1(58 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



The hero and heroine of " All Sorts and Condi- 

 tions of Men " are believed to be well known, and 

 their work to have been the inspiration of Mr. 

 Besant's book. He described an ideal Palace of 

 Delight which a few years ago had no existence. 

 To-day it is a veritable reality. In 1887 it was 

 opened by the Queen, — a vast institution with 

 industrial classes, art classes, a cooking school, a 

 hall seating two or three thousand people, where 

 the best music in the kingdom is to be heard as 

 frequently as at the West End ; an art gallery, in 

 which at least once has been seen the finest col- 

 lection of modern paintings to be found in Great 

 Britain. And this music, this art, these libraries 

 and reading-rooms, these places for amusement 

 and improvement, are to be enjoyed by any 

 dweller in the heart of East London for a merely 

 nominal admission. Crowds go there. Life is 

 made nobler and sweeter. Young men and 

 maidens drawn from music-halls and saloons see 

 something worth thinking and talking about. 

 Boys and girls with some natural gifts are sought 

 out and trained to arts and industries. In ad- 

 dition to these, travel classes are formed, and 

 men, women, and children are taken to the coun- 

 try for excursions in which recreation and instruc- 

 tion are combined. And, still better, the poor 



