Section 5. RECAPITULATION.

I have now passed in review the leading features of the Scheme, which I put forward as one that is calculated to considerably contribute to the amelioration of the condition of the lowest stratum of our Society. It in no way professes to be complete in all its details. Anyone may ' at any point lay his finger on this, that, or the other feature of the Scheme, and show some void that must be filled in if it is to work with effect. There is one thing, however, that can be safely said in excuse for the shortcomings of the Scheme, and that is that if you wait until you get an ideally perfect plan you will have to wait until the Millennium, and then you will not need it. My suggestions, crude though they may be, have, nevertheless, one element that will in time supply all deficiencies. There is life in them, with life there is the promise and power of adaptation to all the innumerable and varying circumstances of the class with which we have to deal. Where there is life there is infinite power of adjustment. This is no cast-iron Scheme, forged in a single brain and then set up as a standard to which all must conform. It is a sturdy plant, which has its roots deep down in the nature and circumstances of men. Nay, I believe in the very heart of God Himself. It has already grown much, and will, if duly nurtured and tended, grow still further, until from it, as from the grain of mustard-seed in the parable, there shall spring up a great tree whose branches shall overshadow all the earth.

Once more let me say, I claim no patent rights in any part of this Scheme. Indeed, I do not know what in it is original and what is not. Since formulating some of the plans, which I had thought were new under the sun, I have discovered that they have been already tried in different parts of the world, and that with great promise. It may be so with others, and in this I rejoice. I plead for no exclusive-