ic master, some good
progress will certainly be made.

Connected with the physical side of education we have had, of late,
signs of a new departure. There is a talk of _feeding the hungry_.

Every parent worthy of the name is proud to provide food and clothing
for his children. That's what he's there for. But it does not require
much keenness of vision to see that there are many parents unworthy of
the name, and that, by the dark and inscrutable degrees of Heaven, such
worthless individuals are often allowed to be parents of a numerous
progeny. We must (i) inject into these wastrels the feeling of
responsibility and (ii) prevent the children from dying of starvation.
The first problem requires lengthy treatment and is perhaps hopeless of
accomplishment; the second can be done at once by philanthropy, either
individual or national.

However much it may wound the pride of our gilded youth, it can hardly
be asserted that birth and rank are matters that involve the slightest
personal merit. It seems to be an affair of the purest accident into
what class of society a child is born. We have overcome the difficulties
and dangers of youth--most of us--but it might well have been otherwise.
Soften your hearts, ye political economists, and cease to regard the
poor, the weak, and the wretched as criminals. If there is no wealth
but life, our country must soon be poor indeed should the rising
generation be sickly and underfed. Bairns must not be allowed to study
on an empty stomach.

PARISH COUNCIL BOARDERS.

Let me here mention a point alluded to by more than one friend of the
Highlands. It has reference to one aspect of the new science called
Eugenics, which deals with the means for producing the maximum of vigour
in our nation. It is not well enough known that for years the
authorities have been pouring into a few of the islands and straths of
the North and West a great number of maimed, consumptive, and mentally
defective children. Some houses in the Hebrides have three or four of
these children, who, but for the action of the authorities, would be
living under the most deplorable conditions of life in the towns. The
results, as regarding improvement in health and physique, are of the
most encouraging kind.[21]

After a certain age the official subsidy ceases, and the children as a
rule go to work on the farms and crofts. It is evident that such
extensive planting out of city boys and girls is bound by and by to work