I am under no delusion as to the possibility of inaugurating a millennium by my Scheme;but the triumphs of science deal so much with the utilisation of waste material,that I do not despair of something effectual being accomplished in the utilisation of this waste human product.The refuse which was a drug and a curse to our manufacturers,when treated under the hands of the chemist,has been the means of supplying us with dyes rivalling in loveliness and variety the hues of the rainbow.If the alchemy of science can extract beautiful colours from coal tar,cannot Divine alchemy enable us to evolve gladness and brightness out of the agonised hearts and dark,dreary,loveless lives of these doomed myriads?Is it too much to hope that in God's world God's children may be able to do something,if they set to work with a will,to carry out a plan of campaign against these great evils which are the nightmare of our existence?
The remedy,it may be,is simpler than some imagine.The key to the enigma may lie closer to our hands than we have any idea of.
Many devices have been tried,and many have failed,no doubt;it is only stubborn,reckless perseverance that can hope to succeed;it is well that we recognise this.How many ages did men try to make gunpowder and never succeeded?They would put saltpetre to charcoal,or charcoal to sulphur,or saltpetre to sulphur,and so were ever unable to make the compound explode.But it has only been discovered within the last few hundred years that all three were needed.
Before that gunpowder was a mere imagination,a phantasy of the alchemists.How easy it is to make gunpowder,now the secret of its manufacture is known!
But take a simpler illustration,one which lies even within the memory of some that read these pages.From the beginning of the world down to the beginning of this century,mankind had not found out,with all its striving after cheap and easy transport,the miraculous difference that would be brought about by laying down two parallel lines of metal.