DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 43 ) origin in vanity and conceit. Many a man likes to read his name in the papers as the founder of a hospital, of a library, or a school; but there are hundreds, yes thousands, of almost secret workers, who devote their intelligence, their time, and their means, with unflagging energy and perseverance, to the improvement of the condition of their suffering fellow-creatures. You may not have heard of the institution of the Gordon Home, the object of which is to reclaim the waifs of our streets and train them as soldiers or sailors. Men and women of high station now, on winter nights, go among the very poorest of the London poor to rescue them from vice and degradation. Good examples are as contagious as bad: we are prompted, half unconsciously, to follow their example, feeling convinced that it is better to enjoy a good name and a worthy position in this world, by being temperate, tolerant, and charitable, than by squandering our fortunes at play or degrading ourselves by vulgar habits to the level of the beasts. As every clime has its indigenous trees, which bear their peculiar blossoms and fruit, so every nation has its individual characteristics. The Frenchman is famed for his wit, the Spaniard for his pride, the German for his sentiment, the Briton for his common sense. That common sense only needed the fertilising forces of recent times to expand into a higher sense of justice, morality, and self-respect.