I commend a careful reading of Martin Chuzzlewit to the pessimists of to-day, to the men who, instead of fighting hard to do away with abuses while at the same time losing no jot of their buoyant hopefulness for the country, insist that all our people, socially and industrially, in their private lives no less than as politicians, newspaper men, and business men, are at a lower ebb than ever before. If ever any one of you feels a little downcast over the peculiarly gloomy view of the present taken by some well-meaning pessimist of to-day, you will find it a real comfort to read Martin Chuzzlewit, to see what a well-meaning pessimist of the past thought of our people sixty-five years ago; and then think of the extraordinary achievement, the extraordinary gain, morally no less than materially, of those sixty-five years. Dickens can be read by us now with profit; Elijah Pogram, Hannibal Chollop, Jefferson Brick and Scadder have their representatives to-day, plenty of them; and the wise thing for us to do is to recognize that these are still types of evil in politics, journalism, business, and private life, and to war against them with all our hearts. But it is rank folly to regard these as the only, or the chief, types in our national life. It was not of much consequence whether Dickens made such an error or not, but it would be of great consequence if we ourselves did; for a foolish pessimism is an even greater foe of healthy national growth than a foolish optimism. It was not that Dickens invented characters or scenes that had no basis in fact; on the contrary, what he said was true, as far as it went; the trouble was that out of many such half truths he made a picture which as a whole was absurd; for often a half truth is the most dangerous falsehood. It would be simply silly to be angry over Martin Chuzzlewit; on the contrary, read it, be amused by it, profit by it; and don’t be misled by it. Keep a lively watch against the present-day Pograms and Bricks; but above all, distrust the man who would persuade you to feel downhearted about the country because of these same Pograms and Bricks, past or present. It would be foolish to ignore their existence, or the existence of anything else that is bad in our national life; but it would be even more foolish to ignore the vaster forces that tell for righteousness. Friends, there is every reason why we should fight whatever is evil in the present. But there is also every reason why we should feel a sturdy and confident hope for the future. There are many wrongs to right; there are many and powerful wrong doers against whom to war; and it would be base to shrink from the contest, or to fail to wage it with a high, a resolute will. But I am sure that we shall win in the contest, because I know that the heart of our people is sound. Our average men and women are good men and women――and this is true in all sections of our country and among all classes of our countrymen. There is no other nation on