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because its necessity is so universal and commonly
esteemed. The chief educative work of scientific
Reason is sometimes called ‘handing on the
torch '—-a metaphor from an old Greek game,
in which a torch was handed on from one runner
to another until the last won the race, against
another string of competitors, by arriving first
at the goal with his torch still burning. Thus
a school of teachers is imagined to hand on the
torch of Knowledge from one generation to
another: and without tradition progress would
be impossible.
But what I have called oprorTUNITY OF
ENVIRONMENT is much neglected, and there is no
reform from which you have more to gain than
that which would secure you a generous and
wholesome spiritual diet. The soul requires food
just as the body does ; all its faculties, even our
moral virtues, may in this be likened to our

muscular efficiency, the strength and co-ordination
 of which come of its exercise and practice ;
and we must have objects to practise on. The
task is how to provide them. And seeing the

mental and spiritual destitution of our towns we