proximately equal in strength, then we have an aggressive manhood or womanhood.

Now, if there is anything in this thought which I am trying to express, it says to me with unmistakable clearness, when you see a human being of either sex, or any age who lacks self-control, whose life is not keyed to that moderation which may fix the boundaries of wisdom itself, think of good energies, good impulses, good capacities perverted to ignoable uses; think how when those energies, impulses, capacities were pushing, expanding, blossoming in the individual, the path for their exercise seemed to open more easily in the direction of evil, the way of least resistance was in the way of evil; think how far otherwise it might have been had the tendency been changed just a little, had the road to opportunities been changed in its leading just a little. By the side of my front door I found the other day, some vigorous little vines, full of the spirit of growth, which had sprung from the seed of last year's stock. Blown a little out of line by the winds, some of them if left to themselves, will surely run off into the grass, and end in being cut to pieces by the mowing machine. But with a very little wise help, with a very little inducement offered them to start in the right direction, the very same life force, neither more nor less, will climb the trellis and bless us with freshness and beauty all the summer through. It is just so with many a human plant. The impulses within are largely right, if only wise conditions are provided for growth, and results are awaited in faith and patience. For really what we want to do, though we sometimes forget it, is to help a healthy vigorous, growth in the plant. What we want to do, though we sometimes forget it, is to promote self-control in the man. And all the work ever undertaken for putting temptation beyond his reach, however important such work may be, and I would not for a moment belittle it, is secondary to the greater work of making him thus master of himself.

All my thought, thus far, leads up to one conclusion, expressed in one word

Substitution.

I will not say the only way, perhaps I need not so far make a comparison as to say the best way, but certainly I may claim one way, efficient and largely untried, of fighting evil is expressed by this word, substitution. Metaphorically speaking, the powers of darkness provide large classes of our fellowmortals with what those classes believe will bring happiness and inspiration, or at least restful oblivion, in the use of intoxicating liquor. Substitution means that the powers of light shall by careful study ascertain the needs of the individual, which have led him to the use of liquor, and then shall offer him something safe, better, and more attractive for the attainment of the same ends. The fact is, and the moment we study back of these social evils for their causes, we are brought face to face with it, the fact is that a very large number of people in all our large cities, see in the dram-shop, and what it represents, the best opportunity they have for temporarily drowning care and anxiety, for temporarily getting away from the weariness which comes from being over worked and underfed. It is a delusive promise, Heaven knows, but it is a promise, which for the time being, seems to give a zest, and a sparkle to homes that are otherwise pretty heavy and barren. It is not the fact that men go wrong by natural endowment. Of course there are those who have inherited tendencies nearly impossible to overcome. But the fact that by reason of the profit in the traffic, intoxicating liquor is brought within such easy reach of men as a means of getting a little touch of joy, is more than all things else, the cause of intemperance. Substitution, I say again, means that the agencies of light shall, at least, be as easy to find upon the street, and shall be made at least as attractive and applicable to humanity, as the agencies of darkness are. I believe we have not begun to appreciate the potency there is in what Wendell Phillips called fighting the devil with his own weapons, and how necessary in order to do that it is to meet his Satanic Majesty upon his own grounds. Recreation, the drowning of care and weariness, and anxiety, the satisfaction of the craving for a good time, every

human being has these needs. When the dram-shop offers to meet them for five cents, ten cents, fifteen cents and the reputable theatre charges fifty cents or a dollar, the offer of the dram-shop will be taken. If we would substitute healthy ways for unhealthy ones, safe ways for unsafe ones, heavenly ways for ways of hell, in fighting intemperance, we must offer that which will appeal to those we want to win, and we must offer it at a competing price.

Nor is this idea of Substitution less applicable to every form of social evil than to Intemperance. Take Prostitution which like intemperance has baffled human ingenuity, and defied the sense of human propriety. Prostitution is an abuse, a perversion of a divine human function. What causes it? Excess of that which in its normal use participates with God in the creative work of the world. The mischief is not in the function itself, but in the loss of self-control. Now I venture to claim that one of the very best ways to provide, in young and old, against abnormal development of this passion which feeds the evil of prostitution, is to provide other channels of vigorous, healthy activity. The great thing to be said for athletics for boys and young men is in this very line. They offset the dangerous tendencies of sedentary habits. They use somewhat of the immense stock of vital force which needs to be used, and which if not used in good ways, will be used in bad and dangerous ways. I wish we might take the remedy always in moderation, but that this great movement toward physical exercise and development in out-of-door sports, has a most vital moral meaning in it, I cannot doubt. It is a significant application of the principle of Substitution, and on the other side of the house the principle holds good too. Everything which tends to open the way to an honorable career, everything which tends to throw around a yearning heart, a little pure, warm, human love, is an influence to save and protect and ennoble the women concerned in this evil. I know of nothing more inhuman than the attitude we take toward this class of women; the pessimistic way in which we regard them as without hope in the world and unworthy the sym

pathy of the world. Our duty is poorly done, as it seems to me, by condemning them thus. We must seek rather to understand them, and then to substitute for the bad conditions which must always lead such as they astray, the good conditions which lead to virtue and happiness.

You see friends I am inclined to strike out in a new line, or at least a line which has not been very much worked. I have no quarrel with prohibition, you will bear me witness that I always give my voice, and my vote on its side. I am thankful for Dr. Parkhurst, and all Dr. Parkhurst is doing. I cannot find it in my heart to condemn any honest effort in behalf of sobriety and virtue. But somehow, all these together do not quite satisfy me. Perhaps I am wrong. I know I am intensely human myself, and intensely human in my sympathies, but I cannot get the man, or the woman out of my sight as the supreme consideration. In intemperance, I see the person without power of self-control; in prostitution, I see the person without power of self-control. The supreme thing in my thought is not to abolish the evil, but to call out, and develop the manhood, and the womanhood. And so much of our dealing with that manhood and womanhood seems to me, even at this late day, to be tinctured with the old idea of the inherent viciousness of human nature. I want to approach them with infinite hope, I want to study them with infinite patience, I want to deal with them with infinite love, However bad results may be, I believe in the possibility of finding good intentions somewhere, and good tendencies somewhere. I believe in appealing to those intentions, and working upon those tendencies, by such processes as shall be scientific, and philosophical, and brotherly. I believe in the possibility of virtue, and that wherever we fail to get virtue we want to substitute such new methods and conditions for old ones, as an ever increasing wisdom shall suggest.

Self-control, the end; moderation, the mood; knowledge of the law of use and abuse, the outfit; tendency, rather than fixity of nature, the material to be worked upon; substitution, the way; this is perhaps the skeleton of my thought.

I should be sorry to have any one take it as hinting a reflection upon what has been already done, and is still being done by earnest souls in behalf of suffering humanity. I should be glad to think it might add a very little contribution toward the solution of these old and trying problems. "Selfreverence, self-knowledge, self-control," I aspire to be worthy the brotherhood of service, which aims to bring those blessings to every human soul.

The question was then placed before the house for dis

cussion.

There When

GILES B. STEBBINS, of Michigan, said: Unless we get down to the root of a matter we can only say lop off a few of the branches and the root still continues to flourish. I feel with MR. HINCKLEY that we must get at the root of this matter. We must get nearer to the thought of what we are. It is the spiritual part of us which controls the material. is no end to the interior or spiritual capacities of man. we understand that these bodies of ours are only the implements used on this earth by the spirit within then we begin to realize the truth of this statement. We must make men and women know that it is possible to bring the bond completely under the influence of the spirit. What a blessed thing in the civilization of the 19th centnry is this enlistment of a great host of women against the liquor traffic under the banner of the National W. C. T. U. I have recently been in New York City and the examples I there saw has again caused me to think of the thoughtlessness of those possessed of pecuniary means. As I stood looking over the metropolis from a lofty situation I could see the result of vast accumulations of wealth expended in splendid buildings and I thought how many millions are expended by the rich for the mere gratification of selfishness to the entire exclusion of the poor. With scarcely any sacrifice the people of this city could annually appropriate $10,000,000 to substitute free reading rooms and places of enjoyment for the saloons and other places too vile to be named. It is a great thing to get into the matter of substitution. We also greatly need the sublime condition of self-control.