Lewes, in his introduction to Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences, writes: "It is one of our noble human instincts that we cannot feel within us the glory and the power of a real conviction without earnestly striving to make that conviction pass into other minds." (NASH; "Genesis of the Social

Conscience.")

MONASTIC CHARACTER OF THE SETTLEMENT.Is the Settlement a natural form of life, sane and healthy? A writer in the C. O. S. Review says: "Settlements multiply. It is almost time for the historian to begin to investigate the effects and tendencies of this modern lay monasticism." It has been urged in many quarters that the Settlement is ascetic, unnatural, impossible to make general and permanent, and that it is sure to foster morbid feeling in residents. What has suggested this objection? It is a fact that many of the residents are unmarried. Perhaps many of them would be unwilling to take wife and children into some of the unhealthy and repulsive regions where the poor live. It may be admitted that the constant comparison of luxury with squalor, the cries and complaints of the wage earners, the bitter declamations of socialists must tend to arouse a sense of injustice toward the prosperous members of society. Indeed one would hardly give his life to Settlement work if he were entirely contented with the social system of the age. There are perils in every position, limitations in all situations of life. There are temptations to partiality, local prejudice, class hate, rash protest against wrongs which time alone can cor

rect. One would be less than human if sympathy did not give him something of the tone of his neighbors, especially when their distresses and wrongs are forced upon his attention day and night.

But there is another side. Neglected districts never raise themselves without help from above. There is as much demand for social missionaries as in any previous age. Persons without families naturally can change residence with less difficulty than others whose ways are set. Just because the average citizen lacks altruism and has egoism in excess the social balance must be held by an excess of devotion on the part of a few. And, further, the example is likely to spread. There are many compensations. Persons are not burned by a flame they are trying to extinguish. Purity does not suffer taint from those it would redeem. The cold culture that can know of wrong and pain and not seek to help is sham culture. It is the slum on one side and haughty indifference and cynical doubt of human salvability on the other which are monstrous. Bad sanitation and dirty streets are not necessary. Good schools can be had anywhere. Beauty will displace ugliness when there is demand for it.

The capable, sincere, earnest and patient workers among the poor never express regrets. They never doubt that life is worth living. Pessimism is a disease of luxury. Social reformers cannot take time to indulge in such refinements.

Mathew Arnold tells the story of

"EAST LONDON."

""Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green,
And the pale weaver, thro' his windows seen
In Spitalfields, look'd thrice dispirited.

"I met a preacher there I knew, and said:

'Ill and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene?'
'Bravely!' said he; 'for I of late have been

Much cheer'd with thoughts of Christ, the living bread.'

"O human soul! as long as thou canst so Set up a mark of everlasting light,

Above the howling senses' ebb and flow,

"To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam—

Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night!
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home."

There are great advantages in having men and their wives in a Settlement. Such a household can touch life at more points than one where only men or only women are found. There is less embarassment and more freedom. In some instances several families hire apartments in the same block and form a colony of kindred spirits, all bent on one purpose.

"The year's at the Spring,
And day's at the morn.
Morning's at seven,

The hill-side's dew-pearl'd.

The lark's on the wing,

The snail's on the thorn,

God's in his heaven;

All's right with the world."

PART III.

METHODS AND RESULTS.

SECTION I.-LAYING FOUNDATIONS.

CHOICE OF A FIELD.-The selection of a neighborhood for work is an act which requires deliberation and information. Evidently it must be a neighborhood which requires the service of voluntary helpers. If a ward is already fully supplied with all the appliances and agencies of modern culture it does not appeal to those who are good material for workers. No doubt the residents of fine avenues have much to learn from the heroic people who dwell in cottages and maintain a spiritual life amidst discouraging surroundings. There is no reason why wage workers should not send missionaries to those millionaires who, if newspaper rumors of bribery and legislative corruption contain truth, have much need of an army of coarse clad John Baptists to rebuke their gilt sins and warn them of judgment. Socialists seriously claim that the hope of future health and morality must come from the proletariat, when plutocracy and accumulated wealth have destroyed the moral fibre of the nation, when luxury has sapped the physical and spiritual life of the so-called upper classes. So far as history is concerned this prophecy is not without

basis. But this is not the phenomenon we are now studying. We are assuming that some of the children of inherited privilege are willing to share their best goods with their brethren, not by compulsion, but voluntarily. These pioneers of the higher life must make their homes near the people they wish to help.

In order to make a wise choice of fields, a preliminary survey should be made. A large map of the district should be drawn, and on it should be set down the essential social facts of significance, dwellings, population, saloons, schools, industries, nationalities represented, churches, missions, thoroughfares, lines of travel, places of amusement, sanitary conditions, water supply, branches of libraries, fire departments, police stations, etc.*

The Settlement is not necessarily to be placed in a criminal neighborhood, but should usually be located in an industrial community.

Inexperienced workers should, as did Denison and Toynbee, consult persons of long experience among the poor. Waste of means and effort, with consequent discouragement and disappointment, are almost certain to follow rash, impetuous and uninstructed efforts to do good.

Where there is a city mission, a society for organizing charity, or a federation of Settlements already. organized, their leaders should be consulted. It is a pity and a wrong to establish rival establishments where the waste and neglected places are so vast and numerous. Courtesy is economy.

*For hints, see "Catechism for Social Observation," by C. R. Henderson.