nd
stress, and then swift visions of the sea flitted past my eyes. While
gazing languidly on the whirl of the snow, or listening to the thunder
of winds in the clamorous night, I thought, as it were in flashes, about
the fishermen who people the grey country that I used to know.
Nevermore, oh! nevermore shall I see the waves charging down on the
gallant smacks. All is gone: but my little share of a good work is done;
I have warmed both hands before the fire of Life; it sinks, and I am
ready to depart.

The dream has begun to come true in a way which is rather calculated to
astound most folks: a hospital vessel, the _Queen Victoria_, is actually
at work, and has gone out on the wintry sea just at the time when the
annual record of suffering reaches its most intense stage; a scheme at
which grave men naturally shook their heads has been shown to be
practicable, and we see once more that the visionary often has the most
accurate insight into the possibilities of action. To those who do not
go to sea I will give one hint; if a man is sent home on the long
journey over the North Sea, he not only suffers grievously but he loses
his employment, and his family fare badly. _If he be transferred to the
hospital ship his place is filled for a little while by one of the spare
hands whom the Mission sends out, and his berth is saved for him._ I do
not deny that the scheme is rather impressive in the magnitude of its
difficulty; but then no man breathing--except its originator--would ever
have fancied, five years ago, that the Mission would become one of the
miracles of modern social progress. If comfortable folks at home could
only see how those gallant, battered fishermen suffer under certain
circumstances of toil and weather, they would hardly wonder at my
putting forward the hospital project so urgently. By rights I ought to
have spoken about other branches of the Mission's work, but the
importance of the healing department has overshadowed all other
considerations in my mind. To Dare, and Dare again, and Dare always, is
the one plan that leads to success in philanthropy as surely as it leads
to success in politics or war. Those who have undertaken to civilize
our Deep Sea fishermen must continue to dare without ceasing; they must
_educate_ the thousands of good men and women whose sacred impulses lead
them to aim at bettering this blind and struggling world; spiritual
enthusiasm must be backed by material force, and the material