pioneers of the work for the poor and cheered them at their toil.

"In thought I have not yet abandoned all expectation of a better world than this. I believe this in which we live is not so good as it might be. I know there are many who think the atmosphere of rapine, rebellion and misery which wraps the lower orders of Europe every day, is as natural a phenomenon as a hot summer. But God forbid! There are ills which flesh is heir to and troubles to which man is born; but the troubles which he is born to are as sparks which fly upward, not as flames burning to the nethermost hell. We can, if we will but shake off this lethargy and dreaming that is upon us, and take the pains to think and act like men, we can, I say, make kingdoms to be like well-governed households, in which, indeed, while no care or kindness can prevent occasional heart-burnings, nor any foresight or piety anticipate all the vicissitudes of fortune, or avert every stroke of calamity, yet the unity of their affection and fellowship remains unbroken, and their distress is neither embittered by division, prolonged by imprudence, nor darkened by dishonor."

'Quixotism, or Utopianism: that is another of the devil's pet words. I believe the quiet admission which we are all of us so ready to make, that, because things have long been wrong, it is impossible they should ever be right, is one of the most fatal sources of misery and crime from which this world suffers. Things are either possible or impossible-you can easily determine which, in any given

state of human science. If the thing is impossible you need not trouble yourself about it; if possible, try for it. It is very Utopian to hope for the entire doing away with drunkenness and misery out of the Canongate; but the Utopianism is not our business -the work is. It is Utopian to hope to give every child in this kingdom the knowledge of God from its youth; but the Utopianism is not our business— the work is."

SECTION II.—ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE
BRITISH SETTLEMENTS.

SUMMARY OF THE PREPARATORY ELEMENTS.All the forces mentioned, moving millions of obscure and nameless persons, as well as the great and renowned, contributed to the establishment of the first Settlements, made them a natural, inevitable product of the age. Industrial centralization compels organic social action; municipal development hastens, as in a hothouse, the germination and growth of the idea and feeling of solidarity; educational progress and improvements in communication furnish a sensitive network of social nerves of sensation, consciousness and expression; democratic feeling tends to make patronage charity repugnant on all sides; a quickened religious spirit intensifies the missionary zeal of the church; philanthropy, by its noble history and present enterprises, gives momentum and direction to new endeavors, and furnishes institutions ready made for social uses; ethical philosophy has passed from the

narrow and dark valley of egoistic hedonism up to the sunny highlands of rational and spiritual altruism; positivism has exalted humanity to a place of worship; sociology, in the hands of Comte and Spencer, has formulated the idea of the social organism; the universities have emerged from mediæval pedantry into the world of real life; the Charity Organization Society is unifying the chaotic efforts of benevolence; East London has missionaries and visitors who are acquainted with the people, but who feel themselves cut off from the warm gulf stream of learning, piety and culture. The time is ripe for bringing all these forces into coöperation in some new and vital movement. The Social Settle

ment is one of the many agencies in and through which the modern philanthropy, charged with the spiritual wealth of all past generations, finds expression. The Settlement does not create itself by spontaneous generation. It does not thrust itself upon the world unbidden. It rises at the divine call. It grows naturally out of all previous movements, draws life from them, completes and expands them.

FORERUNNERS.-The precursors of the Settlement were driven to the discovery that workingmen must help themselves if they are to be helped. They must grow into their inheritance. Friends can assist them only by increasing intelligence and fortifying character. The Christian Socialists, aroused by the revolution of 1848, and by the revelations of London misery, had sincerely tried to improve the economic condition of the poor by

schemes of coöperation in manufacture. Their schemes were wrecked on the shallows of spiritual defect, their own ignorance and the want of moral and intellectual preparation of the working people. Men who had no wealth could not act directly upon the factory system. Political power was an edged tool in a babe's hand. The Christian Socialists turned their attention to popular education.

Frederick Denison Maurice embodied the educational principle in the Workingmen's College established in 1860. Graduates of Cambridge University, who had come down to London for a public career, fell under the influence of the great preacher and enlisted under his banner as teachers. Charles Kingsley, professor of history at Cambridge and rector of a country parish, identified himself with the cause of popular education. He believed in the divine mission of natural science and in the renewing power of search for truth.

Through these fragmentary and occasional efforts to help the working people it was found that a still closer and more continuous labor was necessary; that scholars must learn from the people they would teach; that learning and helping are organic parts of one process; that higher life is communicated only by sharing, by reciprocity.

INDIVIDUAL PIONEERS.-First of all were the educated clergymen who had gone to live and labor among the poor of London. There was a large number of such men; but there are two whose names shine out with conspicuous lustre, Rev. John Richard Green and Rev. S. A. Barnett; the former

the most popular historian of England, the latter still living and writing, the interpreter of contemporary social needs. Nor should we forget the wives of these eminent men.

Edward Denison was an Oxford man of wealth and position, who went in 1867 to Rev. J. R. Green, then vicar of St. Philips, Stepney, London, and offered his personal service for the help of the parish. The clergyman was surprised almost to the point of scepticism by this unexpected and unusual act, but he soon found that the consecration was genuine. Denison made his home among the people and sought most earnestly and tactfully to understand and assist them. He carried his knowledge of their needs and aspirations into Parliament and there pleaded their cause, but his career was soon cut off by death, though his deeds and words have been living seed. A few sentences from his letters may give us light upon his motives and ideals. He saw with entire clearness that residence among the poor is the essential element in successful work for them. Would indeed that we could have some real Christianity taught. Taughtbut in the way our Founder taught it, by living it. That is the only way. Those who would teach must live among those who are to be taught. I am all for people concentrating their efforts. each in some small field peculiarly accessible to himself or herself. Much more work is done with less waste, and the benefit to the doer is greater, owing to the personal exertion required. Still there must always be people whose duties