And when the victory shall be complete-when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth-how proud the title of that land which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended in that victory! How nobly distinguished that people who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the political and moral freedom of their species!

Mr. Lincoln's prophecy of the time when there should be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth was made less than twenty years before the beginning of the war which within five years blotted slavery from American soil. The person may be living who in some way in the providence of God shall bring about the fulfillment of Mr. Lincoln's prophecy as to temperance, as he himself brought about its fulfillment as to slavery, by his proclamation of emancipation. This may come within the next twenty years. When Mr. Lincoln uttered his prophecy in 1842 the prospects for the abolition of slavery were even less favorable than those for the early overthrow of the liquor traffic are now. But when the times are ripe history is made very rapidly. The work of years of agitation and of education culminates suddenly. This was done by the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott, by which it was declared that a slave had no civil rights, and under which slavery was legalized, not only in the Territories, but in the free States. The decision was expected to settle the slavery question, but instead it added fuel to the flames, and the fires of liberty burned more brightly.

Is the temperance movement to have its Dred Scott decision? Perhaps it will find it in the perversion of the army post exchange from what it was designed to be a store where soldiers could purchase a variety of needful articles— into a saloon known as the "canteen," where soldiers can be transformed into drunkards and barkeepers, with the result that brewers and distillers will increase their wealth and fasten this curse more strongly upon the people. The establishment of the canteen or saloon in connection with the army is a danger fraught with greater peril to the nation than any other event in connection with our career. History shows that many battles have been lost and the fate of nations decided by the use of strong drink. Belshazzar's feast

and its result have been repeated many times. The danger from the use of liquor is realized by every soldier, but all who drink think that they drink moderately, and hence think there is no danger in their use of liquors. But Abraham Lincoln in his warning to the young man, already quoted, declared liquor to be an enemy that would steal away the brains. For a soldier to sleep at his post of duty means death. Yet the government, by its encouragement of that which steals away the brains of its officers and men, more seriously imperils the nation than is ever done by sleeping sentinels. Clear brains may counteract the faults of sentinels, but stupefied brains only add to the confusion. So important is a perfect body considered in a soldier that the slightest physical defect, such as a broken tooth or a deformed finger, will cause the rejection of an applicant for admission to West Point. The time will come when no boy who indulges in any intoxicating liquors will be admitted to West Point, and when even moderate indulgence by any officer in the army or navy shall be sufficient cause for his dismissal from the service. And it should be a crime punishable by imprisonment to sell intoxicating liquor to anyone in the uniform of the United States army or navy.

A serious responsibility rests upon those in authority in our government. There are thousands of fathers and mothers of soldiers whose sons have yielded to the temptations of the army canteen who will feel over their boys' return, with habits formed which may wreck their characters forever, that the patriotism of those boys has been a curse to themselves and their loved ones, rather than a blessing to the country. The nation was horrified and indignant at the alleged mismanagement of the army which resulted in the wasting sickness and death of so many brave soldiers. But even more dreadful may be the permanent results of the deliberate establishment by official authority of the army saloon. Abraham Lincoln, in closing his speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at Gettysburg, called upon the people to "highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Is there not

appropriateness, in view of the existence of the canteen and the evident evils it is working, for the nation to ponder anew these serious words of Lincoln, and to put into practice the exhortation of the great President?

To many workers and friends the future of the temperance movement is not simply dark; it is hopeless. The liquor traffic is not only strongly intrenched in America, but throughout the civilized world, and its power seems to be increasing. In a speech in 1863 Mr. Lincoln characterized intemperance as "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all evils among mankind." It is so to-day. Looking at the question from a purely materialistic point of view, the situation appears to be very much as did that of the abolition movement to Frederick Douglass a few years before the war. So disheartened did Douglass become that on one occasion he declared that the friends of freedom might as well give up. Their foes were so strong and they were so weak that they could not even hope longer for success. Suddenly the clear, strong voice of Sojourner Truth, the negro prophetess, who was in the audience, rang out, with the startling question, "Frederick, is God dead?" Douglass had forgotten to take God into the account. Instantly his tone changed, and he began his onslaught upon slavery with renewed vigor. God is not dead, and the desolating liquor traffic will yet be destroyed by his power. How it will be destroyed none of us know. We can afford to work with him in his way. The victory may come through prohibition, or local option, or moral suasion, or by some restrictive measure that may not appear to be destructive at all, as the abolition of slavery came through measures not having abolition for their object. Even Mr. Lincoln, who was open in his avowal of his antislavery views, repeatedly declared that his first and only purpose in waging war was to save the Union, with slavery or without it. The final victory will be due to the cooperation of many men of many minds. We may well imitate Abraham Lincoln in the spirit of tolerance he always displayed toward those with whom he differed in opinion. Had he been otherwise he would have been unfitted for the great task committed to him of guiding the nation through the years of the civil war. While we are

unflagging and unflinching in our warfare against the liquor traffic, we should also be tolerant of those who agree with us in purpose, though they may differ in method. We may be tolerant even toward saloon keepers, many of whom are sincerely honest in their belief that their business is as legitimate and as righteous as any other business. We should show them that we hate, not themselves, but their business.

The greatest political utterance of Abraham Lincoln was his speech delivered in Cooper Institute, New York city, February 27, 1860. He closed that speech with these words: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." That is the highest standard for political action ever presented by a statesman of any nation. The possibility of its realization is to the professional politician what the former senator, John J. Ingalls, said the hope of the adoption of the Golden Rule as a principle of political action was—“ an iridescent dream." But it is a significant fact that John J. Ingalls is no longer a senator, and that the President of the United States is a Christian gentleman who believes in the application of the Golden Rule in the affairs of nations and that "right makes might." Sometime the politicians of America will reach Mr. Lincoln's exalted standard. To act upon it to-day shrewd politicians think would be extremely foolish. But Abraham Lincoln was more than a politician, and knew that the permanent welfare of the country could not be secured by unrighteous means. Had he been a timeserving, fearful politician, having no faith in the justice and strength of his cause, he would never have become President. His own faith inspired others. May it be an inspiration to us who seek the overthrow of the liquor traffic! Let us in our efforts against the saloon "have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Daord I Thow from

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ART. II.-THE ROMANCES OF THEOSOPHY. THEOSOPHY has ventured into romance. Bulwer-Lytton, Balzac, Sinnett, Carus, Connelly, Hepworth, Ver Planck are the best known of the many novelists who have written romances that have their inspiration in and are based upon one or more of the leading principles of this weird philosophy. These writers, however, were not all avowed theosophists. Bulwer-Lytton made no profession of a faith in Eastern occultism. But it is believed by Sinnett and others of "the Brotherhood" that he believed far more than he told, and that he deliberately chose to give his faith to the world in this veiled and mystic shape, so as to make it intelligible to those who were in sympathy with himself, without awakening the angry opposition of others. His "Vril" in The Coming Race is the "Akaz" of theosophy. The mysterious "Mejnour" of Zanoni is identical with one of the august Mahatmas of Indian mysticism.

It is certain that Balzac was not a theosophist in the recent use of the term. His spiritual philosophy was more akin to that of Swedenborg than to this cult. But he had studied with subtle analysis oriental occultism; and, disengaging certain of its principles which chorded with his view, he presented them in that most profound of all psychical romances, Seraphita. Here the doctrine of the transmutation of physical conditions by the unfolding life of pure spirit is imaged with exquisite beauty and power. We doubt whether mysticism has ever given a more luminous picture of a soul's ascension of the mount of its transfiguration than in this most remarkable production of modern literature. But the doctrine is not the peculiar property of theosophy. It was a staple of Hebrew thought, and without it the Hermon history of the gospels would be unintelligible. As to Hepworth's !!!, we suspect that it was designed to caricature rather than to characterize the doctrine of metempsychosis. The other writers we have named were ardent believers in theosophy, and wrote their stories with the express purpose of presenting their system in a form which would be at once attractive and luminous.