The condition of poverty creates the necessity for labor, and, if its stress is not too great, is not to be regarded as an unmixed evil. It stimulates to exertion, and exertion tends to develop and strengthen all portions of the system. The natural tendency of the mind is to run riot, to avoid hardship, and to follow the enjoyment of the present moment irrespective of the future, and it is only that discipline which comes from the necessities of life in the midst of civilization, which can lead it up to a higher standard of endurance and health. If, therefore, the effects of poverty were to end here, they might properly be regarded as blessings. But this is not the case; for the vast majority of the poor they go much beyond the requirements of health-giving labor and discipline, and manifest themselves in quite an opposite result. The lack of brain-discipline, ignorance, too many hours of toil, too few of relaxation, illy-prepared or unsuitable food, foul air in sleeping apartments, unsanitary surroundings, and other conditions always attendant upon the poor, especially in large towns and cities, all tend toward deterioration of brain-tissue. There have also resulted, for that class of the poor which has, in more recent periods, and in some cases by fortuitous circumstances, come suddenly into the possession of considerable sums of money, even greater evils than those experienced from poverty. There are many persons who get along well enough while obliged to live in the simplicity and continence of a laborious life which provides for them food and raiment, who, when possessed of the requisite means, will suddenly rush into wild excesses, and in a few years their nervous systems become poisoned and wrecked. This is especially the case in many of the new cities which have been springing into existence within the last fifty years, stimulated thereto by manufacturing industries. These cities provide the temptations toward, and the means of gratifying, physical excesses, and the influence of example serves to drag down thousands who might otherwise escape. Moreover, the accumulation of wealth in these large places exerts an influence not only upon those residing there, but also upon the ignorant poor living in the vicinage, and serves to allure them to dangerous courses of conduct who have never learned that the violation of laws which should preside over and regulate their appetites and passions leads to death, or, what is frequently a thousand times worse than death, viz., a poisoned and wrecked life.