A HOPEFUL VIEW OF OUR NATIONAL DESTINY.

the thirtieth day of April last the American people celebrated the centennial of their constitutional existence. This celebration suggests the question, what does retrospection teach us? Is our national destiny assured, or is it threatened with decay?

There are some who, glancing at our temporary aberrations, despair of the perpetuity of our institutions. They note the enormous concentration of wealth and its corrupting influence upon state and national life; they see immigration bringing from Europe the seeds of anarchy and socialism; they contemplate the bitter strife of labor and capital, the insidious growth of Mormonism, the increasing power of Catholicism, the perplexity of the Negro problem, and finally the wide-spread prevalence of intemperance; and, raising their hands in horror, despairingly, they cry: "The causes which brought Rome low are shaking the very foundations of our political liberty.'

We admit that many serious problems confront our future; yet, magnify them as you will, are they to be compared with the struggle for independence, the formation of the federal union, the abolition of slavery, or the final problems of reconstruction?

How much more promising is our condition to-day than it was a hundred years ago! A weak compact of states, discordant and disunited, without credit, influence or power: a people without wealth, industries or commerce. No wonder Europe scoffed! No wonder De Tocqueville thought the then existing evils incurable! Contrast the early republic with the America of to-day: We are a union sealed in blood, a nation whose influence extends to the remotest quarters of the globe; a people who surpass all other nations in intelligence, industry and wealth; to-day America is leading the world in the onward march of civilization.

While out of this enormous development there have grown many serious evils, there are also inspirations to hope and grounds for faith and high endeavor, which are uplifting, course after course, the structure of a better civilization.

We see that grand American system of common school education spreading throughout the land its beneficent influence; we see the church of God with its increasing power raising man to a higher sense of duty and right. As we study the course of history we see that American institutions accord with divine justice respecting the civil rights of man that in the evolution of political and religious rights America is the final development in God's providence for the political regeneration of mankind. In truth, American institutions are founded upon the rock of divine justice and equity.

When the time for trial and action comes the American people will exhibit heroic patriotism, will manifest the same spirit which animated the fathers on Bunker Hill in 1775, the same endurance which defended American rights in 1812 and crushed rebellion in 1865. Our fathers were sufficient for the problems imposed upon them; we shall be sufficient for the more subtile yet less difficult problems of our day. EDWARD N. SMITH, '90.

THE

A PRACTICAL SIDE TO EVOLUTION.

'HE nineteenth century, as none other in the world's history, has been one of scientific discoveries and theories. It has well been said that almost all our knowledge of the natural sciences has been gleaned here and there in the last one hundred years. As late as 1810, Dalton made known his beautiful atomic theory, upon which the science of chemistry and mineralogy have been almost entirely reconstructed.

Hardly had it been accepted by the scientific world, when educated and uneducated alike were startled by another theory, much more radical, and destined to create more discussion, pro and con, than anything of the kind that had ever before appeared-the theory of Evolution as proposed by Charles Darwin in his " Origin of Species." In the past press and pulpit have been bitterly invective against it; but in a modified form—and admitting Deity as the Final Causemodern Christianity must needs accept Evolution, just as Christianity a few years since was forced to accept the teachings of geology.

Be there such a process as Evolution, with its doctrine of "Natural Selection and the Survival of the Fittest," or be there no process of the kind, the theory of such survival and selection, at least, so far as theory goes, is to be commended, and offers some practical suggestions to the civilization of to-day.

The modern American citizen is too apt to take an optimistic view of the times, and, because of the unprecedented prosperity of the country in the years gone by, to argue that such will always be the case. "Surely," you say, "here has been the survival of the fittest." Granted; but is it so to-day, and will it be so in the future? Peoples as proud, and powerful, and prosperous, ay, as progressive, have perished. The signs of the times give warrant to warnings as pessimistic, as are optimistic the editorials of a Republican paper favoring the existing régime.

Ay, too true is it, the fittest does not always survive. Our school system is threatened by a priestly power; and in the very heart of the nation is spreading the hostile system

of Mormonism. The immigrant of to-day is no longer needed or desired; and when even the immigrants of the desirable nationalities are of an undesirable class, statistics of the present year show that the percentage of such immigration is decreasing, whereas the immigration of undesirable classes from still more undesirable nationalities is on the increase. Politics are so corrupt that only in rare instances will a man of culture and moral worth enter the lists, while the causes that brought Rome low are shaking the very foundations of our political liberty. And it almost seems, that as our country has grown in civilization, influence and power, so have the evils of intemperance and immorality grown; and further, where one fills a drunkard's grave, and these are numbered by the eighty thousand every year, ten do not live out half their days through immorality.

When we see in this "land we love the most" these evils piled one upon the other, like the Himalayas rising tier upon tier, until lost in the distance-Mormonism, the almost unrestricted immigration from the scum and offscourings of Europe, the rottenness of politics, the terrible increase of intemperance and immorality-there arise before us the shadows of an ancient Babylonian empire, with its ghosts of wealth, and lust, and godlessness, and from out the shadows comes a hand upon the wall, to be lifted nevermore. That hand is writing to-day: Oh, "Shall the record be found trusting, or shall it be found wanting?"

What then is the remedy suggested by this theory of the Survival of the Fittest? Let the nominal Christian church once become aroused and in earnest, see that the government shall enforce existing laws, cease naturalizing foreigners, pass stringent laws against immigration, show that moral worth and not wealth shall rule, and remove these fungi growths of intemperance and immorality, and she will but aid Nature in her natural selection. Then, from over the eastern hills, will come the dawning of the morning when we shall the better understand God's plan in history, and see His hand in the development-yes, the evolution-of mankind. WM. D. CROCKETT, '90.

THE REIGN OF JUPITER PLUVIUS.

ELIVER me from living in such wretched climes as these,

DELIVER

Where the music of the spheres is drowned by drippings from the trees,

Where the overflowing gutter is the brooklet's paraphrase

And the everpouring rainfall makes unbearable our days.

If upon the streets you venture for a glimpse of life outdoors,
The rain, if it is possible, with still more fury pours.

And just when in sheets of water the heavens seem to spout,
A sudden gust of wind turns your umbrella inside out.

At every corner crossing the turbid gutters roar,

A vast expanse of slush and mud extends from shore to shore.
And when, perchance, in safety you've stemmed this slimy flood
You'll find you've carried with you about two-thirds of the mud.

Neuralgia is flying round in every gust of air,
Diphtheria and sore throats are present everywhere,
The undertakers dance with glee and revel in their gain;
Their biggest stroke of business is a month of constant rain.

There's no more hope of sunshine, wish for it though we may,
A world of steady rain this is, for one year and a day.
For in hopes of better weather (he couldn't find it worse,)
The sun has emigrated to another universe.

So buy a new umbrella and an India rubber coat,

Get fourteen yards of flannel red to tie about your throat.

Wear rubber boots incessantly, don't breath the atmosphere,

And perhaps you'll live to see the sun come out,-some time next year.

Now if you take exception to the efforts of my muse,
Remember that her verses have their feet in overshoes;

That a fiendish cold, a stopped-up head, and a never-ending sneeze
Aren't conducive to good poetry-so forgive her if you please.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE FEDERALIST.

SUCCESSFUL HEAD PRIZE ORATION.

BARCLAY.

NGLISHMEN cherish Magna Charta as the foundation of their free government. The Great Charter through all the centuries of its existence has moulded British thought and directed British legislation. The Federalist is the Magna Charta of American institutions. It has been the guide of the nation, restraining from the path of error, and pointing to the way of wisdom. This great commentary anticipated the operation of the departments of the government, removed the Constitution from the domain of arbitrary interpreta