A sound nation is a nation that is made up of sound human beings, healthy in body, strong of limb, true in word and deed, brave, sober, temperate, and chaste, to whom morals are of more importance than wealth or knowledge; where duty is first and the rights of man are second; where, in short, men grow up, and live, and work, having in them what our ancestors called 'the fear of God.' It is to form a character of this kind that human beings are sent into the world.

Unless England's greatness in this sense has the principle of growth in it, it were better for us that a millstone were hanged about our neck, and that we were drowned in the midst of the sea." "I feel more and more," said Mrs.Fawcett in words addressed to a great meeting of men in the Manchester Free Trade Hall--words that I wish could be written upon every heart--" that the great question whether the relations of men and women shall be pure and virtuous or impure and vile lies at the root of all national well-being and progress.

The main requisite towards a better state of things than now exists cannot be brought about by any outside agency.

There is no royal road to virtue and purity.

Law can do something to punish wickedness, but improvement in the law is mainly valuable as an indication that the public standard of morality is raised.