EDITOR'S TABLE. 



839 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



AIDS TO MISERY. 



AN" extremely instructive article 

 appears in the Fortnightly Re- 

 view for August, under the title of 

 The Poor of the World. The author, 

 Mr. Samuel A. Barnett, has been travel- 

 ing round the world in order to inform 

 himself by personal observation and in- 

 quiry as to the condition of the poor in 

 different countries. The result, so far 

 as presented in this article, is to show 

 that everywhere the great underlying 

 cause of poverty is lack of individuality 

 and the power of self-help, and that the 

 only ultimate remedy is the creation 

 through education understanding the 

 word in its widest sense of more per- 

 fect individuals. This is the doctrine 

 which Mr. Spencer has been preaching 

 directly and indirectly for many years 

 past, often at the cost of much contume- 

 ly and, in general, to unbelieving ears. 

 The reason for the unpopularity of this 

 view is not far to seek. Eager reform- 

 ers do not like to think that the evils 

 they combat are deep-seated and can 

 only be slowly worked out of human 

 nature ; they cherish the hope of ac- 

 complishing great things in a short time 

 and seeing the fruit of their labors in 

 a striking form. Sentimental persons, 

 again, always want to cast the blame of 

 what is wrong on somebody; and if 

 they can not see quite clearly who in 

 particular is to blame, they denounce 

 " society." It is pleasanter to feel our- 

 selves fighting the selfish, the indiffer- 

 ent, the grasping, or those whom we are 

 pleased to consider such, than to accept 

 the position of simply trying to repair 

 evils inherent in the condition of things 

 as molded by natural forces. All with- 

 in us that craves for the quick, the 

 short, the easy, the sensational, indis- 

 poses us to accept a theory that opens 

 up a vista of patient, prolonged, and 



carefully revised effort, bringing with 

 it little of glory at any one time, and 

 calling for the exercise of no small 

 amount of scientific faith. 



We have been hearing lately of the 

 sanguinary conflicts of Hindus and Mo- 

 hammedans in the streets of Bombay. 

 Different as the creeds may be which 

 the two races possess, Mr. Barnett found 

 that the temples of the one and the 

 mosques of the other were equally 

 centers of distribution of a large amount 

 of charity, the product of gifts gathered 

 from the rich, and that the effects of 

 this charity were most pernicious. " It 

 ever," he sajs, "one is inclined to doubt 

 the danger of priestcraft, a visit to India 

 ought to dispel such doubts. He will 

 find in the Brahinans a typical priest- 

 hood, and he will see how their un- 

 questioned rule has degraded the peo- 

 ple, until they seem without power of 

 clear thinking or wide feeling." How 

 charity serves the priesthood a double 

 turn is well explained: "The pious 

 give, not because their brothers have 

 need, but to please the god ; and it is 

 nothing to them if their gifts are con- 

 sumed by the priests or wasted on 

 worthless objects. The priests give as 

 priests either to attract worshipers to 

 their temple or to deliver their own 

 souls." The charity thus d'spensed, far 

 from abating poverty increases and 

 extends it. In Hyderabad, where the 

 Mohammedans are in the ascendant, ten 

 per cent of the revenue, in addition to 

 large private gifts, is spent on keeping 

 armies of beggars who are descendants 

 of orthodox families, while it is quite a 

 common thing for wills to provide for 

 the feeding of idle multitudes on certain 

 holy days of the year. In India, more- 

 over, an obligation is laid upon all the 

 members of a family to support one 

 another. As a consequence, "the hard- 



