of the community's health. Malignant scourges, like consumption,
epilepsy, cancer, etc., are never heard of except in less favored
countries. There is but one prison to a province, and that is
sometimes empty. Our cities are all fire-proof, and the night
air is never startled now by the hideous jangling of fire-bells,
arousing the citizens from sleep to view the destruction of their
city. So rational and interesting has daily life become, that mind
and body are constantly in healthy occupation; the fearful nervous
hurry of old times, that broke down so many minds and bodies,
having died out, to give way to a robust force of character which
accomplishes much more with half the fuss. Of course, advantages
such as these, did not spring upon society all at once; they have
come about by comparatively slow degrees.

The first president of the Society of Benefactors, who died some
years ago at an advanced age, was the man who started the new order
of things. When he commenced to give the world the benefit of his
views, he met with a good deal of opposition and ridicule, being
told that the world was going on all right and was improving all
the time, and that if people would only stop preaching and set to
work at doing a little more, things would get better more quickly.
He could not be convinced, however, that society had any grounds
for its satisfaction, but he took the hint about preaching and
stopped his lectures, which he had been giving all through the
country. He then set to work at organization, and as he had
inherited ample means from a millionaire father, he commenced
under good auspices. He went into his work with great eagerness,
gathering together all sorts of people, who held views similar to
his own, though usually in a vague unpractical way, and formed
his first committee of a bishop, celebrated for his enlightened