84 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Continuing the inquiry, he asks : " Is there no good to be ac- 

 complished by giving in charity ? Am I to be prohibited from 

 aiding the needy and giving succor to the distressed ? Am I to 

 use no endeavor toward bettering the lot of the more lowly than 

 I?" The reply in part has been amply suggested. The highest 

 charity to those who are able and have opportunity to work, but 

 decline to do so, is to endeavor to make them clearly understand 

 that unless they contribute as they are able to the benefit of others, 

 there is no reason that from the efforts of others benefit should 

 accrue to them. The highest charity to those who are able and 

 willing to work, but have not the opportunity to do so, is to use 

 every endeavor to establish conditions that will permit them to 

 contribute as best they can to the benefit of others, and to receive 

 benefit in full proportion to the value of their efforts in return ; 

 and, likewise, the highest charity to those who are susceptible to 

 that training which would develop the capacity and willingness 

 for contribution to the benefit of others, is to establish conditions 

 whereunder they may receive that training. It should go with- 

 out saying that those who are in affliction by reason of sickness, 

 by the sudden death of those upon whom they have justly been 

 dependent, or by reason of " plague, pestilence, or famine," should 

 be given that succor which will restore or lead them to useful- 

 ness, and it should go without saying that, when it is just for one 

 to give, it is just for the other to receive. And those who, from 

 mental, moral, and physical defects, are actually incapable of 

 maintaining themselves by their own exertions should be placed 

 under conditions that will render them as little burdensome as 

 possible to the community as a whole. 



The foregoing are generalizations that bear upon the serious 

 problems of the treatment of the criminal and shiftless, of labor, 

 wages, and of education, and whose practical application under 

 the existing status can not but often be most difficult. If, how- 

 ever, all who desire the betterment of their kind all those who 

 make and execute laws, who instruct their fellow-men in pulpit or 

 press, who mold the minds of the young in school or home 

 would perceive as a principle that the greatest good to all comes 

 from the contribution of each in kind and degree as may be pos- 

 sible to the totality of effort in return for benefit to the full value 

 thereof, and would give that principle the fullest possible appli- 

 cation in their own actions and in the endeavor to instill it in the 

 minds of those under their guidance, or otherwise associated with 

 them, all these problems, which are important factors in the great 

 problem of civilization, will sooner or later, upon the basis of that 

 principle, be solved. 



It will be perceived that the full application of that principle 

 will nullify many beliefs and traditions that, descending through 



