us. "How," we ask, 

 ' ' shall -we house the poor, provide for needy age, teach 

 sobriety and thrift to a thoughtless and wasteful nation, 

 dispense our charities so as to raise the recipients : how 

 shall we find employment for empty and willing hands, 

 prevent the exhaustion of the best wealth of the nation, 

 which is its manhood, and hinder the deterioration of the 

 physique of the people by the migration of the country 

 population into the towns : how shall we reconcile capital 

 and labour, the rights of the individual and those of the 

 state : how far shall we regulate unions and trusts : where 

 shall we draw the limits of municipal and national enter- 

 prise, and determine which, if any, of the ideals of 

 socialism can be safely realised ?" What is it that blocks 



