72 
T1IE STRAND MAGAZINE. 
bring it home. It 
is from that salutary 
but terrible ordeal 
“YOU sat SliNSET.ESS IN YOUR CAB FOR TU 
let me quote the sonorous passages in which 
the greatest, of daily papers ended its admir- 
able leader upon the subject — a leader which 
might well be filed for reference by every 
thoughtful man. 
“ it. has been a well-worn truism/* said the 
Times , “ that our human race are a feeble folk 
before the infinite latent forces which sur- 
round us. From the prophets of old and from 
the philosophers of our own time the same 
message and warning have reached us. But, 
like all oft-repeated truths, it has in time lost 
something of its actuality and cogency. A 
lesson, an actual experience, was needed to 
that we have just 
emerged, with minds 
w h i c h are still 
stunned by the sud- 
denness of the blow, 
and with spirits 
which are chastened 
by the realization of 
our own limitations 
and impotence. The 
world has paid a 
fearful price for its 
schooling. Hardly 
yet have we learned 
the full tale of dis- 
aster, but the destruc- 
tion by fire of New 
York, of Orleans, and 
of Brighton consti- 
tutes in itself one of 
the greatest tragedies 
in the history of our 
race. When the 
account of the rail- 
way and shipping 
accidents has been 
completed, it will 
furnish grim reading, 
although there is evi- 
dence to show that 
in the vast majority 
of cases the drivers of 
trains and engineers 
of steamers suc- 
ceeded in shutting oil 
their motive power 
before succumbing to 
the poison. But the 
material d a m a g e , 
i y-kigiit hours.” enormous as it is both 
in life and in property, 
is not the consideration which will be upper- 
most in our minds to-day. All this may in 
time be forgotten. But what will not be for- 
gotten, and what will and should continue to 
obsess our imaginations, is this revelation of 
the possibilities of the universe, this destruc- 
tion of our ignorant self-complacency, and 
this demonstration of how narrow is the path 
of our material existence, and what abysses 
may lie upon either side of it. Solemnity 
and humility are at the base of all our emotions 
to-day. May they be the foundations upon 
which a more earnest and reverent race may 
build a more worthy temple.” 
THE END, 
