Many of this crowd have never had a chance of doing better;they have been born in a poisoned atmosphere,educated in circumstances which have rendered modesty an impossibility,and have been thrown into life in conditions which make vice a second nature.Hence,to provide an effective remedy for the evils which we are deploring these circumstances must be altered,and unless my Scheme effects such a change,it will be of no use.There are multitudes,myriads,of men and women,who are floundering in the horrible quagmire beneath the burden of a load too heavy for them to bear;every plunge they take forward lands them deeper;some have ceased even to struggle,and lie prone in the filthy bog,slowly suffocating,with their manhood and womanhood all but perished.It is no use standing on the firm bank of the quaking morass and anathematising these poor wretches;if you are to do them any good,you must give them another chance to get on their feet,you must give them firm foothold upon which they can once more stand upright,and you must build stepping-stones across the bog to enable them safely to reach the other side.Favourable circumstances will not change a man's heart or transform his nature,but unpropitious circumstances may render it absolutely impossible for him to escape,no matter how he may desire to extricate himself.The first step with these helpless,sunken creatures is to create the desire to escape,and then provide the means for doing so.In other words,give the man another chance.
Thirdly:Any remedy worthy of consideration must be on a scale commensurate with the evil with which it proposes to deal.It is no use trying to bail out the ocean with a pint pot.This evil is one whose victims are counted by the million.The army of the Lost in our midst exceeds the numbers of that multitudinous host which Xerxes led from Asia to attempt the conquest of Greece.Pass in parade those who make up the submerged tenth,count the paupers indoor and outdoor,the homeless,the starving,the criminals,the lunatics,the drunkards,and the harlots--and yet do not give way to despair!Even to attempt to save a tithe of this host requires that we should put much more force and fire into our work than has hitherto been exhibited by anyone.There must be no more philanthropic tinkering,as if this vast sea of human misery were contained in the limits of a garden pond.