rted shadow of it which mendicancy indicates. A
little thought, however, will soon bring the matter home to us. It has
been remarked of some great town, that there are as many people living
there in courts and cellars, or at least in the state of destitution
which that mode of life would represent, as the whole adult male
population of London, above the rank of labourers, artisans, and
tradesmen. Probably we should form the most inadequate estimate of this
court and cellar population, even after a long sojourn in the town. Now
ponder over the fact. Think of all the persons in London coming within
the above description whom you know by sight. Think how small a part
that is of the class in question, how you pass by throngs of men in that
rank every day without recognizing a single person. Then reflect that a
number of people as great as the whole of this class may be found in one
town exhausting the dregs of destitution. When we have once appreciated
the matter rightly, the difficulty of discerning, from casual inspection,
the amount of distress, will only seem to us an additional element of
misfortune. We shall perceive in this quiescence and obscurity only
another cause of regret and another incitement to exertion.

CHAP. II.
REMEDIES AND REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE HEALTH OF TOWNS REPORT.

Having now made ourselves to some extent aware of the distress existing
amongst the labouring classes, we will consider the main branches of
physical improvement discussed in the Health of Towns Report.

1. VENTILATION.

I put this first, being convinced that it is the most essential. It is
but recently that any of us have approximated to a right appreciation of
the value of pure air. But look for a moment at one of those great
forest trees; and then reflect that all that knotted and gnarled bulk has
been mainly formed out of air. We, in our gross conceptions, were wont
to think that the fatness of the earth was the tree's chief source of
nourishment. But it is not so. In some cases this is almost perceptible
to the eye, for we see the towering pine springing from a soil manifestly
of the scantiest nutritive power. When we once apprehend how large a
constituent part, air is, of bodies inanimate and animate, of our own for
instance, we shall be more easily convinced of the danger of living in an
impure atmosphere.

And whether it agree with our preconceived notions or not, the evidence
on this point is