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for the poor, the sick, and the infirm. This was quite unknown 
to the ancient Greek. Further improvements were to be seen 
in the treatment of wounded enemies in time of war, in the 
preparations made for relieving the necessities of the widows and 
orphans when a colliery explosion, or shipwreck, or other serious 
calamity had occurred. The same idea of extended benevolence 
was manifested in recent legislation, as witness the Factory Acts, 
Acts for the better housing of the Poor, and other measures for 
ameliorating the condition of the working classes. The spirit 
that prompted all these changes was undreamed of in the days 
of Greece and ome. We could never reach absolute perfection. 
In the aggregate, probably the world to-day was more wretched 
than it was 2,000 years ago, and yet we made a better struggle 
towards diminishing wretchedness than the ancients did. What 
was needed especially was an active interest in humanity, and 
the noble purpose of carrying out beneficent measures for the 
suffering and the poor. 
