232 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Existing Activities. 



Leaving aside profitable expenditure from a purely money point of 

 view, the existence should be borne in mind of immense voluntary 

 activities that have nobler aims. The annual voluntary contributions 

 in the British Isles to public charities alone amount, on the lowest com- 

 putation, to fourteen million pounds, a sum which Sir H. Burdett 

 asserts on good grounds is by no means the maximum obtainable. 

 ('Hospitals and Charities,' 1898, p. 85.) 



There are other activities long since existing which might well be 

 extended. I will not dwell, as I am tempted to do, on the endowments 

 of scholarships and the like, which aim at finding and educating the 

 fittest youths for the work of the nation ; but I will refer to that whole- 

 some practice during all ages of wealthy persons interesting themselves 

 in and befriending poor but promising lads. The number of men who 

 have owed their start in a successful life to help of this kind must have 

 struck every reader of biographies. This relationship of befriender and 

 befriended is hardly to be expressed in English by a simple word that 

 does not connote more than is intended. The word 'patron' is odious. 

 Recollecting Dr. Johnson's abhorrence of the patrons of his day, I 

 turned to an early edition of his dictionary in hope of deriving some 

 amusement as well as instruction from his definition of the word, and I 

 was not disappointed. He defines 'patron' as 'a wretch who supports 

 with insolence and is repaid with flattery.' That is totally opposed to 

 what I would advocate, namely a kindly and honorable relation between 

 a wealthy man who has made his position in the world and a youth who 

 is avowedly his equal in natural gifts, but who has yet to make it. It is 

 one in which each party may well take pride, and I feel sure that if its 

 value were more widely understood it would become commoner than it is. 



Many degrees may be imagined that lie between mere befriendment 

 and actual adoption, and which would be more or less effective in freeing 

 capable youths from the hindrances of narrow circumstances; in en- 

 abling girls to marry early and suitably, and in securing favor to their 

 subsequent offspring. Something in this direction is commonly but 

 half unconsciously done by many great landowners whose employments 

 for man and wife, together with good cottages, are given to exceptionally 

 deserving couples. The advantage of being connected with a great and 

 liberally managed estate being widely appreciated, there are usually 

 more applicants than vacancies, so selection can be exercised. The 

 consequence is that the class of men found upon these properties is 

 markedly superior to those in similar positions elsewhere. It might well 

 become point of honor, and as much an avowed object, for noble fami- 

 lies to gather fine specimens of humanity around them, as it is to procure 

 and maintain fine breeds of cattle and so forth, which are costly, but 

 repay in satisfaction. 



