3 i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sically wrong.* Hence it may reasonably be concluded that if 

 private voluntary relief of the poor replaced public compulsory 

 relief, the diffused sentiment which enforces the one would go a 

 long way toward maintaining the other. The general feeling 

 would become such that few, even of the unsympathetic, would 

 dare to face the scorn which would result did they shirk all share 

 of the common responsibility ; and while there would probably be 

 thus insured something like due contributions from the indiffer- 

 ent or the callous, there would, in some of them, be initiated, by 

 the formal practice of beneficence, a feeling which in course of 

 time would render the beneficence genuine and pleasurable. 



A further difficulty presents itself. "I am too much occu- 

 pied," says the man of business when exhorted to exercise private 

 beneficence. " I have a family to bring up ; and my whole time 

 is absorbed in discharging my responsibilities, parental and 

 other. It is impossible for me, therefore, to make such inquiries 

 as are needful to avoid giving misdirected assistance. I must 

 make my contribution and leave others to distribute." That 

 there is force in the reply can not be denied. But when we call 

 to mind the common remark that if you want anything done you 

 must apply to the busy man rather than to the man of leisure, we 

 may reasonably question whether the busy man may not occa- 

 sionally find time enough to investigate cases of distress which 

 are forced on his attention. Sometimes there may even result, 

 from a due amount of altruistic action, a mental gain conducive 

 to efficiency in the conduct of affairs. 



At any rate it must be admitted that individual ministration 

 to the poor is the normal form of ministration ; and that, made 

 more thoughtful and careful, as it would be if the entire responsi- 

 bility of caring for the poor devolved upon it, it would go a long 

 way toward meeting the needs : especially as the needs would be 

 greatly diminished when there had been excluded the artificially 

 generated poverty with which we are surrounded. 



But now, from this general advocacy of individual giving ver- 

 sus giving by public and quasi-public agencies, I pass to the spe- 

 cial advocacy of the natural form of individual giving — a form 

 which exists and which simply needs development. 



Within the intricate plexus of social relations surrounding 



* A most instructive and remarkable fact, which illustrates this general truth at the 

 same time that it illustrates a more special truth, is that respecting the rudest of the 

 Musheras of India, who have no form of marriage, but among whom "unchastity, or a 

 change of lovers on either side, when once mutual appropriation has been made, is a thing 

 of rare occurrence " ; and, when it does occur, causes excommunication. So that among 

 these simple people, public opinion in respect of the marital relation is more potent than 

 law is among ourselves. (For account of the Musheras see Calcutta Review, April, 1888.) 



