Dickens is generally given credit for having secured for the world a number of much needed reforms. There is no doubt that Dickens had a great deal to do with promoting these reforms. But it is the glory of the age in which he lived that many people were working to make wrong conditions right. What Dickens succeeded in doing, possibly in a greater degree than anyone else at that time, was to produce in a great multitude of people the spirit which is willing, more than willing, very desirous, to make wrong right. An English poet who was born about a half century before Dickens, (Dickens' dates are 1812-1870; William Blake's dates are 1757-1827) wrote lines which embody wonderfully this passion for helping other people who need help. It is a passion which happily belongs to our own age. Who can tell how many people now living carry about in their hearts the resolution expressed in one of Blake's verses? I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land. Jerusalem, of course, means heaven. The Lord's Prayer says, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You had better learn by heart this verse written {19} by William Blake, for you will often want to remember it, and to help to build Jerusalem in your own country, wherever that country is. Charles Dickens has other claims to greatness, but surely none so compelling as the fact that the spirit of his novels is the aspiring, tender, loving spirit of humanity. It is interesting to know the names of the special reforms for which Dickens worked. These were to change the customs of the law courts so that there should be less delay and greater simplicity in securing redress for hardship, and to improve the character of the men appointed to the bench; to change the Poor Laws, and especially to improve their administration; to change and improve greatly the schools which existed at that time; and to bring about a reformation in the administration of prisons. Finally, he wished to have the nation provide common means of decency and health in the dwellings of the poor, so that fever and consumption should not forever be let loose on God's creatures. These are almost Dickens' own words. All these conditions have been so vastly improved that we who are living to-day can hardly realize how much we have for which to be thankful. But there are still in the world wrongs to right and conditions to improve.