set to run on the surface or at any required depth, and explodes on striking an object. Although the Whitehead has given better results than any other torpedo of its class, it has several eccentricities of character, sometimes turning about without notice and making for its friends, or exploding prematurely. The distance this torpedo can run is in proportion to the size of the motor which gives it its speed and direction. To show the unreliability of the Whitehead torpedo, I will refer to the engagement between the Peruvian iron-clad Huascar and two British men-ofwar. The Shah, one of the latter, sent a fish-torpedo against the Huascar, which, seeing bubbles of air rising to the surface, avoided the machine, and it ran straight into a harbor near by; there, the compressed air being gradually expended, the torpedo rested quictly alongside a Dutch merchant-vessel at anchor, with no power to do harm. The Dutch captain, seeing what he supposed to be a live fish alongside, got out his fishing-tackle, but was disgusted at not getting a bite; only after several unsuccessful attempts with a harpoon did he discover the nature of his visitor. The Whitehead may, under certain circumstances, be a destructive instrument, but, owing to its erratic movements, it is liable in the heat of battle to prove dangerous to its friends.

The torpedo-vessel will, in the end, I am convinced, prove a most effective and certain means of offense, as its movements are at all times under the entire control of its commander, who can select his own time for attack and retreat.

No detailed account of torpedoes could be given within the limits of an ordinary article, and I have only attempted to deal with general principles, referring for a more complete illustration of this subject to the various works in which it has been treated.

D. D. PORTER.

III.

IS THE REFORMER ANY LONGER NEEDED?

THE philosophy of evolution, as applied to the problems of the physical world, is rapidly winning the victory over all opposition. Resting upon the sure foundation of known facts and necessary inductions, it has little to fear from the assaults of mere declamation, or the unbelieving conservatism which sees only danger and disaster in courageously following the truth.

But the attempt of some of the chief apostles of this philosophy to apply its teachings literally in the domain of morals and politics involves considerations of very grave moment to the cause of social progress. They tell us that society is not a manufacture, but a growth; and that civilization, therefore, is not an artificial thing, but a part of Nature-of a piece with the development of the embryo, or the unfolding of a flower. Manufacturing morals, we are told, is as unscientific as manufacturing worlds; while social progress is to be wrought out by gradual development, and not by spasms of philanthropy or sudden outbreaks of reform. It is not an accident, but a necessity, and therefore all special reforms are to be superseded by social evolution. The Clarksons and Wilberforces of a past generation must give place to the Spencers and Bagehots of the present, and thus usher in a new dispensation in the history of the race. According to Herbert Spencer, no teaching or policy can advance the work of social development beyond a certain normal rate, while it is quite possible to perturb, to retard, or to disorder the process; and, by maintaining favorable conditions, there cannot be more good done than by letting social progress go on unhindered, while an immensity of mischief may be done in the way of disturbing and distorting and repressing, by policies carried out in pursuit of

erroneous conceptions. The growth of society is thus analogous to the growth of an animal, or a plant, proceeding in a predetermined order under the influence of causes which act spontaneously, and in perfect harmony with all cosmical development. A very high authority on moral and social questions, catching the spirit of these ideas, traces a great portion of existing evils to benevolent interferences for their removal. He asserts that in this world a large part of the business of the wise is to counteract the efforts of the good, and that those only can safely and serviceably encounter social evils who can both watch and in some measure imitate God's mode of dealing with them. He tells us that the coldest tempers are generally, in matters of philanthropy, the soundest thinkers and safest guides and administrators, and that a tender-hearted statesman is almost more to be dreaded than a despot or an adventurer; while, to be worthy and efficient coadjutors with God on the great arena of the world, we must be able to borrow some of the sublime, impassive calm with which, age after age, he has looked down upon the slow progress and lingering miseries of his children. The motto of the social evolutionist is "Slow and sure;" and he exhorts us, as far as possible, to eliminate the time-element from our reckoning of human progress, and imitate Nature in her infinite patience in waiting so long for the physical world to grow into decent and comely shape. With him, human endeavors for ameliorating the condition of humanity are, of course, hinderances rather than helps, and the reformer is to be regarded as representing a type of mind no longer needed, and as destined soon to disappear under the law of the survival of the fittest. Like the mastodon, the dodo, and other creations of the past, he will become extinct, and we shall patiently and placidly look on while social evolution does the work which his ignorance and fanaticism so clumsily attempted in a ruder and less advanced stage of society.

This new gospel demands our attention. It makes its appeal in the name of science, and it has the support of great names. Its teaching is plausible, and it embodies a measure of truth. It is remarkably solacing to a certain order of minds, and we believe multitudes will be tempted to embrace it as a welcome scapegoat for their laziness or moral indifference. It arraigns all the great

reforms of the world, and would substitute a sickly moral fatalism for those deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice which have glorified human nature and lighted the world on its way to higher truth. Let us briefly consider it.

The fallacies on which it rests are not difficult to discover. In the first place, it assumes the existence of an obviously false and impossible analogy. When we are exhorted to imitate God's mode of dealing with social evils, and to become coadjutors with him by borrowing his sublime patience, it may be well to remember that we are not gods, but human beings, very limited in our knowledge and circumscribed in our sphere of action. The folly of the suggestion that we should put ourselves in the place of the Creator, in order that we may have wise and comprehensive views of our duties to our fellow-creatures, is only equaled by its sublime effrontery. Whoever believes in a Supreme Intelligence must believe that he sees the end from the beginning. The universe is his expression and breath. All its parts and appointments are the fruit of his infinite wisdom, and are seen to work together for good. What is hidden and inscrutable to us must be to him as transparent as light, and in perfect accord with justice, mercy, and truth. To talk about the patience of the Deity, therefore, is to apply the vocabulary of mortals to a Being who infinitely surpasses our comprehension. Patience is a human. virtue, implying weakness and imperfection. It means enduring, suffering with meekness, sustaining pains and trials without murmuring or fretfulness, bearing trouble with equanimity. This cannot be predicated of God, whose very attributes must make him impassive in surveying the work of his hands. And even this human virtue is only enjoined upon us in encountering evils which are unavoidable; for, if we have the power to remove them, our patience under their burden ceases to be a virtue, if it does not become a vice.

Equally irrational is the notion that we may become Godlike by eliminating the element of time in dealing with the evils of society. We have no right to break away from those limitations which make us what we are, and we have no more power to do so than we have to add to our stature by taking thought. With our Creator, as we are told and believe, the universe is "an everlasting Now;" but with us the little fragment of time which

rounds out our life is simply the gateway of duty and toil. It is our providential opportunity, into which we should crowd every beneficent activity which an unselfish devotion to truth and humanity can kindle. We cannot, therefore, become coadjutors with our Maker by folding our hands and waiting upon evolution, or the cold logic of events, but by acting well our appointed part in the fleeting drama of life-by plunging into the strifes and struggles of our time, and wisely but fervently toiling for our kind. These strifes and struggles afford ample scope for our powers, and we have no right to shirk the task to which we are summoned. Evolution is God's method of operating in the natural world, and, in a qualified sense, in the moral; but it can perform no vicarious office for us as intelligent beings endowed with a conscience, who must work out our own salvation. It cannot supersede the strivings and sacrifices of good men for the race. It cannot cancel our social obligations by eloquent talk about gradual development and comprehensive views. It cannot cure the ills of society by assuring us that progress is a necessity, and that, while we may cripple and retard social development, we have no power to aid it. It cannot strengthen the hands of struggling Virtue, or increase our reverence for our Maker, by reminding us of his unruffled serenity in looking down upon the tardy progress and lingering miseries of his children. It cannot bring reproach and derision upon the world's great reforms and reformers without a corresponding blight and paralysis of the world's faith in goodness. It cannot reform society by proclaiming abstract theories of progress, while those who would smite social evils in their concrete form are branded as fanatics and men of "one idea." It cannot save the world through the leadership of men who boast of their philosophic principles, and their patience under the troubles and sorrows of their fellow-creatures. It cannot establish its doctrine of scientific fatalism without sapping the very foundation of morals. Every civilized community is Burged by some devouring evil, which invites the organized reKistance of good men. Through their agency the work of social evolution goes forward, and they are without excuse if they fail to put forth their endeavors. The shortness of life and the feebleness of our powers make the time-element in our reckoning of progress all the more vital. They should render us not more