and countries, how few have any real mental life? Of the vast hordes that come upon the stage of action, not one in ten, not one in twenty, regularly reads and thinks! More may pretend to do so, but where are the fruits of their mental being? "They have names to live while they are dead." There is no system, nor order, nor aim in their reading and thinking. The light, passionate fictions of the age, with their licentious and weird stories, may occupy the time, chain the attention, and inflame the natures of our sons and daughters; but they contain no accurate information, interpose no checks to vice and folly, and create no great training of thought and sentiment. On the contrary, their tendency is to evil. They distend and poison the intellectual stomach. They hang up in the halls of memory unnatural life pictures, which haunt the imagination and corrupt the heart. It is impossible to estimate the waste of time, the decay of the intellectual powers and the blight of the moral nature produced by such mental habits. They spread and grow like the breath of a great pestilence, in proportion to the countless victims upon whom they feed, until whole countries and generations are cursed and blasted by their influence. They lay their wilting power upon manhood and womanhood, and spread the shadows of death over many a blighted home and ruined family!

The sensational newspapers and the police gazettes, that stream from the teeming presses of the age, exert a no less pernicious and deadly power. In too many instances, for the sake of gain, the owners of these execrable sheets cater to a pernicious public appetite, and feed to surfeiting the debauched intellectual and moral natures of a dissolute but growing multitude of voracious readers! Who can adequately estimate the great harvest of corruption and crime, sin and death that must ultimately grow and be reaped from seed sown by the venal presses of this country? Nor are the extravagant and bitter

partizan periodicals of the time free from censure at this point. Large numbers of these appear to have adopted as their motto, "The end justifies the means," and they assail their adversaries and defend their friends by any instrumentalities that truth or falsehood, fact or fable, may supply. When we remember that the masses of the people read little outside of the classes of books and periodicals just named, do we wonder that the number of disciplined minds is so small, and the number of those who do not study or think is so large?

When the tendencies to disorder and abasement are so numerous, can any be surprised at the enormous outlays of money and men that are necessary for the quiet, peace, and protection of society? And yet, outlaws increase, crimes multiply, officers of state are busy, the courts of justice find constant employment, and work-houses, jails and penitentiaries are crowded! Thousands, aye, millions, who could, and should be constant workers and producers in the busy social and political hives of the country, are worse than drones. They are destructives whose power goes crashing through all the interests of humanity! Who, that ponders these facts as he ought, can fail to feel and deplore the evils that spring from mental dissipation? Its breath is pestilent, and its touch is death!

History Bears Testimony to the Truthfulness of What has Been Said. The great epochs in nearly all countries have been preceded by men of earnest and continued mental work. An instance of this kind occurred during the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England. From the age of Alfred the Great, there had been men of mind in the kingdom. Geoffrey Chaucer was a great man, and he did much for his native land, and especially in the formation of the English language. But, notwithstanding the advancements made in literature and art,

no great galaxy of stars appeared in the scientific heavens of Great Britain. Sonnets, pastoral poetry and fiction had engaged the attention of the people who could read. All intellectual labor was of a light and joyous character. The people lived in their eyes and ears and in the gratification of their appetites. They were fond of passion and display, jousts and tournaments, feasts and masquerades, music and shows. But before the death of Henry VIII culture began to grow. It continued, and in the reign of Elizabeth, the ancient classics were studied, the sciences began to receive the attention which their importance deserved, education took a much wider range, and men learned to study and to think for themselves. Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Bacon and others, became great in thought and culture, and the intellectual labors of these men and their learned and laborious contemporaries, produced a new era in English mind and in English manhood. The momentum which these master spirits gave to growth, greatness and power, has never been lost. To this day, they live in the literature, science, philosophy and religion of the British empire. Their example and influence have lifted their countrymen upon an elevated plane that has never before been reached by a whole nation of people. The greatness of England to-day and her power at home and abroad, on land and sea, are the direct results of the thousands in her wide dominions who, day and night, bend under their intellectual burdens. In their hoarded wisdom, scientific skill, personal energy and united strength, they are in the van of the vast army of intel lectual and Christian workers in the civilized world.

Prussia, under the reign of the Emperor William, guided by the astute and far-seeing Bismarck, exemplifies the same truth. Her exalted and splendid position among the great powers of Europe is the result of the Herculean mental energy and enterprise that have distinguished the Germans for more

than half a century. The plodding, toiling, persistent German mind is now beginning to eat the rich, ripe fruits of its long, earnest and indefatigable labors! And does not our own history shed a clear, strong light upon this subject? Little more than a century ago, a few scattered colonists, representing the best blood, brain and heart of the gifted, freedom-loving masses of the old world, came to this country. They occupied a small number of settlements on the borders of the newly discovered continent. They were in the midst of thousands of savage red men, who regarded them as enemies and depredators, and who planned and plotted for their destruction. These colonists were destitute of all the comforts and elegancies of life, and could secure only the bare necessaries of existence in the sweat of their faces. But, despite all the difficulties and dangers that confronted them, they have cleared, peopled, and now hold in a high state of physical, mental and moral culture, the finest continent upon which the sun shines! And they have built here, in their free, united and prosperous government, the finest temple of personal and public freedom ever erected upon the face of earth! This glorious country, with its vast domain, teeming resources and fifty millions of people, is the magnificent result of a hundred years of intellectual toil.

The failures of many ancient and modern states and kingdoms add emphasis to what has just been said. When the citi zens of a country are ignorant, they become an easy prey to am. bitious and selfish rulers. In such a country, a single great man can fasten chains of despotism upon the necks of undeveloped thousands. He can build up a princely family, establish a throne, and lead great armies into the territories of neighboring states. To the uninitiated, such a government may seem to be strong and the sovereign or magistrate may apparently be firmly established in his chair of state; but, if the great

ruler dies, how often does his kingdom perish with him. There is a want of great men in the land, who can take the place of the fallen leader, and complete the work already begun. This is one reason, and the chief one, that caused the fickleness and instability of ancient governments. The Central and South American states have been of this character. The people have been ignorant, have not had mental discipline and training, their intellectual forces have been wasted, dissipated and lost, and there is nothing stable or strong. Like the colors of a chameleon, or shifting scenes in the kaleidoscope, such governments come and go. And the miseries, poverty and discouragement of the people must necessarily be great. Accumulation, growth, power and greatness are impossible! There is nothing permanent, and nothing safe! And no man can tell "what a day may bring forth." Industry and energy often lose their rewards. There are no restraints to vice, idleness and dissipation, and no incentives to enterprise and virtue. The gloom of midnight rests upon such a country, and the paralysis of death falls upon its inhabitants.

It may be proper here to suggest some remedies for the evils of mental dissipation. These are, to begin with,—a well organized and regulated system of hygiene. The laws of health have much to do with mental training and develop. ment. A sound, healthy body is a noble boon. The inspired teacher makes Christ congratulate Himself, as the divine Son is enveloped in pure flesh and blood. Looking up to the Father, in grateful recognition of the gift, He says, "A body hast thou prepared me!" This body, created pure, fitted Him for His mission in this world, and without it He could never have put the holy and spiritual truth of the divine kingdom into the minds, hearts and lives of men. Neither can men develop, do their work, and pass hopefully and joyously out of life without a body. Infants and invalids may fall