SCIENTIFIC PHILANTHROPY. 529 



has a bandage over its eyes. Now, reparative justice should endeavor 

 to re-establish the normal conditions of human association, of the " so- 

 cial contract." These normal conditions require that the contracting 

 parties or associates be really free and major. Society, then, ought to 

 see that all minority, all servitude, all excess of inequality that may be 

 produced by the fatal effect of the laws of nature or of the social laws, 

 is suppressed or alleviated as much as possible. That is the general 

 rule which should first be laid down. We pass now to its principal 

 applications. 



In the first place, what are the best means which philanthropy, or 

 rather justice, has at its disposal in regard to the disinherited of life ? 

 In our view, they are education and work, not the traditional alms. 

 Education can not be anything but useful ; it tends to the develop- 

 ment of intelligence, and is an aid that raises up, not an aid that de- 

 presses. By education, instead of favoring the propagation of imbe- 

 ciles, we prepare more and more intelligent and capable generations. 

 The bearing of education extends to all kinds of servitude and want, 

 but principally to intellectual servitude and want, which are the origin 

 of all the other kinds. Ignorance of the things most essential to social 

 life, and even to private life, is the worst state of minority. It exists 

 by nature in all children ; it is kept up by the lack of instruction 

 among poor children, and persists in the grown-up man. The effort of 

 the state should be brought to bear especially upon this point, for it 

 is the point at which all kinds of justice, defensive, preservative, and 

 reparative, as well as real fraternity or philanthropy, converge and 

 agree. Instruction is a matter of duty and right as of all toward all, 

 and from all points of view ; but, to speak only of the duty of repa- 

 ration, in what way can it be exercised to better advantage, more 

 pacifically, more conformably to the true interests and real rights of all 

 classes, than by distributing knowledge widely among all ? Instruction 

 is the universal instrument of labor, useful for all professions, adapting 

 itself flexibly to the most varied employments, an instrument which in 

 virtue of this very fact helps us to find new resources when the usual 

 ones fail. This general instrument of labor ought to be gratuitous ; 

 it ought to constitute a kind of moral capital distributed by all to 

 every one. Furthermore, instruction is the only public assistance, or, 

 if that is better, the only indemnity, the only public reparation, in ap- 

 plying which we do not risk sacrificing the interest and health of future 

 generations to those of existing ones. The second means at the serv- 

 ice of an enlightened philanthropy is work, which of itself can not be 

 anything but useful : labor elevates the character as instruction ele- 

 vates the mind ; by compelling those to work who are capable, by giv- 

 ing to the less well-endowed tasks proportioned to their capacity, we 

 may be doing something to raise the moral level. 



To whom ought the benefactions of philanthropy to be addressed, 

 and within what limits ought they to be restricted ? In the first place, 



YOL. XXII. 34 



