where, and when, I will explain in subsequent chapters.

All that I need say here is, that so long as a man or woman is willing
to submit to the discipline indispensable in every campaign against any
formidable foe, there appears to me nothing impossible about this
ideal; and the great element of hope before us is that the majority
are, beyond all gainsaying, eager for work. Most of them now do more
exhausting work in seeking for employment than the regular toilers do
in their workshops, and do it, too, under the darkness of hope deferred
which maketh the heart sick.


CHAPTER 5. ON THE VERGE OF THE ABYSS.

There is, unfortunately, no need for me to attempt to set out, however
imperfectly, any statement of the evil case of the sufferers what we
wish to help. For years past the Press has been filled with echoes of
the "Bitter Cry of Outcast London," with pictures of "Horrible Glasgow,"
and the like. We have had several volumes describing "How the Poor Live"
and I may therefore assume that all my readers are more or less cognizant
of the main outlines a "Darkest England." My slum officers are living in
the midst of it their reports are before me, and one day I may publish
some more detailed account of the actual facts of the social condition
of the Sunken Millions. But not now. All that must be taken as read.
I only glance at the subject in order to bring into clear relief the
salient points of our new Enterprise.

I have spoken of the houseless poor. Each of these represents a point
in the scale of human suffering below that of those who have still
contrived to keep a shelter over their heads. A home is a home, be it