in that of religious polemices. General Booth
as befits a practical man is supremely indifferent to any particular
fad, and constructs his scheme on the principle of selecting every
proposal which seems to have stuff in it, or is calculated to do any
good to suffering humanity. The socialist, the individualist, the
political economist, the advocate of emigration, and all social
reformers will find what is best in their own particular schemes
incorporated in General Booth's schemes. He claims no originality, he
disclaims all prejudice even in favour of his own scheme. His
suggestions, he says, seem for the moment the most practicable, but he
is ready, he tells us with uncompromising frankness, to abandon them
to-morrow if any one can show him a better way.

A TEACHABLE PROPHET.

Another extraordinary characteristic of the book is its combination of
supreme humility with what the enemy might describe as overweening
arrogance. The General's confidence in himself and his men is superb.
Not Hildebrand in the height of his power, or Mahommed, at the moment
when he was launching the armies which offered to the world Islam or the
sword, showed himself more supremely possessed with the confidence of
his providential mission than does General Booth in his book. "For this
end was I created, to this work was I called, all my life has been a
preparation to fit me for its accomplishment." While thus speaking with
the confidence of a man who feels himself charged with a divine mission,
General Booth displays a humility and a teachableness that is as
beautiful as it is rare. Over and over again he deplores his lack of
knowledge and the insufficiency of his experience, and admits that his
most elaborate proposals may be vitiated by some flaw or some defect
which will make itself only too apparent when they get into action. So
far from being determined to thrust his scheme as a panacea down the
throats of reluctant humanity he appeals to all those who may differ
from him not to stand idly cavilling at his proposals, but to produce
something better of their own, assuring them that he will be only too
good to carry out the best of his ability any scheme which will do more
for the benefit of the lapsed classes than his own.

A SHIFTY AND RESOURCEFUL MARINER.

General Booth shows himself in the capacity of a bold and shifty mariner
who has been ordered to take a ship filled with precious cargo across a
stormy and rock-strewn ocean to a