X 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 



I UNDERTAKE this course of Lectures with much diffidence ; 

 it is quite unlike anything that I have ever attempted 

 before. If anyone were to question my right to speak 

 on such a theme, and to address myself specially to the 

 business men of Glasgow, I should find it somewhat 

 difficult to give an answer. 



But one thing I can say : it is not because I think that 

 the business men of Glasgow are indifferent to the public 

 welfare, or callous towards the social good. I have been 

 in Glasgow for nearly twenty years as student and teacher, 

 and have learned something of the number and variety of 

 the social undertakings, and of the depth and volume of 

 the stream of benevolence that flows unbroken through 

 the years in this city. I have been still more impressed 

 by the care, the time, the conscientious labour that are 

 constantly being devoted in unobtrusive ways by faithful 

 and unselfish men to the just and economical management 

 of our charitable and other public institutions. There is 

 a great mass of good social work carried on daily in 

 Glasgow, for which the main reward is just the doing it ; 

 and much of this work is done by its business men. 



Now, social reformers do not often dwell upon this 



