344 Plan for Life-saving Stations in Mid-Ocean. [May, 
certainly ask how will we pay for them ? Even if good, 
there must be a great many of them in order to have them 
of any practical value. I propose to follow up the same 
idea as in regard to the construction — divide up the cost 
between the nations. All the civilised people of the world 
are interested in the safety of the travel between the Old 
World and the New, and it would seem should likewise be 
interested in the attempt to trace the line of a storm on the 
ocean as well as on the land, for only thereby can we be- 
come as familiar as we should be with the weather of the 
whole globe. 
The great powers, like the United States, England, 
France, Germany, Russia, &c., should each construct and 
maintain a certain proportion ; and the smaller and more 
distant powers, like Holland, Italy, Turkey, &c., a smaller 
proportion each. In order to stretch across the ocean be- 
tween America and Europe, a contribution of two from each 
of the larger powers and one from each of the smaller powers 
would locate them within the comparatively short distance 
of 150 to 200 miles of each other. We cannot locate ocean 
accidents or tell just where storms may happen, and then 
place our buoys or vessels ; neither is there an attempt to 
do this in our life-saving and weather stations on land : that 
would be simply impossible. It is not proposed either at 
present to be able to get them close enough to be in the 
neighbourhood of every accident or on the line of every 
storm ; yet if placed at these intervals I think that they 
would pay for themselves in the good they would secure to 
humanity. We read of mighty works done in the past, but 
when we come to look at them carefully we find them exe- 
cuted by unwilling hands, — a serf class, — all for the mere 
vanity of those in power, and not for any real good to man- 
kind. Somehow or other the world has always spoken of 
the present age in a mere hard mechanical way. We have 
the Stone, Brass, Iron Age, &c., though occasionally we 
have the more intellectual designation of “ Age of Reason,” 
yet I think there is another name by which this age should 
be known, “Age of Humanity.” No age in the world has 
done so much for humanity at large ; sure there are some 
minor exceptions, but then all ages have had these more or 
less. I thinkthat wehavethe least bad and the most good; so, 
in respect to the numerous things that are done purely out 
of brotherly love, I think it full time that we call this the 
“ Age of Humanity,” and I hope that the benefactors of 
mankind may go on and never stop, but continue to extend 
their genial influence from age to age. Here, in this ocean 
