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;young. The old man has already outlived his generation; 

 his time is up ; but the youngster has the long road of 

 life before him, and none but society to sustain and di- 

 rect him. Society in its own interests is bound to make 

 out of this young creature a useful member, or it pu- 

 nishes itself. The preservation and guidance of these 

 young lives is not only a moral duty it is a natural charge 

 which every citizen must lay to heart, though even from 

 the point of view of Christian service there is more to 

 be said for aid extended to the young than to the aged. 

 How constantly the memoty of the adult dwells upon 

 the years of former childhood and how it sanctifies with 

 an oreole the heads of those who in those early days 

 showed kindness to their youth! how readily one blesses 

 the thought of those now distant acts which have since 

 born good fruit in one's own life! 



The next question relating to aid for the helpless 

 concerns famine and hunger. 



In civilized states there should be no possibility of 

 death from starvation as every one of the citizens pos- 

 sesses a primary right to the means of subsistence and 

 the preservation of his life. I eat and drink not as a 

 personal caprice but in answer to the call of nature, 

 which herself has supplied to hand the means of com- 

 pliance, and if it happens that there is a lack of such 

 means government must come to the help of the needy, 

 for it is only in the multitude of healttry citizens that 

 any state has a reason to rejoice. A consciousness of 

 this primary duty is growing stronger amongst civilized 

 nations, and I apprehend that work-houses will play an 

 important role in the future of social economy and co- 

 operation. If we now see not infrequently men of the 

 educated classes without any means of subsistence, the 

 spectacle of utter need amongst the peasant class is still 

 more terrible. For fhe unhappy peasant famine is such 

 a frightful scourge that he flies from it to the towns 

 where naturally he fares not better but even worse than 

 our more cultured starvelings. 



