To confer any lasting benefit upon our people, however, patient deliberation and foresight are needed. I appeal to our unselfish men and women no longer to limit their discussions to the events which this month or year brings forth. The present is always a bad time for consideration. What hunter can _aim_ his gun at a bird which rises from beneath his feet? Will he not rather fire at a bird which is coming or going? We are gathered here tonight as amateur historians and prophets, to review the past and lay plans for the future. But let me quickly relieve myself of the charge of encouraging rash projects or empty theories. I am proposing no vast schemes; I believe it useless to do so. We move through life, with our backs toward, to the engine, and see all that we see after it has passed. The reason, the imagination, with their creative powers, picture for themselves the world that lies before, but so swift and so unremitting is our progress, that the new revelations constantly pouring in alter the premises before a conclusion can be reached. Only the most gifted geniuses can draw in the vaguest outline a picture of the future which the flight of time will prove to be true. For the most part, our spiders' webs of theory are remorselessly cut down by the scythe of time. It is good to investigate sociological problems, and devise means for guiding our course safely through perils, but in our moments of pride, we would do wisely to reflect, that it is as though we were playing at chess with God as our adversary. All efforts to improve our state are bountiful, which are made after prayer, but other plans than those conceived in a spirit of humility and obedience to God's law are, when we are mindful of His jealousy, at once foolish and terrible. CHARLES C. COOK. Footnote: [1] A study of the conditions attending upon the entrance of England and of Japan upon their progressive stage, as a part of the problem of determining the point of equilibrium between the white and colored people of America. Transcriber's Notes: Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. The following misprints have been corrected: "Hollaud" corrected to "Holland" (page 3) "unforlunate" corrected to "unfortunate" (page 7)