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33
[1912
Not long before his death Dr. James Grey Glover, who for long years
was a worthy citizen of Islington, said to the writer " It has been my aim
throughout my life to leave the world, in some respects at least, better than I
found it." This is the aim of all really good men, and if it be the aim
of such men to do good, how much more should it be the aim of all
Sanitary Authorities? When the law explicitly declares that they can
spend money on supplying the necessary means and instruments for dispelling
the dark ignorance of the mothers of the children committed to their charge
respecting the rearing and caring, the clothing and feeding, of their children
so that their lives may be saved to their parents and to their country, and
that they may grow up to be stout and lusty men and women, fully prepared
for the battle of life. That every child should have an equal chance of life,
for within the body of every one of them there runs the same vital blood.
" The same old blood! The same red running blood!
There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, Teachings,
aspirations,
(Do you think they are not there because they are not expressed
in parlours and lecture rooms?)
This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be
fathers in their turns,
In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
Of him countless immortal lives with countless embodiments and
enjoyments,
How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring
through the centuries ? "
And what of the female?
" She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers,
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the
mothers."
Do not these strong words of the American poet convey to every thinking
man and woman reasons, the most grave and potent, that children should be
cared for ? They require no comment: they are the embodiment of a great
truth. The children born to-day are to be the future men and women of this
kingdom, and we, the people of to-day are their joint trustees, whose duty it
is to see that their affairs are properly administered for them. Indeed, the
trust that devolves on us is the most sacred of all trusts, for " if anything is
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