702 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the laws of human relation, and it, 

 therefore, affords but little protection 

 against those vagaries and extrava- 

 gances of belief which have their root 

 in credulitv. 



Miss Dodge's apology for the wom- 

 en, in the "Atlantic," is a good illus- 

 tration of this. Keen, brilliant, thor- 

 oughly cultivated as she is, she does 

 not seem for a, moment to recognize 

 that the first duty of every woman 

 introduced to Howe's bank was to 

 demand and insist upon the clear evi- 

 dence of its validity. She does not 

 seem to consider that intelligence or 

 judgment of facts had any function in 

 tlie affair. Promises certainly extrava- 

 gant were made, and stories certainly 

 improbable were tokl, and they were 

 all swallowed without a serious ques- 

 tion, but Miss Dodge can see no credu- 

 lity in it ! The notion that the concern 

 was a grand charity appeared so possible, 

 so probable, and so noble, that the poor 

 women were justified in investing in it 

 without any of those precautions that 

 are dictated by universal experience in 

 these matters. Indeed, Miss Dodge 

 seems to think that Howe's bank is a 

 kind of ideal type of beneficence on 

 which this miserable world might well 

 be remodeled. In the good time com- 

 ing we are entitled to expect bound- 

 less largess, and a thundering rate of 

 interest for everybody. She says : "If 

 there had been a great charity at the 

 basis, I do not see how any wiser 

 mode of distribution could have been 

 framed. In view of the inexpressible 

 relief which was afforded in the dozen 

 or so cases of which I learned in the 

 course of the discussion, I feel a thrill 

 of regret whenever I remember that 

 there was nothing in it." 



As a matter of probability, that is 

 of evidence as a basis of action, Miss 

 Dodge thinks that eight per cent, a 

 month is not half so incredible or ab- 

 surd as the working of the present or- 

 der of nature. With God's government 

 of the world at a paltry six or seven 



per cent, annually she seems disgusted, 

 declaring, " In regard to general prob- 

 ability I candidly avow that no origi- 

 nality and no magnitude of charity is so 

 incredible as that the Omnipotent Cre- 

 ator of the world should let things go 

 on as they are." 



Miss Dodge reasons that the women 

 were excusable for patronizing Mrs. 

 Howe's bank with its magnificent prom- 

 ises because people do actually get bene- 

 factions often princely in aU sorts of 

 irregular and improbable ways. Dr. 

 Cullis's Home for Consumptives in the 

 heart of Boston, professedly supported 

 by prayer alone, and the Woman's 

 Faith Home for Incurables, in Brook- 

 lyn, supported also as is said by faith 

 and prayer, are thought worth refer- 

 ring to, and she adds, "If Christ could 

 fish up money out of the sea where- 

 withal to pay his taxes, and if he said, 

 ' He that believeth on me, the works 

 that I do shall he do also, and greater 

 works than these shall he do,' why 

 should it seem a . thing incredible that 

 he should pluck from the pockets of 

 the rich a hundred-fold or ninety-six- 

 fold the slender means of the deserving 

 poor? " 



These are side-considerations for 

 her religious critics, but Miss Dodge 

 thinks that politics teaches the same 

 lesson. She says, " No one can live 

 long and intimately in political circles 

 without being prepared for any develop- 

 ment whatever of generosity and mag- 

 nanimity," Most true! and alike in 

 Howe's bank and in politics we are not 

 to inquire too curiously into the sources 

 of the generosity. It was the pride of 

 Tweed that betook splendid care of his 

 friends, and the magnanimities of polit- 

 ical circles are too generally in propor- 

 tion as politicians are thieves they are 

 proverbially generous with the public 

 money! But, even where politicians 

 are not thieves, their circles are full of 

 bounties in the shape of offices and pat- 

 ronage that come as chance advantages 

 to the undeserving, like lottery-prizes 



