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2 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
which have become confirmed during centuries of i,gnorance
nud mistaken logislation. Time must be a great element in
rJocial reform, and it is hardly to be expected that any great
change can become manifest in less than the thirty years
during which D new generation displaces the older one. But
in addition to this consideration, we must remember that it is
of comparatively little good to close some flood-gates, while
vthors aro left widc open. If from ignorance or neglect, or,
it may bo, from sinister motives, we leavo many of the more
importnnt causcs of social n~ischief in full operation, it is quite
likely that our efforts in other directions, however meritorious
in themselvc~s, will bo neutnlised. What is needed among
social reformers is a long pull, and a strong pull, and especilrlly
D pull all together. Each individual may, according to
his tastes and prejudices, choose his own strand of the rope,
and exert his own force entirely upon that, if he likes; but he
must not suppose that ho alone can do any appreciable part of
tho work. Ho must bo tolerant then of tho different, or, it
mny sometimes appear, tho inconsistent efforts of others.
And it would bo well that he should kocp his mind open to
conviction, thnt tllcre are other dircctions in which his efforts
ujght bo much more advantageously devoted. If the citadel
of poverty and ignornnce and vice is to be taken at all, it
must be besieged from every point of the compass-from
below, from above, from within; and no kind of arm must be
ncglectod which will tend to securo the ultimate viatory of
morality and culture.
It is obvious, of course, that in any single article it is
impossible to treat of more than one Nethod of Social
Reform. In selecting, for the subject of the present article,
l’ublic Amusements, I must not bo supposed to attribute to it
any orclusivo or disproportionate weight. Nevertheless, them
is hardly any other Method, taken separately, to which greater
importsnce should be attributed then to the providing of good
moral public amusements, especially musical entertainments.
Up to quite recent years, the English people have, in this
respect, been wofdly backward, (as compared with the more
cultured Continental nations. Tbere are still large parts of