when I thought of this system, and the immense expense it would be,
I said to myself, Now, that is a grand system; it would be beautiful
indeed; but where are you going to get the money? But then I took the
Report of those able Commissioners, this pamphlet that is spoken of; and
I read it myself carefully to see if it was a practicable and feasible
plan, and was surprised to see the ability with which the whole matter
had been treated. So thorough had been their investigations, that they
had demonstrated it was perfectly clear that this grand and beautiful
system of parks could be built at this time, now, with a very slight
taxation upon the whole business community; and, furthermore, that by
the improvement of property in the neighborhood of the parks, and by the
advantage to the city in general, the money expended would soon return
to the taxpayers of the city; and so that objection is disposed of at
once.

There seems to be no difficulty. There are so many solid men here in
Boston, that a work of this kind surely can be carried out with greater
ease than it has been in other cities; and we know in other cities they
have reaped great pecuniary benefit from the establishment and
building-up of their system of parks. But you would hardly expect a
clergyman here to talk on the financial question: that is a little out
of order. But the physicians have considered the medical point of view,
the sanitary point of view, how necessary it is to the health of the
city; and the financiers have demonstrated that it is easy in a
financial point of view; and it would be natural for me to speak here
to-night, perhaps, on the moral necessity of such a system of parks.

Now, when I think of the conditions under which a great many of our
poor people live, I am not very much surprised that they are goaded into
desperation to commit some fearful crime; because we know very well,
where a person lives in the country, and has the blue sky over his head,
and the running brooks gurgling through the meadows, and the green trees
and villages, and every thing cheerful and pleasant about him, why, he
is removed from a great many temptations that are common to a large
city; and we know, that, in a moral point of view, the people of a town
or of a country district are removed from a great many temptations and
incentives to crime: therefore every one who wishes well for the
religious welfare of the people would be glad to have these parks
establishe