Much of the success of our modern social movements has been due to
the exertions of the noble Society of Benefactors. The members of
this Society, as we well know, are now mostly men of independent
means. Their chief idea is to bring together and combine social
forces for the public good, which were formerly wasted. The
Society has already existed for two generations, so that our
rising generation is reaping the full benefit of its exertions.
It is chiefly to these exertions that the improved tone of public
opinion is due, and the general, moral and intellectual elevation
of the present day are largely owing to the same cause. In the old
benighted times before 1900 much wealth and ability were, for want
of organization, allowed to run almost to waste as far as the
general good of society was concerned. Men of means led aimless
lives, squandering their riches in foreign cities, or staying at
home to accumulate more and more, forgetting, or never considering
what a powerful means of ameliorating the condition of their fellow
creatures was within their reach. It was not only the lower classes
that needed improvement, but the whole mass of society in all its
aims, ideas and pursuits. Improvement on this large scale would
never have been accomplished by the elaborate theorising and much
preaching of the nineteenth century. Action, bold and fearless
action, was wanted, and until men were found with minds entirely
free from morbid theories, but full of the courage of their new
convictions, the world had to wait in tantalizing suspense for
improvement, always hoping that each new scientific discovery would
enlighten mankind in the desired direction, but always doomed to
be disappointed and to see humanity growing either more savage or
physically weaker, simultaneously with each phase of enlightenment.
These things are perhaps truer of society in Europe, and in some
of the States, than in our young Dominion, where everything was