seeking. In this way religion has helped many individuals and nations to overcome periods of depression in their lives, and prevented their "progress curve" from falling too low. While thus religion, as a fly wheel, by its opposition, takes much joy away from progress, it returns it later, in the form of stored energy, to joyless people.

If my proposition be true, the following consequences must be drawn:

1. If you wish to give pleasure to someone-to a people, a group of persons, a friend, or even to yourself - always try to do it in the shortest possible time. Otherwise, if you do it slowly or step by step, the result will be imperceptible. It is better to increase the ordinate of the "progress curve" little and quickly than much and slowly.

2. Notwithstanding the immense progress to be expected in the future, humanity will never be very happy, or, more precisely, its happiness will never be commensurate with the reached results, because, to be satisfied, it constantly requires new progress, and because every new step tends to make people more exacting.

If, by some miracle, we were transported a hundred years forward, we should undoubtedly be extremely happy, because a great step would have been taken in a short time, corresponding to a large angle on the "progress curve." But it does by no means follow that people in reality will be very happy after a hundred years. They will have obtained the large quantity of goods in their possession by a long route; the curve will be a slanting one, and the degree of happiness felt will probably be as moderate as our own-perhaps even smaller.

Thus our theorem explains the apparent paradox that, notwithstanding the progress of culture, humanity has not become perceptibly happier. People constantly complain, constantly seek for something better, as they have sought for it in ancient Egypt, in Rome, in the Middle Ages-everywhere and always. The whole paradox is based on a wrong standard of happiness. It is taken for granted that the aggregate amount of goods possessed by a people, and not the rapidity of its increase, constitutes the measure for its happiness.

Let us therefore be calm and not be jealous of posterity. Probably our descendants will fly over the ocean in airships in half an hour; they will possibly and probably make their bread directly from clay; but it is very doubtful whether they will be happier than ourselves. Yet it will be admitted that the final goal of all our activities is happiness; and if this is not attained, what is the good of all the screws and machinery?

3. The third consequence is the most important, because, rightly applied, it reconciles us with life. It may be stated as follows: It lies within the power of each individual, as of each people, to increase his happiness on earth, independently of the quantity of goods possessed. It is enough for that purpose to lead an active life, ever to see and attain new results; in short, to increase the angle of the “progress curve." Precisely here lies the greatest wisdom of our Creator. It would be a great injustice if our happiness were dependent upon the absolute quantity of goods possessed. Were such the case, those born later would have far better chances for happiness than those born earlier; and it might be said, paraphrasing the well-known sentence of Mephisto in Faust: "Weh Dir, dass Du ein Grossvater bist!"

Thus in reality the possibility for happiness is given to everyone as a result of his own efforts, independently of the epoch or the place in which he lives. This has been understood by the great moralists of all ages. "The kingdom of God is within you," said Jesus. Socrates taught this truth by his life and his writings; the same was done by Seneca; in our own day it is expounded by Tolstoi.

Perhaps the life of one man means nothing in the worldeconomy; perhaps he is only a cellule, a link in a great chain, of some great purpose unknown to us, but for which humanity exists. This all may be. But God has given the same possibility for happiness to the cellules, whether living earlier or later; the same possibility for reaching our little final purpose -our personal happiness; the same possibility to all men of all times and all nations. And this possibility is given to us by the property of our nature that our happiness depends principally on the surplus of goods which we possess, not on their absolute quantity. WLADIMIR KARAPETOFF.

WILKINSBURG, PA.

ASSOCIATIONS FOR HELPING THE BLIND.

THE blind enjoy the compassion of their fellow-men perhaps more than many others that are suffering under the difficulties of life, likely because people consider a blind man a person much more unfortunate than other sufferers. Still this consideration was also the reason why the blind have been thought for such a long time unable to do any work, destined to gain their livelihood by beggary, because it is not much more than a hundred years since the first institution for teaching the blind was established at Paris. But in this short period of a century what great success has been attained! Blind children are not only able now to enjoy the same education as full-sighted ones, but in some countries they are even obliged to visit an institution in order to get the same education as their seeing brethren. It is true, writing and reading is rather a modern invention for the blind, and their books are still expensive, and therefore small in number; but by copying out what they cannot get printed for want of demand, by gathering these copied books into libraries in order to enable a greater number of them to read these books, they have not only been able to acquire a higher education, but the number of those that attend a university, and even pass examinations, increases from year to year.

About a year ago, a small international union was formed under the name "Association des aveugles étudiants," the object of which is not only to establish a scientific library for blind students, but still more to assist each other and to help also the poor among the blind, not only to study, but to get a position after leaving their studies, so that a blind student may no longer be an object of surprise, but that the number of those who have become useful members of society may increase. In these endeavors America is by no means marching behind the European nations.

The author of this article is a blind gentleman in Leipzig, who has won a good position as a teacher of modern languages.

It is true, the number of those that have acquired a position in which they can earn what they want for life through what they have studied in science is small; but we are still in the beginning of this movement. A few years ago a blind man was hardly able to visit a university and pass an examination. The general want of confidence is perhaps the greatest obstacle that a blind man meets, and it is difficult to persuade our friends that they do us a much greater favor by giving us occupation, even for small pay, than by giving us presents.

It will be a good while before even a poor blind man may earn through his mental work, in which he must not be inferior to full-sighted people, just as much as they; and till then it must be our endeavor to render those happy that are forced to gain their livelihood by manual occupation, in which we cannot deny they are a good deal inferior to their seeing brethren.

What is the state of these unfortunate people now, and how are they to be assisted? Most blind people are much less independent than others. In early childhood their kind mothers will guard them from the rough approach of other boys. Then they are shut out from life by their education in an institution where they learn some trade. When they leave school, in which everything was arranged according to their state, shall we then expect them to be able to meet all the difficulties of life to which they are entire strangers? The real education for life through experience, which any other child has in the house of its parents without learning it, is still to come. In what way can a blind man earn his livelihood? Those who are not studying may do it in two different ways-either by music or tuning pianos, or by the practice of a trade. In music they are much less inferior to seeing people than in a trade. Their talent is mostly at least as good as that of a common musician, and their diligence often greater. They have musical notes which they can read with their fingers, and though the number of those that are playing in an orchestra is still small, as organists, music teachers, and even pianists they are performing their work well. But the state of the poor working blind man, and still more of the girls among them, is much less agreeable.

The trades they learn are mostly caning chairs, making brushes, baskets, ropes, paper sacks, and some similar articles in which a man with full sight can earn but very little. Besides, a seeing workman can add to his work many things to make it appear nicer, which will increase its price. Also selling and getting new orders is more difficult for a blind man as long as he must work alone.

Saxony is an industrial country. It has many great manufactories, and large parts of the country are inhabited chiefly by weavers and people that have only a small income. In such districts the number of blind people is not small, and, what is still more serious, they are very likely to become beggars. Not seldom they are even engaged by their own families, which are poor and of a low education, to live in this manner, which, no doubt, will bring them a little better income than making brushes or baskets. They do not mind that in this way they will fall entirely into immorality, and what they learned in the institution of Dresden may be lost in a few years. Such cases must be prevented, and, in order to prevent them, it is the first duty of the inspector at Dresden to find out whether it would be wise to send the pupil back to his people after leaving the institution. Then he must take care to find out what may be the most successful trade for him; and this he begins already while he is in school. After he has completed his studies, he remains in one of the large workshops of the institution, to complete learning his trade, because he must know it well enough to perform it without any master. This aim he has attained when he is eighteen or twenty years old, and then he is sent either to his family or to some other place which the inspector considers fit for him. How can he get on there? This question is more difficult to answer than many think. Most of them lack in their lives one of the most important periods of a seeing workman, the period when he was a journeyman. He has learned his trade as well as a blind man can, but he hardly knows anything of business life. Thus arranging a business himself is almost impossible. Even when kind friends would do it for him, he hardly understands how to meet his clients. Although