ures to show its nature and extent; the writer of
fiction wove it into his tale; the journalist found it a topic not easily
to be exhausted: old men shook their heads over it; and the young, to the
astonishment of the world, began to talk of it as a matter of pressing
interest to them. Now was the time when Great Britain might have looked
into this question. But a return of prosperity, which we must almost
call insidious, lulled attention. Sickness and adversity are soon
forgotten. And this nation awoke as from a bad dream which it was by no
means desirous of recalling in its daylight reminiscences." My friends,
let us not give an opportunity to the historian to moralize upon us in
this manner. If we are employers of labour, let us bethink ourselves
that now is the time for persuading our men to do something for
themselves; now is the time for getting improvements made in our town and
neighbourhood, the public being in a cheerful mood; now, too, we can
ourselves adventure something for the good of those around us. Do not
let us be anxious to drain the cup of prosperity to its last drop,
holding it up so that we see nothing but it. Let us carry ourselves
forward in imagination, and then look backward on what we are doing now.
That is the way to master the present, for the best part of foresight is
in the reflex. What matter is it how many thousands of pounds we make,
compared to how we make them?

"Yes," some one will reply, "the imaginary historian deserves to be
heard. This is the time for the nation to do something. Really a
Government with a surplus should put all things to rights." Oh, these
unhappy collective nouns, what have they not to answer for! This word
"nation," for instance: we substitute it instead of writing down some
millions of names, a convenience not altogether to be despised. But
yours, my friend, is there. The word nation is not an abstract idea; but
means an aggregate of human beings. No individual man is eliminated by
this process of abbreviation. Your being one of a nation is to enrich
you with duties, not to deprive you of them. But these large words often
soothe us into obliviousness. It puts one in mind of long algebraical
operations in which the student has wholly lost sight of reality, and is
driving on his symbols, quite unable to grasp their significance. This
may be well enough for him, for eventually some result comes out which
can be verified. But if we, in active li