of competition will take the place of the brutal strife that adds senselessly to the sum of human woe.  Our race has outgrown so many forms of brutality, so many deliberate changes have taken place in the course of even two thousand years, that the final change which shall abolish war is almost certain to come.  We find that about one thousand nine hundred years ago a polished gentleman like Julius Caesar gravely congratulates himself on the fact that his troops destroyed in cold blood forty thousand people—­men, women, and children.  No man in the civilized world dare do such a deed now, even if he had the mind for the carnage.  The feeling with which we read Caesar’s frigid recital measures the arc of improvement through which we have passed.  May the improvement go on!  We can continue to progress only through knowledge; if our people—­our women especially—­are wantonly warlike, then our action will be wantonly warlike; knowledge alone can save us from the guilt of blood, and that knowledge I have tried to set forth briefly.  By wondrous ways does our Master work out His ends.  Let us pray that He may hasten the time when nation shall not rise up against nation, neither shall they draw the sword any more.

December, 1886.

DRINK.

I have no intention of imitating those intemperate advocates of temperance who frighten people by their thunderous and extravagant denunciations; I leave high moral considerations on one side for the present, and our discussion will be purely practical, and, if possible, helpful.  The duty of helpful men and women is not to rave about horrors and failures and misfortunes, but to aim coolly at remedial measures; and I am firmly convinced that such remedial measures can be employed only by private effort.  State interference is always to be deprecated; individual action alone has power to better the condition of our sorely-tempted race.  With sorrow too keen for words, I hear of blighted homes, intellects abased, children starved, careers wrecked, wives made wretched, crime fostered; and I fully sympathize with the men and women who are stung into wild speech by the sight of a curse that seems all-powerful in Britain.  But I prefer to cultivate a sedate and scientific attitude of mind; I do not want to repeat catalogues of evils; I want to point out ways whereby the intemperate may be cured.  Above all, I wish to abate the panic which paralyzes the minds of some afflicted people, and which causes them to regard a drunkard or even a tippler as a hopeless victim.  “Hopeless” is a word used by ignorant persons, by cowards, and by fools.  When I hear some mourner say, “Alas! we can do nothing with him—­he is a slave!” I feel impelled to reply, “What do you know about it?  Have you given yourself the trouble to do more than preach?  Listen, and follow the simple directions which I lay down for you.”