general truth there can be no question. That not only onr statesmen and phi- 

 losophers but our average citizens need a greater fund of ability and mental 

 stamina is manifested by the want, the misery, the degradation and the filth 

 which exists in all the cities of Christendom, and which offend the taste and the 

 conscience of all self-respecting men. Yet the intelligence of man would seem 

 to be sufficient to deal with these. Turn where we will we can find defects 

 and evidences of incapacity, and yet when we view closely and calmly, even 

 the most flagrant examples of our short-comings, they seem to take their origin 

 in moral rather than iv mental insufficiency. The profoundest miseries which 

 either individuals or nations suffer from, arise from mistakes of conduct. And 

 those mistakes arise not so much from weakness of intellect as weakness of 

 will. It may be true that 



The hands that rounded Peter's dome, 

 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 

 — l^nilded better than they knew. 



But the average man, and the man of lower abilities, act below their know- 

 ledge of the right. If statesmen compounded their conduct of conscience and 

 capacity in equal parts, nations would be happier. And if the controlling no- 

 tion in the performance of all work were the duty which one owes to others, 

 rather than the advantage which may accrue to himself, our daily lives would 

 be fuller of comfort and content. Our intelligence is limited, but still its 

 boundaries are large, and its powers for good or evil, incalculable, and a 

 greater proportion of its strength should be turned to the controlling and the 

 taming of our selfishness. Selfishness though it be natural, and the strongest, 

 is yet the most ruinous and destructive element in human nature. Though it 

 has its origin m the brute instinct of self-preservation, and though it be a ne- 

 cessary adjunct of human character, yet in civilized societies it should be tem- 

 pered and refined by the strictest conceptions of justice and duty. From the 

 very beginning of history, man's knowledge has been better than his conduct, 

 and the 100 years just past have not differed in this respect from its predeces- 

 sors. Let us take at random a few illustrations which exhibit some of the 

 blots upon our civilization. We have read of mills in which stones are ground 

 for the adulteration of flour, of plaster of Paris in mustard, which breeds wast- 

 ing ulcers in the stomach ; of candies and wall papers colored with poisons. 

 Consider for a moment the power for evil which the science of chemistry puts 

 into the hands of immoral men. In its present state chemistry is a new science. 

 Its knowledge properly used brings with it beneficence and wealth. It minis- 

 ters to all our industries, and to suffering and stricken man it comes like the 

 spirit of God, with healing on its wings. But used by selfish men — swayed 

 only by selfishness and greed, — it becomes a gigantic instrument of disease and 

 death. It adulterates, with injurious substances, our foods. It mingles subtle 

 poisons with our drinks. There are acids, deadly poisons from which the 

 whole body of brandies, wines, and cider are made. A leading newspaper said 

 only a few days ago : *'It is a truth which needs to be brought to public no- 

 tice occasionally, that the brilliant colored fluids which decorate the average 

 bar, derive the least of their flavor from either grape or grain, but are the fab- 

 rication of so-called * liquor compounders, ' and are in reality mixtures compared 



