The part which legislation should take in promoting national health demands serious consideration. Legislation is the human imitation, or visible representation, of the greatest facts in the universe--law, and it derives from this representative character its immense power in moulding the mind and habits of a people; for, as the Divine laws of the human organization limit its powers and direct its modes of action, so the human laws which rule a people determine their modes of thought and their relations to one another. Legislation, therefore, not only represents the life of the present generation, but is the most powerful educator of the rising generation. Every law contains this latent power hidden within it, and so often overlooked. In every subject of legislation, whether it be the most trifling village regulation or the gravest international question, there are principles hidden behind the facts which induced legislation, and it is the attitude that legislation assumes towards those hidden principles, which stamps its character as good or evil, which makes the human law obedient or disobedient to Divine law. The health of a nation is a most important concern of a wise government. No other agency can act with such extensive and combined power. But much wise caution is needed in dealing with such a subject as national health. Human agencies are very imperfect, and much has to be learned as to the right way of dealing with most important subjects of health legislation. If the authorities introduce a supply of pure water into a village suffering from typhoid fever they do a righteous thing. They deal with causes. By careful investigation they have collected a body of facts which prove that impure water will produce typhoid fever. In this act of introducing a supply of good water there are many principles enfolded. Thus they destroy the cause of a great evil; they express approbation of that good thing--pure water; they educate the people into liking it; they show them, through experience, the blessings that flow from it. They thus render obedience to Divine law by their legislation. But it is very different if they attempt to regulate a village gin-shop. Gin, as a drink, is always bad, whether adulterated or not, and, in dealing with the greatest evil that afflicts our country--the curse of drink--legislation must adopt the same course that it did for typhoid fever: it must patiently and persistently accumulate the facts which will show what produces this dangerous disease of drinking.