I need not enter upon the important questions of the selection of Poor-law guardians, of members of School Boards, and other officers supposed to be elected by ratepayers, because the same criticism applies to all. At present, indifference to all these important elections prevails unless a sharp contest springs up on party politics. Yet questions really vital to our national welfare are involved in these apparently minor points in our municipal housekeeping, and I believe that the indifference now felt towards our borough elections, when not stimulated by party strife, proceeds from ignorance of these larger relations. It is in the hope of seeing this great municipal education begun on a large plan, quite above party strife, that I have ventured to refer to this episode of personal experience. Those who profoundly believe in the moral government of this world, and who would help in establishing a true Theocracy, must seek truth from all sources. Our modern prophets, Herbert Spencer, John Ruskin, and many another seeker for truth, must be earnestly listened to; not as gods, but as men who with human limitations, nevertheless through evil and good report, never swerve from the steadfast unselfish search for truth--men who are enabled to see clearly great aspects of Divine truth, and who can refresh and guide us in our humbler, but providential task. Such men are often the truest followers of our Lord in this nineteenth century. To all women voters, to all our poorer ratepayers, I earnestly recommend the formation of a union for the study of municipal rights and duties, and I hope that my humble but earnest effort in this direction will enlist the sympathy and guidance of all those truth-seers most able to help us. FOOTNOTES: [22] Between four and five hundred summonses for rates this quarter in our little town. ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE WOMEN’S MEDICAL COLLEGE OF THE NEW YORK INFIRMARY, 126, SECOND AVENUE _November 2, 1868_ ADDRESS Our Faculty has kindly insisted upon my saying the first words which our new College addresses to its friends, and I am bound to comply with their desire, although I could have wished that some abler person might have shown the broad significance of those principles which are involved in our work. True growth is slow (as we measure time) and silent. The tiny sapling shoots up with invisible and noiseless force; so have we worked on--silently. Yet the truest growth has its striking phases of development. We watch with glad anticipation the first tender green of budding foliage; later still we luxuriate in the delicious flowering of the apple-blossoms in May.