example a practice which, if not his own
ruin, is certain to be the ruin of others. The light-heartedness with
which many a man risks his whole fortune, and the welfare of all who are
dependent on him, for what would, if gained, be no great addition to his
happiness, is a striking example of the frequent blindness of men to all
results except those which are removed but one step from their actions.
A gamester, however sanguine, sees that he may lose his money, but he
does not see all the ill consequences to himself and others which the
loss of his money will involve. Hence an act, which, if we look to the
intention, is often only thoughtless, becomes, in result, criminal, and
it is of the utmost importance that society, by its reprobation, should
make men realise what the true nature of such actions is.

I pass now to a case of a different character, which has only, within
recent years, begun to attract the attention of the moralist and
politician at all--the peril to life and health ensuing on the neglect
of sanitary precautions. A man carelessly neglects his drains, or allows
a mass of filth to accumulate in his yard, or uses well-water without
testing its qualities or ascertaining its surroundings. After a time a
fever breaks out in his household, and, perhaps, communicates itself to
his neighbours, the result being several deaths and much sickness and
suffering. These deaths and this suffering are the direct result of his
negligence, and, though it would, doubtless, be hard and unjust to call
him a murderer, he is this in effect. Of course, if, notwithstanding
warning or reflexion, he persists in his negligence, with a full
consciousness of the results which may possibly ensue from it, he incurs
a grave moral responsibility, and it is difficult to conceive a case
more fit for censure, or even punishment. Nor are the members of a
corporation or a board, in the administration of an area of which they
have undertaken the charge, less guilty, under these circumstances, than
is a private individual in the management of his own premises. If men
were properly instructed in the results of their actions or
pretermissions, in matters of this nature, and made fully conscious of
the responsibility which those results entail upon them, there would
soon be a marked decrease in physical suffering, disease, and premature
deaths. The average duration of life, in civilized countries, has
probably already been lengthened by the increas