oed lightning. It is a Niagara that I can hold in my hand
and put into my pocket. It is a present day Aladdin's lamp. If I
possess this lamp a million genii stand ready to do my bidding.
Whatever service I demand, that will they do, whether that service look
toward the making of men or the wrecking of men.

In case I live for self they are able to assist me in all my selfish
enterprises. They can provide a winter palace in the city and a summer
palace in the mountains or down by the sea. They can adorn my walls
with the choicest of paintings. They can put the finest of carpets
upon my floors. They can make possible tours abroad and private boxes
at the theatre. They can search the treasure houses of the world and
bring to me their rarest jewels. They can give me a place among the
select four hundred, with whole columns about myself in the society
page of the Metropolitan Daily.

Even this is not all. If I, their master, am so minded, these powerful
genii will defeat for me the ends of justice. They will override the
constitution. They will enable me to put a stain upon the very flag of
my own country. They will make it possible for me at times to
disregard the rights of others. When occasion demands they may even
purchase at my desire the honor of manhood and the virtue of womanhood.

On the other hand, if I am a good man, I may set these genii to the
doing of tasks great and worthwhile. I may command them to give
clothing to the naked and food to the hungry. I can order them to
build better schools for the education of the world. I can compel them
to build better churches for the worship of God. I can send them with
a chance in their hands for the unfortunate and the handicapped. I can
make it impossible for one to say of that bright lad:--

"But knowledge to his eyes her ample scroll,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll.
Chill penury suppressed his noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul."

In fact there is no high task that man is called upon to perform but
that these mighty genii can be of assistance. They can help "to heal
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised." They can even make their master friends who will one day
receive him into everlasting habitations.

"Dug from the mountain side, washed in the glen,
Servant am I of the Master of men.
E